DARRELL BRYANT - 10/06/1940
a retired NASCAR Cup Series driver and crew chief. As a driver ran 10 races from 1964-1966, and an additional eight races in 1976. He had two Top 10 finishes; with a best of seventh place at Savannah in 1964. Bryant's first start as a crew chief came in 1972 as he led driver Jim Paschal on his final career start. They would finish 16th in the World 600 at Charlotte. Bryant didn't sit atop the box again until 1978 when he led a multi-driver effort owned by Billy Hagan. Skip Manning would post one Top 10 finish and win Rookie of the Year and Terry Labonte also posted one Top 10. In 1979 Labonte would rive for Hagan full time with Bryant at the helm. Labonte posted two Top 5 finishes and finished 10th in the points. The following season would be better as Labonte would win the Southern 500; giving both Labonte and Bryant their first career wins. After only 17 races in 1981 Hagan and Bryant parted ways. 1982 saw Bryant start the season with Joe Millikan as the driver of car owner Cliff Stewart; but after only six races he went to wrench for Geoff Bodine the rest of the season. Bryant returned with Bodine the following season; but after 28 races and only five Top 5 results he was let go and finished the season with owner Cliff Stewart and driver Donnie Allison. Rusty Wallace replaced Allison for 1984 and 1985 but only managed two
Top 5 finishes each season. 1986 saw Wallace leave and he was replaced by driver Kirk Bryant (Darrell's son). But the team closed up after only four races. In 1988 Bryant went to work for owner / driver Lake Speed. They would win at Darlington and have four Top 5 finishes. In 1989 Jimmy Means; another owner / driver would hire Bryant. They would have a season's best 12th place finish. Bryant would retire from the Cup Series at the end of the season. Bryant would lead his drivers to two career wins; both coming at Darlington. From 1990-1992 he would drop down to the Xfinity Series and would crew chief full time for Dave Rezendez (1990), Jeff Burton (1991) and Ricky Craven (1992). Burton would win one race in 1991 giving Bryant his only win as an Xfinity Series crew chief. How would only sit on top of the pit box a couple times per season through 1998. In 1999 he led Mark Green for a full season. Their best finish was a 10th in Atlanta. In 2000 he worked with driver Tony Roper for three races. Sadly, Roper would be killed in a racing accident later in the season at Texas.
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