Trevor Bayne California Speedway Nationwide Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — Trevor Bayne and the No. 99 Diamond-Waltrip Racing team endured a rough start to the 2010 season last week at Daytona when their race ended in a lap seven accident caused by another car. Bayne put those bad memories behind him as he prepares to celebrate his 19th birthday on Friday with a good performance in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. It marks the second start on the two-mile oval for the Knoxville, Tenn., native who finished 19th on Oct. 10.

QUOTES

BAYNE ON FONTANA: “I got to run there last year for CJM Racing. I think it’s going to help me out that I am not going in there blind. I kind of know what to expect at California. I know what the car and the track are going to do as the race goes on. I know that you have to carry a lot of momentum there to run fast laps. It’s also kind of cool how you can feel the draft when there is a car beside you. At Fontana you can defiantly feel the aero and mechanical sides of the car.”

BAYNE ON DAYTONA: “It was a frustrating situation. However, we can’t start chasing our tails now . Daytona is a crap shoot anyway. You expect to go there and wreck and it’s an awesome day if you don’t. It’s just disappointing that we wrecked so early. I was hoping to be able to log some laps there but was only able to get seven under my belt. Kevin Manion (Bono) and Martin Truex Jr. both texted me after the race and said they wrecked at Daytona and won the championship. I still think we have a chance to win the championship. Every team is going to have a bad weekend. It’s the team who has the least amount of bad weeks that will bring home the championship.”

BAYNE ON EARNING REPECT: “It’s hard to get respect when you have rookie strips on your car. I think the best way to get respect from your competitors is to race them like you want to be raced. I think the more races I get under my belt the more respect that I will get from some of the veterans of the sport. “

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

· Bayne is the youngest driver competing full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series this season.

· Bayne will celebrate his 19th birthday Friday, Feb. 19. He was born in Spartanburg, S.C and moved to Knoxville, Tenn., when he was two months old.

· Last weekend at Daytona International Speedway, Bayne and the No. 99 Diamond-Waltrip Racing team had a car that could compete with the leaders. Unfortunately, early contact by the No. 40 of Mike Bliss sent the young rookie into the outside retaining wall and ended the day for the No. 99 team on lap seven. The team finished 41st in the final rundown.

· Last fall Bayne started the race at Auto Club Speedway in the 11th spot and finished 19th. He worked his way into the top 10 before contact by another competitor on pit road caused damage to the Toyota Camry and forced him to make several up scheduled pit stops.

· The 18-year-old driver’s has driven in 16 NNS races. He has one pole (Indianapolis Raceway Park), two top-10’s (IRP and Richmond) and has led total of 34 laps.


· Sirius XM listeners can tune into channel 128 every Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. to hear Bayne’s weekly visit on Sirius Speedway with Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone throughout the 2010 season.