It’s only seven races, but they’re arguably the most important batch of races of Trevor Bayne’s racing career in roughly a decade.
This Saturday, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner will make his first of seven scheduled starts with Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, beginning with Auto Club Speedway.
Bayne, who turned 31 on Feb. 19, said the chance to get in a competitive ride “makes me feel like a kid again.”
In case you hadn’t noticed, the Tennessee native has been around in the years since he was let go by Roush Fenway Racing. He’s briefly served as an analyst on Fox Sports 1 while also making a few starts with Niece Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.
But since he made his last NASCAR Cup Series start in 2018, this is Bayne’s first real shot at relevancy.
“I fought for another opportunity for the last three years,” Bayne told reporters Wednesday. “I did not want to be done in the race car. I still wanted to drive. I still wanted to be at the track, I just didn’t have the right opportunity. I didn’t have a chance to go and drive for another team where I felt like we could win or really any chance for that matter. I came back home and started a coffee business and really in a way tried to run from racing.”
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However, the lure of racing still called to Bayne everytime he “would turn on a race.”
“That draw back into racing was so strong,” Bayne said. “This opportunity feels different.”
Partnered with a sponsor in Devotion Nutrition, Bayne reached out to JGR in December to test the waters. He called Steve DeSouza, JGR’s GM of Xfinity Series and Development.
“I’ve known him for a long time, and said, ‘Hey Steve, is there any opportunity at Joe Gibbs Racing because I know you have the best Xfinity program and I want to come back to win,'” Bayne said. “I want to come back and make a statement and show what I can do as a driver, and if I can’t get it done, I want to know that I was in the best ride possible, and it just didn’t work out.’”
Bayne said the move by Devotion to support his starts with JGR is a “huge risk” on the small company’s part.
“But they believe in me and want to give me another shot to go back and do it,” he said.
For Bayne, who has made 347 national NASCAR starts since 2009 and only won three times (the last coming in a 2013 Xfinity race at Iowa), getting in JGR’s No. 18 Toyota feels like a “reset” and his best opportunity since he climbed in the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 in 2011 and shocked the world.
“I don’t know what comes of this,” Bayne said. “I don’t know if I end up back in a Cup car full-time or a Xfinity car contending for championships. That’s what I would love to see happen, but I feel like in seven races, I need to go win three to five races if I’m going to have a shot at a comeback. That’s my goal. That’s what I told Jason Ratcliff (crew chief). We’ve got seven – let’s go win five.”
It starts with Auto Club Speedway, the 2-mile speedway in Fontana, California.
Bayne’s last start there came in 2018 in Cup.Â
In five Cup starts there he never finished better than 20th. In Xfinity, he earned three tops 10s in seven starts, with a best result of sixth in 2011. Saturday’s race (4 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 1) is Bayne’s first Xfinity start since 2016 at Watkins Glen International.
“Technology has changed a lot since my last time getting started in the NASCAR Xfinity Series,” Bayne said of how he’s preparing to get back in the cockpit. “For me it’s a lot about watching in-car video of Kyle Busch when he ran there. We have a tool called SMT and it’s just data. You can watch – almost like a video game – all of the throttle and steering traces from every car in the race, so a lot of studying that data and some simulator work at (Toyota Racing Development).
“They have a really good simulator system there that’s accessible to their Truck, Xfinity and Cup drivers – but it’s not the real thing. I know that. It’s going to be just a little bit of getting used to how fast it is again and getting used to some things.”
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