He is an American NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series race car driver. He drives the number 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing in the Sprint Cup Series, and the number 16 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing in the Nationwide Series.
Bayne was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and began his racing career racing go-karts at the age of five. After eight years, he moved to Allison Legacy Race Series, where he became the youngest top rookie. Two years later, he moved to the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series Southern Division. In 2008, he signed a contract with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. to race in the NASCAR Camping World East Series, where he recorded one win, six top-five, and seven top-10 finishes. One year later, he recorded Sunoco Rookie of the Race honors after participating in the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway. Also in 2009, he began racing in the Nationwide Series for Michael Waltrip Racing.
After one year with the team, he moved to Roush Fenway Racing, and began racing in the Sprint Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing. In 2011, Bayne won the Daytona 500, becoming the youngest driver to win the race.
In only his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start, Bayne won a wild Daytona 500 on Sunday to take the fabled Wood Brothers Racing team back to victory lane at Daytona International Speedway.
The 20-year-old led the final six laps and held off fellow Ford driver Carl Edwards by .118 seconds to become the youngest driver ever to win the Daytona 500.
"Are you kidding me?" Bayne radioed after crossing the finish line.
A few moments later, he came on the radio again: "Am I dreaming right now?"
"I don't even know where to go," Bayne added.
The outcome will go down as one of the most improbable in the 53-year history of the Great American Race.
Sunday's was the first held on the 2.5-mile speedway since being repaved and went an extra eight laps to ensure a green flag finish. The smooth surface ushered in a new era of high-speed tandem racing that produced a record 74 lead changes among 22 drivers and kept the tow trucks and cleanup crews busy.
"I don't know if you guys noticed," Edwards said, "but that was pretty wild out there."
A wreck with four laps to go sent the race into NASCAR's version of overtime.
Bayne had helped push David Ragan to the front of the field for the first of what would be two attempts at a green-white-checkered flag finish. But on the restart, Ragan made a mistake - he changed lanes too soon - and was black-flagged by NASCAR.
"That rule is tough," Bayne said. "Do I agree with it? I don't know what to say because we're sitting here in victory lane . . . Neither one of us might have ended up in victory lane had he not gotten black-flagged. I have to thank them for getting us up there because if it wasn't for them we never would have been in that situation to take the lead."
An accident on the backstretch that took Dale Earnhardt Jr and Ryan Newman out of contention set up a second attempt at a thrilling finish. Bayne was up front but a slew of hungry veterans were trailing the rookie.
For all of their experience, nobody in the pack that included Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin and Kurt Busch, had ever won a Daytona 500.
"Now that you put it that way, I'm a little bit worried that one of them is going to come after me tonight," Bayne said.
Labonte settled in behind Bayne to form a two-car draft. Edwards, meanwhile, used a push from David Gilliland to muscle his No. 99 Ford into contention and tried to close.
"We waited and waited and tried not to tear up the racecar, and there in the end it all worked out almost perfectly," Edwards said. "Trevor did a good job of blocking the bottom. That car was a rocket and took off to the finish line. We didn't have a chance to be able to mount a real charge."
Gilliland finished behind Edwards as Ford swept the top three spots.
Bayne's victorious ride came in a No. 21 Ford car painted red and white with gold numbers to resemble the car that David Pearson drove to victory in the 1976 Daytona 500. Until Sunday, that stood as the last Daytona 500 victory for Wood Brothers Racing. The team also went to victory lane at Daytona with Tiny Lund, Cale Yarborough and A.J. Foyt.
"That's a cool list," Bayne said. "It's incredible to be a part of this group, it really is."
Wood Brothers Racing hadn't won a race in the Cup Series in almost a decade.
"We never did quit. We just kept trying," team owner Eddie Wood said. "Bringing back the red and white car with the gold numbers that Pearson drove, that just seemed like it put things back to normal."
Edwards' consolation was the Cup Series points lead because Bayne is vying for the Nationwide Series title with Roush Fenway Racing.
Bayne is only scheduled to drive 17 races with Wood Brothers Racing in the Cup Series this season. Sunday's victory and the $1,462,563 purse that came with it could change those plans.
"We were talking about running the first five races," owner Len Wood said. "I think Martinsville, here we come. That will be the sixth race. On to Texas from there."
Source: http://communitypress.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20110220/SPT/102210339/1196/rss1107/Trevor-Bayne-wins-Daytona-500?odyssey=nav|head
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