Ft. Worth, Texas (Nov. 9, 2009) – Trevor Bayne and the No. 99 Aaron’s Outdoor Toyota team rebounded from being put a lap down early in the O’Reilly Challenge to turn in a 13th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday afternoon.
After posting the fourth-fastest time in Friday’s final practice session, Bayne and Co. qualified the No. 99 Aaron’s Outdoor Toyota 11th.
In front of an estimated crowd of 76,000 race fans, the 18-year-old driver tried his best to work his way through the field but a loose-handling race car hampered any forward progress. The rookie driver would fall all the way to 19th before green-flag pit stops began on lap 54.
Veteran Crew chief Jerry Baxter summoned his driver on to pit road two laps later for fuel, four fresh Goodyear tires with an air pressure adjustment and a major chassis adjustment. A solid green-flag pit stop by the over-the-wall crew allowed Bayne to remain 19th in the running order.
As the No. 99 Aaron’s Outdoor Toyota began to come to life, Bayne found himself back in the top 15th battling for the “Aaron’s Lucky Dog” award. On lap 153 a caution flew for a single-car incident and the Knoxville, Tenn., native found himself back on the lead lap with just under 50 laps remaining in the race.
The final caution flag flew on lap 178 with Bayne running in the 13th spot. With no fresh tires left in the pits, Baxter opted to stay out and gain some valuable track position. Unfortunately, a few of the leaders hit pit road and bolted on four fresh Goodyear’s and had the clear advantage on the lap 186 restart.
Bayne would fall back to 13th in the closing laps but was able to grab his sixth top-15 finish in only 14 NASCAR Nationwide Series starts.
Kyle Busch grabbed his eighth NASCAR Nationwide Series victory followed by Casey Mears, Jason Leffler, Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski.
Next weekend, NASCAR’s junior circuit heads out west to Phoenix International Raceway for the second and final time of the 2009 season.
Live coverage of the Able Body Labor 200 begins Saturday, November 14 at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Qualifying for the 35th event of the season will air live the same day at 12 Noon EST. MRN and Sirius XM Satellite Radio will also provide live updates of time trials.
TREVOR BAYNE QUOTE:
“We ended up pretty decent considering what was going on in the middle of the race. We fell back to 20th at one point. The Aaron’s Outdoor Toytoa just couldn’t get any rear grip all week. We fought it in practice, fought it in qualifying and then in the race. We made some big changes, so it’s something weird. It’s not a mechanical deal. We were running a new body style here. The numbers were really good on it but sometimes the wind tunnel is different than the race track, so we’re going to go back and figure out if it’s the body or what it was. We’ll get it figured out. It’s not a bad finish considering how we had to work all day to get to 13th.”
Event/Date: O’Reilly Challenge/Nov. 7, 2009
Venue: Texas Motor Speedway – Ft. Worth, Texas
Starting Position: 11th
Finishing Position: 13th
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