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CUP: Bayne Returns To Scene Of Glory
Trevor Bayne will try to score one of racing’s toughest repeats – winning the Daytona 500 again…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted January 31, 2012   Charlotte, NC
Crew chief Donnie Wingo (Right) guided Trevor Bayne (Left) to his stunning win in the 2011 Daytona 500. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Could lightning strike two years in a row in the Daytona 500?

Could Trevor Bayne, who proved his drafting worth and stunningly won last season’s 500 barely into his 20th year on the globe, do it again?

The oddsmakers will say no. Favorites will carry names like Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Fenway Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing. All the sport’s top operations have had months to prepare for the sport’s biggest race.

But…

“This sport – people don’t realize how tough it is these days, how the competition level is what it is now,” said Donnie Wingo, crew chief for Bayne’s remarkable run last February. “It’s tougher now. We’re going there with the attitude that we know it’s a long road ahead, but I feel like we’ve got as good a shot as anybody.”

And that’s the peculiar nature of Daytona. Because of the social nature of the draft – either in its more recent tandem form or in the “pack” configuration that most fans seem to favor, all boats are lifted with the tide. A car that might not be quite as good as the 10 in front of it can become a super machine while being pulled along by others.

In that case, all a driver needs is to be in the right place in the closing five miles – and that’s precisely where Bayne was last year when David Ragan made the lane-change mistake that cost him the race. Bayne replaced Ragan as the top dog in front of the draft and held on for the win.

“At beginning of practice in Daytona, we had a fast car, and we had a fast car all week and qualified well,” Wingo said. “At the end of race, the way we played the pit strategy, we wound up in the front pack. We were pushing David, and he was probably going to win the Daytona 500 and we were going to run second.”

Instead, Bayne found himself in front with drafting help from Bobby Labonte. After being the “pusher” for most of Speedweeks, Bayne was shoved to first for the finish.

“It was one of those deals to where we hadn’t really been pushed all day,” Wingo said. “We had done the pushing all day with whatever cars we were around. It was really a situation that he hadn’t been in the whole week, basically. We hadn’t been the leader of the tandem drafting. It was a deal where they came together at the right time and were able to get the momentum and stay out front.”

Wingo, a veteran of NASCAR pit roads who nevertheless was part of a winning Daytona 500 team for the first time, wasn’t a part of the wild frontstretch moshpit as Wood Brothers – young and old – ran to join Bayne in celebration of an unlikely win.

“I was actually headed back to the truck to put my radio up,” Wingo said. “I didn’t want to mess my radios up. But I did make it a point as soon as it was over to shake hands with Len and Eddie (Wood). They’ve had a tough road over the last few years.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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