Thursday, May 5, 2016

Trevor Bayne
#NASCAR Career Resurrection

Through ten races, Roush Fenway driver, Trevor Bayne currently holds the sixteenth and last position in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship Standings. 

 
Trevor Bayne in the #6 Advocare Ford Fusion managed to stay out of the race carnage during the #NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on May 1, 2016 in Talladega, Alabama. (nascar.com)

You all remember Bayne. . . . as a youngster, he exploded onto the NASCAR Scene with a fairy tale win at the 2011 Daytona 500. It was just his second career Sprint Cup start. Trevor is the youngest Daytona 500 winner at the age twenty years one day.

Several setbacks, including a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, sidetrack Bayne’s rise in the NASCAR ranks. He spent 2013 and 2014 racing full time in the Xfinity series, finishing sixth in the points standing both years. He recorded one win in 2013 and twelve top-fives in that two-year period.

Trevor Bayne, driver of the #6 AdvoCare Ford, walks through the garage area during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 29, 2016 in Talladega, Alabama. (Jerry Markland/Getty Images North America)
Last year, the driver moved up to the Sprint Cup Series in the #6 car for Roush Fenway Racing (RFR). Unfortunately, he only managed two top-ten finish the entire year (ninth at Quicken Loan 400 and Coke Zero 400).

This season is going much better for the twenty-five year old driver. Trevor has already scored two top-ten finishes with one of them breaking into the top-five category. He finished fifth on April 17th in the Food City 500; scoring his first top five since his surprise victory in the 2011 season-opening Daytona 500.

Last week’s tenth place run at Talladega Speedway is indicative of a career resurrection. Sunday, Bayne started from position thirteen on the starting grid. His #6 Advocare Ford Fusion managed to stay out of the race carnage.

Bayne grabbed the lead on lap one hundred and seven. He led for twenty-two laps. Bayne was in third position for the final restart of the race. Unfortunately he was shuffled back to the tenth position for the checkered.

“Very, very insane. You get butterflies in your stomach even thinking about coming here because you don’t know what will happen,” Bayne said of the frantic on-track action all day. “You can have a great day and win. Even in the overtime I was sitting third and could have won or ended up on a wrecker with the roof torn off. It is hard to race here without being nervous or anxious.”

A win was not to be . . . at Talledega. However, do not count Trevor Bayne out this year. With the quality of his race cars and support team; a 2016 Sprint Cup win and/or berth in the chase would really not be that big of a surprise.

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