By midweek, it was starting to set in for Trevor Bayne. He really did win NASCAR's biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500. The race's youngest driver, at 20 years and one day, gave the sport's oldest team, the Wood Brothers, the 98th win of their 61-year career. But it was the first in 10 years, ending their longest losing streak ever.
And so far, Bayne has remained as humble as he was when he was working his way up racing’s career ladder.
In the hours after his stunning victory, he initially worried that he wouldn’t say the right things in the numerous interviews he granted, and he didn’t feel quite right winning the Great American Race in his first try, considering how many other deserving people have never won it. But thanks to reassurances from his crew and from his fellow drivers, he’s beginning to enjoy the accolades and the attention.
“It is taking its time to sink in,” he said on this week’s NASCAR teleconference, which he did while riding in a car from one appearance to the next.
He said that the surprises related to his victory just keep on coming.
“The high point was probably when the White House called and said that the President was going to want to talk to me in the next couple of days,” he said. “I still haven’t talked to him yet. I had no idea who it was. A private number came up on my phone.
"I have had so many calls and texts from folks, including Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Jeff Gordon, all showing their support, but the White House was the one that stunned me the most."
Bayne said he’s not too worried about how he’ll handle fame, fortune and added scrutiny of his every move. He said he just won’t change who he is now.
“I just have to be true to who Trevor Bayne is,” he said. “I don’t ever want to have anything to hide. I want to be as public and truthful as possible and be the same person in the media and away from it. I have tried to do that, and I try to stay humble through it all.”
He said his faith will help him with the attention he’ll surely get because of what he’s accomplished.
“It does draw some attention that might be a lot to handle, but I also know that God is not going to give me more than I can handle with him,” he said. “It might be too much for Trevor Bayne to handle, but never too much for him to handle.
“Before I ever made the decision to run for the Wood Brothers in Cup this year, I just prayed that whatever would happen would be something to draw me closer to God.
“I thought that would be because of struggles, but now it is because of the success. I have to manage the mountaintops and know there might be bad days ahead, and I just have to accept them."
At some point later in the week, Bayne’s whirlwind media tour will wind down, and he’ll be back in his race car at Phoenix International Raceway, for both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races.
And he and his team will have to decide soon whether they’ll start collecting Sprint Cup points in case they decide to make a run for the Chase. Bayne already chose to compete for Nationwide Series points, but team officials say NASCAR will allow him to change series, but his Daytona win would be good for only three bonus points should he make the Chase.
While Bayne has been touring, his crew chief Donnie Wingo has been back at the Wood Brothers shop preparing his car. And Bayne knows that the upcoming trip might not end with the same result as the most recent one.
“We have to manage our expectations and know that we can’t do this every week,” he said. “It is our first year and only our third race coming up at Phoenix. As soon as the celebration was over Monday morning in Daytona, [Wingo] was back in the shop working hard to get us ready for Phoenix.
“I can’t thank him and our group enough for being so dedicated to running well this season.”
TV ratings strong
Bayne and the Wood Brothers weren’t the only big winners at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday. Fox, which broadcast the Daytona 500, reports that early ratings numbers indicate that the race drew the largest viewing audience of any NASCAR race since 2008, with more than 30 million viewers tuning in at some point.
The race, which saw a record-setting 74 lead changes and 16 caution flags, earned an 8.7 rating, up 13 percent from last year.
Patrick at home
After a successful trip to Daytona, where she became the first female to lead a major NASCAR race, Danica Patrick will get to race at home. Patrick, the IndyCar veteran now running a partial Nationwide Series schedule, was born in Wisconsin and grew up in Illinois, but now lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., not far from Phoenix International Raceway.
She heads to her home track having qualified a NASCAR career-best fourth at Daytona and finishing 14th, also a personal NASCAR best.
At Phoenix, she’ll get to make one last run on the track before it is repaved. Then she’ll run two more NASCAR races before returning to her full-time gig on the IndyCar circuit.
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