Who is Daytona champ Trevor Bayne and where did he come from?

Your winner/Courtesy: nascar.com

By now you know that he's the guy who won the 2011 Daytona 500. And yeah, it's a crazy story. The kid just turned 20 the day before. It was his second Sprint Cup start. And yeah, he's driving part-time...or was driving part-time for the legendary Wood Brothers, who hadn't had a car win the 500 since before a lot of people reading this were born.

A little more about Trevor Bayne, from the Daytona Beach News-Journal RIGHT HERE

He survived one of the more exciting, fun to watch Daytona races in a long time, holding off Carl Edwards to take the checkered flag in the NASCAR equivalent of double overtime.

Your highlights, from our friends at ESPN:



Bayne has had some success running in the Nationwide circuit, enough success that he got a shot to run with the big boys. He hasn't been around racing long, but, unless he goes the way of Derrick Cope, he'll be around awhile.

To answer our headine question, Bayne was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he still has family. WATE-TV in Knoxville caught up with them on Sunday:



Perhaps the funniest moment of the day was caught on his two-way radio after the race, when upon trying to find Victory Lane, Bayne said "I don't even know where to go". We couldn't find the video clip online, but FOX cameras clearly showed him driving right past it, until a NASCAR official jumped in front of him and made him stop.

Here's an interview with Trevor's mom from FOX Sports:

Dale Earnhardt Plus Ten

Here's the end of the race plus a little post-race...
((HT: NASCAR on FOX/youtube))


You've seen all of these over the remainder of SpeedWeeks, so it's time for all of us...

Strangely enough, I was in Birmingham with two shooters doing a February sweeps piece on the XFL. We were set on doing four parts on the new league and its viability as a piece of entertainment for football fans. We were heading home when the sports talk station in town had turned their airwaves over to fans and phone calls.

We had no idea that Daytona had happened the way it did until that moment...

I called FOSG Mark Harmon and the assignment desk and wanted to know what the plan was...

The three of us suggested driving past Talladega and grabbing some people talking about the events in Daytona and their thoughts on Number 3. There was the standard outpouring of emotion and you had the laying down of flowers, but there was one guy who had taken his young son- he couldn't have been anymore than three or four.

They played to the camera perfectly: "Say, goodbye to Dale, son..."

The son kissed his hand and placed it on the #3 logo that was on a piece of paper at the SuperSpeedway entrance.
You race home. You have a lead story with a different perspective than everyone else...

It was one of those "remember when" moments... you know exactly where you are...
And you don't forget...
Ever...

Here's a piece ESPN put together with all the important people of that day...


In subsequent weeks, one of the first stories we did was with the man who created the HANS device- Jim Downing. I made a point to have the helmet and HANS put on me as part of the piece to explain its benefit to the driver.

And in some very sad way, that is probably the longest-lasting legacy of Dale Earnhardt. No one adjusts their five-point harnesses so they fit more comfortably. No one wears open-faced helmets in NASCAR events anymore. And safety devices for head and neck restraints are mandatory in stock cars.

It's these kinds of lessons that are the hardest, sometimes, to learn...

Earnhardt To The Back For Daytona

That's what happens when you wreck in a pile with Martin Truex, Junior...

Here you go, and Mike Joy couldn't be more correct...
((HT: NASCAR/Speed/youtube))


It will be Earnhardt's third car of Speedweeks. He wrecked the first #88 car in the Budweiser Shootout.

Earnhardt Junior On The Daytona Pole

Dale Earnhardt, Junior was .032 faster than Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon, and that was good enough to give him the pole for the 2011 Daytona 500. The #88 clocked in with 186.089 miles per hour just ahead of the #24's 185.966

The rest of the positions are determined by the Duel Duals on Thursday...

But one of the more odd incidents happened during Denny Hamlin's qualifying when his steering wheel just stayed left...

((HT: NASCAR on FOX/youtube/NASCAR.com))


With the probability of Terry Labonte and Bill Elliott both using past champions' provisionals to get into the field, only 6 spaces will be available for eleven drivers.

Potholes and Pitstops - McMurray wins the 2010 Daytona 500

((the Mac daddy in victory lane - courtesy Getty Images/sportsnet.ca))

Wow...official race time was 6 hours and 14 minutes, but this was one of the most exciting Daytona 500's I've ever seen. I thought for sure after the two hour pothole repair delay, either Greg Biffle or Clint Bowyer would take the checkered flag. However, going into overtime, and having two consecutive Green, White, and Checkered restarts - it was anyone's race.

25+ cars on the lead lap - all with a chance to win. Kevin Harvick was doing everything his car could do to win. However, Jamie "I love restrictor plate racing" McMurray and the #1 Bass Pro Shops Ford held off Dale "Junebug" Earnhardt, Jr to win the 52nd Great American Race. Little E and the #88 AMP Energy/National Guard Chevrolet came from 10th place to 2nd in the last two laps - apparently he still has a little Earnhardt left in him.

Here are the last two laps, courtesy of SlicedSmoke14 and the YouTube:
((HT: NASCAR Images/NASCAR on Fox))

2009 NASCAR Hall Of Fame Class Announced

From NASCAR their own selves...

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) announced the inaugural class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame today that includes: Dale Earnhardt, Bill France Sr., Bill France Jr., Junior Johnson and Richard Petty.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel, consisting of members of the Nominating Committee along with 29 others representing NASCAR, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, major race track ownership groups, retired drivers, owners and crew chiefs along with motorsports media representatives, met in a closed session in Charlotte, N.C. to vote on the induction class of 2010.

All this does is give us an excuse to show the following old video...
The 1988 Petty crash at Daytona...
((HT: NASCAR/NASCAR Images/Speed))

Kenseth Wins Another Rain-Shortened Daytona

Matt Kenseth passed Elliott Sadler with two laps to go before the rains came and ended up winning the 51st Daytona 500 Sunday.

Kenseth was the proud owner of a 36-race winless streak heading in to the the race, and had to start back in the 39th position in the grid. The race was shortened to 152 laps, or 380 miles, because of the rain in the area. NASCAR's head honcho Mike Helton told the Fox network race team that the race itself would not have kicked back in until close to 11:00 eastern time after the track would have been cleared of the rain and dried to meet safe driving conditions.

This daytona was the 4th race shortened in the history of the event- the last being Michael Waltrip's 2003 win.

Kenseth vowed to a columnist, who in 2003 wrote the drive had no personality, that was going to paint the town plaid.

Here are your highlights and Kenseth post.
Jonathan Coachman has the highlights. MRN's Winston Kelly is on the mic:
((HT: ESPNEWS/NASCAR Media Group))

Tony Stewart On Goodyear Tires - They Blow

Tony Stewart is not a happy man on the eve of the Daytona 500. During the final Cup practice Saturday His Stewart-Haas Racing team mate Ryan Newman blew a tire, a Goodyear tire, and collected Stewart damaging his primary car and forcing Newman to go to his second back up car for the Great American Race Sunday.

Newman's tire blowout lead to another blow up on Goodyear tires by Tony Stewart.

"It's just a Goodyear right-rear tire," Stewart said. "So it's the same thing everybody has been talking about all week. It's the same stuff that we always talk about every year -- the failures that Goodyear has. I think that's part of their marketing campaign. The more we talk about it, the more press they get. I think they forget that it's supposed to be in a good way, not a bad way."

"It was just unfortunate." Ryan Newman said. "We took out my teammate. I don't even know who else was caught up in it. I'm just disappointed in the situation Goodyear has put us in. ... It is ridiculous the situation we are in with these tires."

Tony Stewart has had an issue with Goodyear tires for quite a while. He's not at all happy that NASCAR insists on using one tire manufacturer and not open to competition. While racing in other types of cars, Stewart uses Hoosier tires.

"It's just frustrating because the gold-and-blue down there [where Goodyear is located in the Daytona garage] are the cause of another deal," Stewart said. "I'm just so tired of talking about Goodyear, it's ridiculous. I'm just over it."

Yeah right, you are over it... not. I willing to bet Goodyear tires aren't on his personal vehicle.

"Apparently this is their marketing strategy to get press. I'm just tired of talking about them, tired of them being an issue. And us talking about them right now isn't going to change anything because it falls on deaf ears and won't change." Stewart said.

When asked if he still had a chance to win the Daytona 500 Stewart shot back, "I don't know, rocket scientist. I'm sitting here with a backup car. What do you think?" Well I guess it doesn't take a scientific rocket to figure out Stewart chances are pretty much blown as well as his SHR team mate Ryan Newman.

Of course Goodyear Tires has a different perspective. Stu Grant, Goodyear's director of worldwide racing, is insisting the company brought a competent tire for the Daytona 500 and Newman's blowout has caused by a puncture from debris.

"It's obviously something that was on the race track." Grant said. "It could have been something that had fallen off one of the cars ahead of him. It could have been something that laid on the pavement for a while, and as the cars went by it moved it to a configuration where it could puncture a tire. We see a lot of those kinds of cases."

As for Stewart, he's not ready to make nice with Goodyear.

"Don't get them anywhere near me," Stewart said when asked if he had spoken to any Goodyear officials. "Don't bring them anywhere close; don't let them come close. I don't want anything to do with them."

Here's the wreck from our friends at Speed.