NASCAR GDS: Ricky Bryant leads from green to checkered in Expression Unlimited 100

12 July 1999

Greenville, South Carolina - Saturday night at the Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway was the type of evening that Washington Apple / Toyota Express Lube driver Ricky Bryant was telling everyone was coming..

Ricky said" I actually felt that last week at Summerville we were ready to win,unfortunately we got caught up in that wreck and had to struggle for a Top Ten." Bryant went on to say " We have been playing catch up all year, most folks dont realize we did not have our sponsor package set till New Years. Usually a race team needs all winter to get ready for the race season, we only had 6 weeks to get ready for Daytona."

Now that Bryant and the Washington Apple /Toyota Express Lube race team have caught up the second half of the season should be everything Ricky and his team were hoping for. In a dominating performance Bryant lead from start to finish in the Expressions Unlimited 100 at the legendary half mile track where some of NASCARs biggest names have competed.

Bryant qualified the #5 Washington Apple/Toyota Express Lube Pontiac Sunfire on the front row in the 2nd spot. Ricky missed his first pole of the year by 12/100 of a second. Once the green flag fell Bryant raced pole sitter Jake Hobgood and his Wynns Precision Pontiac hard into turn one. Hobgood lead through turns 1 and 2. Down the back stretch Bryant began to make his move, and by the time the 2 cars reached turn 3 the Washington Apple/Toyota Express Lube car powered into the lead. From then on Bryant went on to lead every lap and capture his second career Dash win , and 1st of 1999. Saturdays 100 lap race was actually extended twice due to late race cautions. The Goodys Dash Series does not end their races under caution. So with the 2 caution flags that fell late in the race Bryant actually lead a total of 108 laps to capture the win. At one point in the race Bryants dominance was so complete that he had built up as much as a 4 second lead. Almost a full straight-away at Greenville-Pickens.

Saturday nights race also proved to be a blessing for the Washington Apple/Toyota Express Lube in the point standings. The win moved Ricky Bryant and the team into 4th place in the point standings, only 50 points out of 2nd place. Points leader Robert Huffman still holds a comfortable 254 point lead for the 1999 Goodys Dash Series Championship With half the season still set to be run Bryant feels their chances are still good to win a championship "Our goal this season was to win a championship, however if Robert does not have any bad luck it will be tough. We are not giving up yet" Bryant went on to say "We finished third last year and if we cannot win a championship we want to better our final finishing position from last year and win some more races."

Bryant and the Washington Apple / Toyota Express Lube team will have that chance this coming Saturday night at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont,N.C Last year at Orange County, a track which Bryant was track champion, Bryant captured the pole and his first career Dash win. "Two in a row would be nice, Ricky said, but the teams in this series are really competitive , we will try our best"

This weekend was special for Ricky Bryant on a personal basis. Ricky found out that he and his wife of five years Lynn were going to be parents for the first time. Team Co-owner and Dad Dick Bryant mentioned that Ricky has a habit of winning on special occasions. Ricky won a race the night he graduated from college, and he did the same thing the weekend he was married to Lynn.

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