Bayne still in shock after Daytona win

Photo by: Gary W. Green

MCT

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Trevor Bayne signs his name into cement in Victory Lane after winning the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, Sunday, February 20, 2011.

Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.

Trevor Bayne celebrated his Daytona 500 victory by playing basketball with friends, then skateboarding on the infield of NASCAR’s most storied race track.

And why not? This is the youngest winner of the Great American Race.

Bayne seemed still in disbelief Monday of his Daytona 500 victory, which came a day after his 20th birthday and in just his second start in NASCAR’s elite Sprint Cup Series.

His beaming parents, who watched the race in the grandstand and fought the crowd to reach Victory Lane, didn’t even mind staying up half the night to wash his laundry so there would be clean clothes for the upcoming whirlwind media tour.

Wide-eyed and laughing at the absurdity of his life-changing victory, Bayne was just going with the flow.

“It’s insane because we were kidding around, ‘Did you bring enough clothes to go if you win the race?”’ Bayne said. “I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve got this. I’ve got two T-shirts.’ I thought it was a big joke, but here we are. This is so crazy.”

That’s how it seems to go in NASCAR’s biggest race of the season, which has a history of wild finishes and surprising winners. Sunday was no different, with a record 74 lead changes among 22 drivers, and a record 16 cautions that took many of the heavyweights out of contention.

It left a handful of unprovens at the front of the field in the closing laps, with some of the biggest stars in the sport bearing down on their bumpers. Among them was two-time champion Tony Stewart, who even Bayne assumed would pass him during the final two-lap sprint to the finish.

Nobody in those closing laps expected Bayne, driving the famed No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford — which, by the way, hadn’t won a race in 10 years — to make it to Victory Lane in one of the most difficult Daytona 500s in memory. New pavement made for a fast track that produced speeds over 200 mph throughout Speedweeks, and a new style of two-car tandem racing that required intense mental focus and the trust of other drivers.

Bayne proved he was up for the challenge in a qualifying race four days before the 500 when he pushed four-time champion Jeff Gordon around the track for most of the 150-mile event. Consider that his parents still have a Gordon poster hanging in Bayne’s childhood bedroom in Knoxville, Tenn.

“I’m watching thinking I can’t believe he’s drafting with Jeff Gordon, at 200 mph, down the backstretch,” his mother, Stephanie, said Monday.

Faced with sagging television ratings and sinking attendance, NASCAR has been searching for something or someone to excite its aging fan base. With the victory, Bayne goes front and center before the public much faster than anyone had imagined and NASCAR will quickly find out if he’s enough to help Fox sustain overnight ratings for Sunday’s race that were up 13 percent over last year’s Daytona 500.