Cordele, Ga. (Apr. 11, 2022) – Prior to Saturday evening, Dustin Bryson’s last win as a driver came all the way back in 2004.
When he took the checkered flag first in Crisp Motorsports Park’s Pro Truck division after qualifying on the pole and leading every single lap, Bryson was overcome with emotion after initially being unsure of whether his return to auto racing following a 17-year hiatus would even yield a win.
Bryson said that Saturday’s triumph validated the decision to get back behind the wheel on a more regular basis and is eagerly looking forward to the rest of the season at Crisp Motorsports Park and adding to his win total.
“It’s been so long since we were last in victory lane,” Bryson said. “Now that my kids are older, I’ve decided to do a little bit more racing just to have some fun. Saturday was a good deal, and it was awesome to be back in victory lane.”
With his father, uncles and grandfather all being drivers themselves, Bryson had plenty of people to lean on as he started pursuing a career of his own while in his early 20s.
Bryson found his comfort zone at Lanier Raceway, where he logged plenty of laps and wins while driving Sportsman and Late Model Stocks at the track. He also gradually started to expand his presence at other facilities by competing in Modified events all around the southeast.
As Bryson started his own family during the early 2000s, he elected to step away from the driver’s seat. Bryson did not originally have any plans to return until the passing of his father Darrell, which motivated him to create a race-winning program in his memory back in 2021.
When Bryson ultimately chose to start a Pro Truck team, he knew that Curt Britt Motorsports would set the benchmark for his program, which brought three trucks to Crisp Motorsports Park on Saturday as Bryson chased after his first win in nearly two decades.
“Curt Britt has been the man to beat since I quit back in 2004,” Bryson said. “For 20 years, he’s had the most dominant trucks in this part of the country, and he had our number all of last year. However, he and Joey Staples have been very helpful towards getting our program where it needed to be.”
Being able to celebrate with his family only added to the emotions for Bryson, who credited his team and crew chief Ralph Thorne for putting in a relentless amount of effort towards making him competitive after such a long time away from racing.
Now that he has a victory, Bryson is more confident than ever that he can hold his own against Britt’s program and other drivers that are less than half his age.
“I thought I was a little too old to do this after chasing those kids around last year,” Bryson said. “It’s tough when you know how to win and come back to battle 14 and 15-year-old kids who end up passing you on the last lap for second and third. That’s always a tough pill to swallow but Saturday was a confidence builder, and we know that we have the right piece under us.”
Bryson would like to thank God, his wife Kimberly, his mother Donna, his stepfather Ernie Lopez, Thorne, Staples and everyone at Curt Britt Motorsports for all their help along with MPM Marketing and his sponsors LeeBoy, Terminal Maintenance & Construction, Atlanta Paving & Concrete Construction, Inc., Reynolds-Warren Equipment Company, Modern Images, Dykes Paving & Construction Co., Inc., AROB Performance Parts & Fuels, Simpson Trucking & Grading, Inc. and House of Finery.
-MPM Marketing Press Release