Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Trevor Bayne - Montreal Preview


CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 99 OUT! Pet Care driver Trevor Bayne makes his first trip outside the United States this weekend when he and the NASCAR Nationwide Series visit the 14-turn, 2.710-mile road course Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Only Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch have scored more points than the 19-year-old driver Diamond Waltrip driver in the last Nationwide races10 races. Road course expert Michael McDowell tutored the Knoxville, Tenn. native in preparation for Sunday’s NAPA AUTO PARTS 200. The duo spent time driving a simulator and racing go-karts at Kershaw Speedway in South Carolina. Michael Waltrip Racing will field the No. 00 NAPA Toyota for driver Patrick Carpentier this weekend.

QUOTES

TREVOR BAYNE ON MONTREAL: “This will be my first time I have ever been out of the country. I am really looking forward to another road course race. I’ve never raced at Montreal but Michael (McDowell) has been working with me lately to get ready. Even though we only have one good finish on a road course this year, I think it’s fun to change it up a little. We have been on a long stretch of racing so it’s fun to throw something different into the mix outside of oval racing. However, our oval program is really strong right now so I hate to deviate from that, but hopefully we can make this program strong as well.”

ON HAVING PATRICK CARPENTIER AS A TEAMMATE THIS WEEKEND: “I am going to lean on Patrick a lot this weekend. This is his home track and he ran so well there last year until the motor blew up. I am going to get with him at the race track before practice starts and pick his brain a little. I’ll also follow him a few laps to try and get my rhythm down. I have to use all my resources this weekend to give me that extra little edge over the other Nationwide regulars. We are going to the track this weekend with the same setup Patrick had last season so I think we should be pretty fast off the truck.”

ON SCORING THE FOURTH MOST POINTS IN THE LAST 10 RACES: “At the beginning of the season we said we wanted to be a top five team by the end of the year and I think we are there now. If we keep performing like we have the last month I think we can get close to the top five in points. It’s been great to have the feeling of success with this team. To overcome some obstacles in the beginning and now to be performing like we are and racing with the Cup guys every weekend. It’s been so exciting to be able to race with Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski and just running up front.”

NOTES OF INTEREST

• MEDIA AVAILABILITY—Bayne and Carpentier will attend Thursday’s media luncheon at Noon in the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Media Center.

• Diamond-Waltrip Racing is owned by Gary and Blake Bechtel along with Michael Waltrip Racing. It fields Toyota Camrys out of the MWR shop in Cornelius, N.C. The Bechtels have owned cars in the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series since 1990. The Morgan Hill, California residents’ teams have visited victory lane 10 times in the Nationwide Series.

• Bayne has three poles, three top-five and four top-10 finishes in the last six races.

• Bayne has led 95 laps – third most of any driver in the series and the most of any Nationwide Series only driver. He is one of four NNS only drivers (Allgaier– 2, Braun– 1, Leffler– 1) to lead laps over the last five races.

• Bayne owns 39 NNS starts. He has four poles (Indianapolis –2009, 2010, Gateway—2010 and Iowa 2010), four top-fives and nine top-10s and has led 129 laps. His best finish (third) came at Gateway International Raceway on July 17.

3 comments:

  1. Good luck Trevor!

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  2. Hey Mike, since your 1/7th Canadian, dust off the 51 for the weekend and come on up!!

    ReplyDelete