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Patrick John Tryson (born March 4, 1964) is an American NASCAR crew chief who works for B. J. McLeod Motorsports as the crew chief for their No. 78 Chevrolet Camaro, which is driven by B. J. McLeod.

Tryson previously worked as a crew chief for Geoff Bodine Racing, Roush Racing, Wood Brothers Racing, Penske Racing, Michael Waltrip Racing, JTG Daugherty Racing, BK Racing, The Motorsports Group, Circle Sport – The Motorsports Group, Premium Motorsports, Rick Ware Racing, and Our Motorsports.

Career

1997–2007: King Racing, Geoff Bodine Racing and Roush Racing

Tryson began his racing career working with Kenny Bernstein at King Racing. In 1997, he became a crew chief for Geoff Bodine and his Geoff Bodine Racing operation, but quit the team during the August race at Bristol Motor Speedway after arguing with team manager Tim Brewer over pit strategy after Bodine fell two laps down. Incidentally, Tryson moved to Geoff's younger brother Todd's car for the 1998 season.

In 1999, Tryson joined Roush Racing to become the crew chief for Kevin Lepage and Johnny Benson. While the crew chief for Lepage, he recorded one pole position, two top-five and five top-ten finishes. Afterward, he left the team to work at Wood Brothers Racing in 2000. While there he was the crew chief for two drivers: Elliott Sadler and Ricky Rudd, and won one race at Bristol. Four years later, he returned to Roush as the crew chief for Mark Martin. He was able to become one of three other crew chiefs to make the Chase for the Sprint Cup in its first three seasons, with the others being Robbie Reiser and Chad Knaus.

2007–2011: Penske Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing

Midway through the 2007 season, he left Roush again, moving to Penske Racing to become the crew chief for Kurt Busch and the No. 2 team. He remained in that capacity through 2009, when at the end of the season, he decided to move to Michael Waltrip Racing to become the crew chief for the new No. 56 team of Martin Truex Jr. Tryson was replaced by Chad Johnston as Truex's crew chief in June 2011, and he was moved to JTG Daugherty Racing (which at the time had an alliance with MWR), where he became a consultant.

2012–2015

In 2012, Tryson started the season as crew chief for David Gilliland at Front Row Motorsports. In October 2012, Tryson joined BK Racing, serving as crew chief for the team's No. 93 car and driver Travis Kvapil. He continued with BK in 2013, moving from the No. 93 to the No. 83, which was driven full time by David Reutimann. In mid-summer 2013, he left the team.

In 2014, Tryson joined Turner Scott Motorsports in the Nationwide Series as crew chief for rookie Dylan Kwasniewski. Tryson was replaced by Shannon Rursch on July 17.

Tryson was picked up by Curtis Key's The Motorsports Group team to be crew chief of the No. 30 car driven by Ron Hornaday Jr. in 2015. After not qualifying for 3 of their attempted 7 races, both Hornaday and Tryson were released from the team. Tryson was picked up by Circle Sport to crew chief the team of Alex Kennedy. After being replaced by Paul Clapprood starting at Kentucky, for the rest of the 2015 season, Tryson worked for Hattori Racing Enterprises. This included serving as crew chief for their part-time No. 80 Xfinity Series car when it attempted the race at Phoenix with Ross Kenseth.

2016–present

In 2016, he joined Premium Motorsports as the crew chief of their No. 55 car in the Cup Series. In 2017, Tryson returned to TMG, which became Circle Sport – The Motorsports Group, to serve as crew chief of the No. 33 driven by Jeffrey Earnhardt. He did not return to the team after the race at Michigan in June, and returned to Premium Motorsports soon after. He would remain with Premium for the next two years as crew chief of the team's No. 15 car, mostly driven by Ross Chastain.

Tryson remained the crew chief of the No. 15 in 2020, which was driven by rookie Brennan Poole full-time. Rick Ware Racing would buy Premium Motorsports during the COVID-19 break. He returned as crew chief of the RWR No. 15 car in 2021. That year, the car was driven by multiple drivers: Derrike Cope, James Davison, Joey Gase, Chris Windom, J. J. Yeley, and Bayley Currey. After the race at Watkins Glen, Tryson would leave for Our Motorsports to crew chief Brett Moffitt and their No. 02 car in the Xfinity Series, replacing Joe Williams, who moved to SS-Green Light Racing to crew chief Joe Graf Jr.'s No. 07 car. In 2022, Tryson returned to Our Motorsports but moved to the team's No. 23 car of Anthony Alfredo, replacing Kenneth Roettger Jr.

Personal life

Tryson's father is Joe Tryson, a longtime crew chief for drag racer Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins. Tryson graduated from West Chester University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration.

References

1. Coble, Don (August 28, 1997). "Bodine's team restarts after Bristol". Newspapers.com. The Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
2. "One Brother To Another". Newspapers.com. Herald & Review. September 4, 1997. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
3. "TEAM 56". Michael Waltrip Racing. Archived from the original on January 2, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
4. "Kurt Busch crew chief Pat Tryson leaving Penske Racing for personal reasons". ESPN. September 18, 2009. Retrieved January 14, 2011.
5. Pockrass, Bob (June 11, 2011). "Pat Tryson joins JTG Daugherty Racing as a consultant". Sporting News. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
6. "Tryson named crew chief for Gilliland, No. 38". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. February 8, 2012. Retrieved October 1, 2012.
7. Adamczyk, Jay (October 1, 2012). "Tryson to BK Racing". Jayski's Silly Season Site. ESPN. Archived from the original on November 16, 2013.
8. Pearce, Al (February 4, 2014). "Dylan Kwasniewski gets NASCAR Nationwide Series ride with Turner Scott Motorsports". Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
9. "Dylan Kwasniewski Gets New Crew Chief". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. July 17, 2014. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
10. "Circle Sport, The Motorsports Group Join Forces for 2017". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
11. Srigley, Joseph (December 16, 2021). "Our Motorsports Fielding Three Xfinity Series Entries in 2022 for Brett Moffitt, Jeb Burton and Anthony Alfredo". TobyChristie.com.
12. "Drivers & teams: Crew chiefs". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 14, 2011.

External links

• Pat Tryson crew chief statistics at Racing-Reference

• Living people
• 1964 births
• People from Malvern, Pennsylvania
• NASCAR crew chiefs
• West Chester University alumni