Kyle Bronson
Many would likely agree that one of the pleasant surprises in the early part of the 2018 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series season has been the results posted by driver Kyle Bronson. His current place in the overall standings puts him ahead of the likes of series regulars and former champions Jimmy Owens, Scott Bloomquist and Don O’Neal. The Brandon, Florida resident currently sits fifth in series points and has scored a $12,000 win on February 10th at East Bay Raceway Park when he beat Jonathan Davenport and Brandon Overton to the finish line.
During this past off-season the 27-year-old racer announced his intention to follow the LOLMDS and to seek Rookie of the Year honors on that tour. After the solid start the Kyle Bronson Motorsports team has gotten off to, that plan is almost certain to remain intact.
“Yeah, that’s the plan as long as all of our cars stay together and all of our motors stay together,” Bronson stated in an interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “Our car has been pretty good here right out of the box so hopefully we can keep our stuff going good and carry it throughout the year.”
For a driver and team competing on a national touring series for the first time, there are numerous items that have to be taken care of before leaving the shop. Unlike the times in which a team may race regionally and only be away from home for a night or two at a time, teams that travel several states away to race can be on the road for as much as two or three weeks during each swing.
So is the preparation for the extended amount of time on the road required to race on the Lucas Oil Series more intense than when racing regionally?
“Definitely,” Bronson declared. “You’ve got to make sure you’ve got all your spare parts gathered up and everything loaded up. Everything for us is such a far drive so we’ve got to leave earlier which causes us to lose time where we could be working on the car. But it is what it is and we want to do this deal so we’re going to give it 100% this year and hope everything works out great.”
Another challenge that will face the KBM team in 2018, as will be the case for any team touring nationally for the first time, will be the number of tracks to be raced on that have never been seen before. But Bronson believes that he and his crew have the ability to adapt quickly.
“We run good at most of these places we’ve already been to,” he pointed out. “There are a lot of tracks we haven’t been to and I’m looking forward to going to them.”
Any tracks in particular?
“I’ve always wanted to go to Jimmy Owens Raceway, I mean Lucas Oil Speedway,” Bronson said with a laugh in reference to the Missouri facility where Owens has compiled numerous victories. “That place, I’ve been looking forward to going there for years and never really made it there so hopefully we’ll get to go there this year and we’ll run good, I hope.”
Kyle Bronson races a Longhorn by Weaver Chassis
Of interest to east Tennessee racing fans may be the fact that Bronson races in a chassis from this area. The No. 40B team’s race car of choice is the Longhorn by Weaver prepared out of the Crossville shop of Randy Weaver and Chip Stone. It is the same chassis employed by the Weaver/Stone effort for World of Outlaws Late Model Series regular Brandon Overton.
“There’s an open notebook with those guys,” Bronson said. “They tell me everything and help me out with whatever I need. Them guys built this car and then we went out and won East Bay with it right out of the box. They work their tails off on all this stuff and I can’t really appreciate them enough for what they do for me.”
So what is the ultimate goal for the 2018 season?
“I just want to run competitive and win as many races as I can,” Bronson insisted. “I feel like if you’re running good the points will take care of themselves. I ain’t one to be out here racing for points. I just want to try to win the races, as many as I can, and hopefully the points will take care of themselves.”
