Brian Tyler

Brian Tyler, who was born in Albion, has had a storied racing career. He started racing motorcycles in 1976, By 1979 he was ranked 5th in Michigan and 4th in Ohio in AMA competition. In 1982 he moved on to run Modifieds at Butler Motor Speedway, MI and Bryan Speedway, OH. In his rookie year, at age 14, he won the championship at Butler and finished 2nd at Bryan.

 

He moved into Sprint cars in 1983, and began traveling with the SOD Sprint Car group in 1986. He finished 9th in SOD points in 1987. He won his first Sprint Car Main event win came the next year at Warsaw Speedway, Indiana He finished 6th in final points at SOD in 1988. Two years later he started driving for Howard Stone and won three Sprint Car features. He also ran a few USAC Sprint Car races that year. He won his first SOD Sprint Car feature at Auto City Speedway at last race in 1991.

Brian won five times the following year on the SOD tour. He ended up finished 8h in the points. Brian got a chance to drive Mike Katz car at the Florida 500 and proceeded to bring Mike's car home first. His best season in SOD was in 1994, when he won 13 times, including a streak of five in a row. He didn't follow the whole SOD circuit that season so he only ended up finishing 9th in the final points. The following year he won three more SOD features, but the highlight of the 1995 season was winning his first USAC Sprint Car feature. This came at Louisville Motor Speedway on August 31st.

 

Brian moved to Indianapolis in 1996, and outdid himself by capturing the USAC Sprint Car title by being consistent. Although he had no wins in 1996, his two seconds, and two thirds helped propelled him to the title. He easily outdistanced fellow Michigan driver Doug Kalitta for the championship.

 

He successfully defended his title in 1997, but this time he won four times and had five seconds. In his rookie year year he finished 8th in the USAC Silver Crown championship. He passed his IRL Rookie Test driving a car for Arie Luyendyk. The following year he dropped to 8th in the final USAC Sprint Car standings, because he had the opportunity to run the IRL IndyCar Series, but still won four times in USAC Sprint Car competition. His best finish in an IRL competition was sixth at Las Vegas after running as high as third. He ran 10 IRL races finishing runner-up in the rookie for the year award. He also won his first USAC Silver Crown in 1998, at the opening race at the Walt Disney World Speedway. A strong season in Silver Crown cars left him in second place in the final points, only 50 behind champion Jason Leffler. The following year he finished 5th in Silver Crown points and won at Phoenix, where he finished second the year before. He came back to finish 4th in the USAC Sprint Car series.

 

At the turn of the century Brian won one USAC Sprint Car feature enroute to finishing 9th in points. In Silver Crown competition he won again at Walt Disney World and the end of the year race at Memphis. He ended up third in points. Brian also made his first NASCAR Busch start driving a car for Kevin Lepage. He also was the NAMARS Sprint Car champion of 2000.

 

The year 2001 Brian ended up 9th in USAC Sprint Car points winning twice, winning back to back races at Toledo and Indianapolis.He made six NASCAR Busch starts.

 

The following year he won three times on the USAC Silver Crown trail, but finished out of the top ten because he didn't run all of the races. He also made his debut in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck race at Michigan International.

He won one USAC Sprint Car race in 2003. The following year he moved at North Carolina to be closer to NASCAR country, but he still finished 4th in USAC Silver Crown points winning two times.

 

In 2005 Brian won once on the Silver Crown series and finished 3rd in final points. He also made his ARCA Late Model debut driving for Rich Woodland Racing, and had three top tens including a second at Berlin.

 

He started the 2006 season by finishing 22nd in the ARCA race at Daytona. Then driving one of the new generation of Silver Crown cars, Brian won twice and was runner-up in the 2006 title. He also won one USAC Sprint Car show, but his biggest win to date came at the 58th annual "Little 500" at Anderson Speedway, Indiana. After 13 tries, Brian all but dominated the 500 lap race by leading 152 laps. He was four laps ahead when the checkered flag dropped.

 

Brian added to his wins, by taking his second Little 500 at Anderson in 2012.