KDDP Spotlight: Bryce Miller Representing Wisconsin, Leading KDDP Chase

It’s always a special honor to be named a Kulwicki Driver Development Program finalist. For drivers from Wisconsin, however, it just means a little bit more.

The leader in the chase for the 2025 Kulwicki Cup after one segment, Bryce Miller, is the latest example of that. The Columbus, Wisconsin native led Derek Gluchacki by 9.4 points after the end of the first segment for the competition.

For Miller, the chance to represent Alan Kulwicki is a dream come true for him and his family.

“My dad was an Alan Kulwicki diehard fan, especially because he was from Wisconsin. Alan was his guy, and that’s how he got his original number, No. 7, from Alan.”

That reflected in a social media post by Miller shortly after being named a KDDP finalist. Miller found a copy of the tribute issue from NASCAR Winston Cup Scene following Kulwicki’s passing in 1993, and donned the championship hat his father owned.

“We had all kinds of Alan Kulwicki memorabilia around the house and he had that 1992 championship hat,” Miller told Racing America. “I’m like, man, I really want something to go with it. I just happened to be on a lunch break at work and just scrolled through Facebook and saw this Alan Kulwicki Winston Cup Scene tribute magazine. I’m like, I have to have that.

“I mailed this guy $10 because he didn’t have Venmo, he was an older gentleman, and he shipped it to my house, and I was like, oh, this would be such a cool post. The cool part about it, I got to read all about Alan through this newspaper and got to learn a little bit more. It was pretty cool to do that.”

Living The Dream as a KDDP Finalist

For many young, aspiring racers in Wisconsin, they dream of competing on many of the historic and iconic tracks around the state in the signature events that have created so many of the state’s racing heroes.

Now in his first full-time season as a Super Late Model competitor, Miller is living out that dream on and off the track with KDDP.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Miller. “Obviously, from the first year, Ty Majeski won the program, and I grew up watching Ty race Super Late Models all around Wisconsin. It’s something that I’ve always strived to be in this program.

“To finally be in the program is just unbelievable. We’re just trying to make the most of it and doing all kinds of different stuff and it’s made me a better racer on and off the track.

“We’ve been racing all the tracks that Alan grew up at, so it’s been really cool,” Miller said. “Hearing from old fans that grew up watching Alan race and just hearing all those little tidbits and stories that you normally wouldn’t get to hear has been awesome. Just getting to share that and promote Alan’s legacy along the way is pretty cool."

Making the Jump to Super Late Models

The jump to Super Late Model racing has been challenging at times, but it has come with plenty of learning experiences, both about racing and Kulwicki.

“It’s been up and down, obviously. It’s our first full season of the Super Late. We’ve shown a lot of potential, and we’re really looking forward to the second half of the year. We’re about one race into segment two of the KDDP program here, and we had a good first segment when we finished races. We had two mechanical failures, so just cleaning up the little stuff. The races we did finish, we finished in the top 10.”

While there is no shortage of opportunities to go racing in Wisconsin, Miller and his family team do have to be selective about which opportunities they pursue. That planning has become even more important with the addition of fundraising events and other functions as a KDDP representative.

“It’s been all go since we were announced as a finalist, right? There’s so much planning and strategizing of what races you’re going to go to, and we’re not a large race team by any means. We’re a family race team at heart, just me and my dad in the shop every single night. We don’t have a lot of funding behind us. We have to kind of strategize the races that we want to go to. We could go to this race, but that means we couldn’t go to these two races because of how expensive it is. We’re just trying to strategically plan our races.

“Along with that, you have to plan what events you’re doing, how you’re doing your fundraising, all those different things that go into it are done months in advance. I’m really looking forward to this second half and the third segment here.”

A Busy Summer Awaits, On and Off Track

With a small team, Bryce and his father do most of the work on his race car. While it makes for some long nights, Miller appreciates knowing, win or lose, his work directly impacts their performance.

“It’s so cool because you’re directly involved with this,” said Miller. “Whether it’s good or bad, you know that you had a hand in doing it. It’s a lot of late hours. It’s a lot of long nights in the shop. To most people, it seems crazy. This is just kind of what we do here in the racing world throughout the summer months. We don’t get to race al year long in Wisconsin here. We only get from April to October, so just trying to get as many races as we can in.

“The second half of the season really ramps up because at the beginning of the year, you’re only going to one-day shows. Now we’re getting to two or three-day-long shows. It’s a really cool and exciting time of year for Wisconsin racing, for sure.”

It has also been a busy and rewarding year thus far with Miller’s charitable and philanthropic efforts off the track as part of the Kulwicki Driver Development Program.

“For Memorial Day, we handed out American flags for all the fans that came in,” said Miller. “We also raised money for the VFW if Jefferson, which is a super-small community. What we were able to do, supporting veterans going through all kinds of different things, and going towards their VFW and different fundraisers as well.

“I got to go to one of their meetings and present the check to them. It was about an hour and a half conversation with all the different veterans and kind of showing them what I do on the racing side, and they were able to tell their side of the story. Those connections you get to make along the way and the Kulwicki program pushes you to go out and do these extra things. It’s a lot of work, but it’s so rewarding along the way.”

-Photo provided by Kulwicki Driver Development Program