Trevor Bayne, No. 99 Diamond-Waltrip Racing Toyota Camry Texas Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — In Trevor Bayne’s 21-race NASCAR Nationwide Series career he has excelled on the fast 1.5-mile tracks. He’s started five races on these types of tracks and grabbed a top-10, four top-15s with an average qualifying spot of 10th. The Knoxville, Tenn., native earned his career-best finish of sixth at the 1.5-mile Las Vegas track earlier this season. Additionally, Bayne’s only finish outside the top 15 came in the September race at Atlanta Motor Speedway where he finished 16th. The 19-year-old Diamond-Waltrip Racing driver hopes to continue that success at the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway this weekend and pad those already impressive statistics.


QUOTES

BAYNE ON TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “I really like Texas a lot. I think Texas and Atlanta are two of my favorite tracks. It’s a really fast track. Last year we were really free on entry and I think if we can fix that we can be competitive. We are going to go to Texas with a setup similar to what we had at Las Vegas. We had a lot of success at Vegas so I think we will be able to unload pretty good this weekend. I think I learned a lot a Vegas that will translate to a good run at Texas. If we can stay out of trouble, we have a really good chance of finishing in the top 10 this weekend.”

BAYNE ON 1.5-MILE SUCCESS: “I attribute a lot of my success to my crew chief Jerry Baxter. He has been to these types of tracks a ton and really knows how to set up the cars. I am also competitive on these tracks because it reminds me of short track racing that I am used to but just a little faster. At Texas, Vegas, Charlotte and Atlanta you can drive your car from the white line to the wall. This gives you the ability to find the fast line for your race car. I just hope we can continue our success on these types tracks and move up a little in the point standings.”


ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

• Bayne is the youngest fulltime racer in the Nationwide Series. He was born Feb. 19, 1991.

• Bayne is tenth in points among the fulltime Nationwide Series drivers.

• The 19-year-old driver owns 21 NNS starts. He has one pole (Indianapolis), three top-10s (Indianapolis, Richmond and Las Vegas), 10 top-15s and has led 34 laps of competition.

• In November’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, Bayne qualified the No. 99 Toyota in the 11th position. He ran in the top 15 for the majority of the race. The young driver grabbed a solid 13th-place finish.

• This weekend, Bayne’s No. 99 Toyota will run a plain hood with Diamond-Waltrip logos on the quarter panels in hopes to show potential sponsors inventory is available.

• Last weekend at Phoenix International Speedway, Bayne and the No. 99 Diamond-Waltrip team thought they had a car that could compete for a top-five finish after practice. However, once the race started the handling on the No. 99 machine went away. Crew chief Jerry Baxter tried several adjustments and nothing seemed to work. To add insult to injury, the 19-year-old driver was involved in an incident on lap 136 that caused major damage to the No. 99 and he was forced behind the wall for major repairs. Bayne eventually crossed the finish line 32nd.

• Diamond-Waltrip Racing is owned by Gary and Blake Bechtel along with Michael Waltrip Racing. It fields Camrys out of the MWR race shop in Cornelius, N.C.