Tyler Bruening could smile again. After digging himself out of an early-night hole, and longer term rut for that matter, with Friday’s 17th-to-fourth march through the field at All-Tech, the Decorah, Iowa, driver took great satisfaction in his labor.

"A lot of hard work and trying different things that sometimes don’t work,” Bruening said, responding to the question of what enabled him forward. “It’s getting the car comfortable for me. Not that it was wrong ever, it’s just getting it to be comfortable for me. I felt like tonight, after (Thursday’s) practice, we started out good and got it really good at the end.

“So obviously we left it from there and tweaked on it a little bit tonight. It was really good. It was the best it’s been.”

Bruening paused slightly before amending his previous statement.

“That’s actually the best I felt in a long time,” Bruening said. “That was a lot of fun. Yeah, who knows what tomorrow will bring. You’re a hero tonight and could be a zero tomorrow. It was really good. I guess we have a good baseline for tomorrow.”

To put Friday into perspective, Bruening hadn’t finished inside the top five of a full-field touring feature since last year’s Show-Me 100 preliminary on May 25 at Wheatland, Mo.’s Lucas Oil Speedway. He finished third then.

His most previous top-five finish in a touring field before that had been Oct. 23, 2022’s World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series stop at Missouri’s U.S. 36 Raceway, a race that wasn’t so satisfying because he backpedaled from the pole to finish third. Friday at All-Tech finally has Bruening realistically thinking about winning again when forecasting what 2024 success would look like.

“Any win at anywhere would be good,” Bruening said. “Even the local guys are tough. But the realistic expectations? Run top fives. The key anymore around here is time trials. It’s so important to lay down a good lap, to get positioned up front for the heats. Even if you have to do a little work on your car, you’re up front and the car handles totally different than when you’re back in traffic; dirty air and dirty track.

“It’s amazing how better you feel the further forward you get. As the race went on, I felt better and better. And the car kept getting better and better. It was good. It was really good.”

Bruening and new Skyline Motorsports teammate Mike Marlar have quickly developed rapport, too, and it’s starting to show. Bruening and Marlar have debriefed at good length in the back area to bring closure to their race nights almost every time they can.

Getting to know one another in the racing and personhood sense figures to only make them both better.

“For sure. I’ve never been with a driver that’s so quick to be able to diagnose what he feels in the car,” Bruening said. “That’s been huge for us. Even watching me and being able to say ‘this is what I see is going on’ has been very helpful for us. Yeah, we’re super happy; thrilled about the whole deal. Guys get along really good. Team’s gelling. It’s a recipe for success. Hopefully tonight is the momentum swing of another good year.”