DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —How big is it when you win the Super Bowl of NASCAR and you’re not even officially a player?
Ask Trevor Bayne.
On Saturday, he was celebrating his 20th birthday and racing in the Nationwide Series, the series he chose under NASCAR’s new policy thi
s season to run for championship points.
Less than 24 hours later, making his second Sprint Cup Series start, Bayne outfoxed a field of seasoned veterans to win the Daytona 500 — NASCAR’s biggest race.
Bayne breaks Jeff Gordon’s mark as the youngest winner in Daytona 500 history. Gordon was 25 when he won the 500 in 1997.
“Our first 500, are you kidding me?” said Bayne, who needed directions to Victory Lane. “Wow. This is unbelievable.”
For his improbable and stunning upset win, Bayne collected about $1.5 million and zero points.
Not that he really cares all that much about that right now.
“To get this win, it’s my first win in NASCAR, period, in any of the top three series, my first Sprint Cup win, our second ever race, I mean, that’s setting the standard, I’d say that for sure,” Bayne said.
For a young up-and-comer picked up by Roush Fenway Racing last season and sent to the Wood Brothers to run a partial Cup schedule, expectations can only go up.
And circumstances will change.
Bayne drove his own Ford F-150 down to Daytona Beach from the Charlotte, N.C., area for Speedweeks.
Today, he’ll begin on a whirlwind media tour including ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., and visits to Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix.
“It’s insane. We were kidding around the other day. Did you bring enough clothes if you win the race? I got this, I got two T-shirts. I thought it was a big joke,” Bayne said.
“But here we are. I guess I better call somebody up that can make a suit and get some clothes down here for me. I’m pretty picky, so I don’t know if I can just call anybody.”
Bayne gave the Wood Brothers their first Cup win since Elliott Sadler won at Bristol, Tenn., in the 2001 season. It’s the Wood Brothers’ first Daytona win since 1976 with David Pearson, who will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in May.
The biggest reason for Bayne’s shocking victory is likely attributed to his willingness this week to help others.
His No. 21 Ford was one of the fastest cars all week and in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel, four-time Cup champion Gordon spent much of the race being pushed from behind by Bayne in the two-car drafting tandems which have dominated the racing since the track was repaved.
That confidence in Bayne carried over to Sunday’s race as he repeatedly found himself working drivers with far more experience, helping them get to the front.
“All those guys that helped me along the way today, their trust in me showed other people could trust me,” he said. “Jeff Gordon taking that first step showed everybody that, hey, they could work with me and we’re here.”
As the laps in Sunday’s race wound down, it appeared Bayne was drafting with Roush teammate David Ragan. Ragan burst into the lead on Lap 197.
A wreck on the next-to-last lap sent the race into a green-white-checkered, two-lap overtime, but it was marred by a four-car wreck. In addition, Ragan was black-flagged by NASCAR for crossing lanes to pass before the start/finish line.
Suddenly, Bayne was the leader of the Daytona 500.
There was one restart left, however, and veterans Carl Edwards, Bobby Labonte, Kurt Busch and David Gilliland behind him.
Who would he help? As it turned out, he helped himself.
Bayne managed to stay ahead of others while they battled among themselves for position, giving NASCAR its newest hero.
Bayne’s first words as he took the checkered flag: “Are you kidding me?”
Not today.
“Trevor did a good job of blocking the bottom (of the track) and then that car was a rocket and took off to the finish line,” Edwards said. “We didn’t have a chance to be able to mount up a real charge on him.”
Gilliland finished third, Labonte fourth and Busch — who was trying to become the first driver to win the Budweiser Shootout, Gatorade Duel and 500 in the same Speedweeks — ended up fifth.
With Bayne’s decision to run for the Nationwide championship, Edwards will head into next weekend’s race at Phoenix as the series points leader.
Bayne may yet end up running a full schedule, whether he can contend for the driver’s title or not.
“I don’t know if I’m the next big thing. I hope so. I hope we can prove that. I definitely don’t want it to be handed to us easy. I want to earn it,” Bayne said.
“I think we’re doing it. Winning a race, running up front, it’s not something fake, it’s real.”
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