Kaylee Bryson has a penchant for making history.
Already the first woman to have qualified for the Chili Bowl Midget National A Feature, a feat she accomplished in both 2022 and 2023, Bryson won the USAC Silver Crown Huncovsky Classic at the Belleville High Banks on Saturday night.
In doing so, she became the first woman to win a USAC national championship race of any kind in the 69-year history that it has sanctioned touring divisions for IndyCar, Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midget championships.
Bryson made history earlier in the night when she became the first woman to post the fastest time in qualifying for a USAC national championship event. However, four-time National Sprint Car champion Brady Bacon drove out to a huge lead.
Bacon appeared poised to potentially lap the entire field when his engine expired with 15 laps to go. He was so deep into the field that his retirement un-lapped the drivers running from P6 to P14. Bacon had a 15 second lead when the power plant let go.
The caution allowed Bryson to inherit the lead but also allowed 2019 Sprint Car National Champion CJ Leary to catch back up to the leaders. He started at the tail end due to an engine change earlier in the night and quickly moved to second and in contention for the win.
Bryson ran a defensive clinic and was able to just narrowly hold off Leary at the line to score her historic victory.
The 21-year-old Oklahoman moved to Sam Pierce Racing last year following a lengthy stint as a Toyota Racing Development prospect, where she runs both Silver Crown and Sports Cars, with the goal is still targeting a NASCAR career.
“This crew, AP Driver Development and Sam Pierce Chevrolet, so many people are responsible for this and without them, it wouldn’t be possible,” Bryson said in Victory Lane.
How did she ultimately hold off Leary?
“My spotter told me just drive the track and don’t worry about anything else,” she said. “Just make fast laps and that’s what we did. We won.”
Bryson’s grandfather, Mike Ross, owns Sawyer Chassis and is the genesis behind her racing story and was in attendance on Saturday night.
“This is huge, you can’t imagine, a dream come true,” Ross said.
Leary gave Bryson credit for running the lines she did.
“On that restart, I thought Justin (Grant) would go to the top so I went to the bottom and got bottled up and lost some ground to Kaylee,” he said. “Got there within a lap or two still and tried to force her into a mistake but she did a heck of a job.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.