DARLINGTON, S.C. — Prior to Saturday’s (Aug. 30) Sober or Slammer 200 at Darlington Raceway, Trevor Bayne had not competed in a NASCAR national series race in nearly two years.
In his return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on Saturday, Bayne worked his way up from a 16th starting spot, came on strong late and finished fifth.
“Well, I loved it,” Bayne said. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity that I’ve been helping. Victory Junction allowed me to drive this [No.] 1 truck. Legacy Motor Club, TRICON Garage, it was a joint effort, Toyota.
“I love being around the Truck Series. I’ve been able to do that with FOX in the broadcast booth, been able to work with all the TRICON Garage drivers this year. Congratulations to Corey [Heim] on his win in the playoffs.”
Bayne last raced in Trucks and the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2023, with his most recent start prior to Saturday being a 14th at Homestead-Miami Speedway for Rackley W.A.R. In the time since then, he has served as the Driver Optimization Leader for Legacy Motor Club and a driver coach for TRICON Garage, hence why he congratulated Heim. He’s also spent time broadcasting for FOX Sports and Prime Video. It seemed like the driving career of the 2011 Daytona 500 winner may be over, and he was onto the next stage of life. Which, until Wednesday, Aug. 20, was probably the case.
“Last Wednesday, Matt Puccia, my former crew chief, we’ve talked about it for three years, ever since he was at TRICON, like, ‘I wanna drive a truck,'” Bayne said. “We stayed in close contact, and he called me and said, ‘Hey, we may have a truck open for Darlington. Would you wanna do it?’ It’s like, ‘Heck yeah, let’s do it.’ And so, I was at Daytona on Saturday (Aug. 23), hanging out with the Legacy Motor Club and AdventHealth guys. I mentioned that I might have an opportunity, and they’re like, ‘We gotta do it.'”
So Bayne was entered in TRICON’s No. 1 entry. And while AdventHealth was unable to put its logos on the truck, it put up money to put Victory Junction — a camp founded by Kyle Petty to enrich the lives of children, ages six to 16, with chronic and serious medical conditions — on the hood instead.
“Really cool for Kyle and Richard Petty as well to have Victory Junction on the truck, but for me, my expectations were pretty low coming into this,” Bayne said. “I didn’t know what to expect, never even qualified a truck before. We were in [COVID-19 procedures] when I raced all [my previous Truck] races except for Homestead, and I didn’t get to qualify there. So I learned a lot this weekend. Hopefully, we can apply it going forward for our team.”
So Bayne returned to a series he loves, even though it is the lone national series he does not have a win in. Despite previously winning in NASCAR’s biggest race, Bayne noted that this Truck race at Darlington was “the most nervous I’ve ever been coming into a race.”
“I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t want my young drivers talking smack to me, or if you just never know when your last race is gonna be,” Bayne said.
The weekend didn’t start well for Bayne. He was 25th quickest in practice and qualified 16th. But Bayne flawlessly worked his way toward the front once the race started.
“Friday was rocky,” Bayne said. “Like, we were not great. The truck was a handful up the hill, but Jake [Hampton, crew chief] and my team got the truck better all day long. We kept moving forward. Pit stops were great. We just executed the race.
“I think I hit the wall like four or five times, which isn’t bad for me at Darlington. Normally, I have one extra pit stop for a flat tire, and I didn’t have to do that today, so good day overall.”
Bayne had climbed into the top 10 by the end of stage two, and in the race’s final green flag run, he got into the top five, where he finished. Despite the strong showing and proving that he still has something left in the tank, Bayne has no further races planned. However, that doesn’t appear to bug him, as he is content in his current roles.
“I try to keep my expectations low,” Bayne said. “Like, until I saw the name go above the door, I even thought this one might go away. So you just try to enjoy every single one, and in racing, it’s always about the next thing.
“You win, it’s always about the next one, and for me right now, it doesn’t have to be that way. Like, I get to be around the sport. I get to be around competition. When I do get a chance to drive, it’s so much fun, but I try not to put a lot of expectation on it.”
But despite Bayne embracing life after a driving career, if someone were to ask him to drive another race, “I will say yes.”
“I’m very tied in with Toyota, Legacy, TRICON, so that’s kind of where my loyalty is at right now, just making sure I can help Corey [Heim] win a championship,” Bayne said. “He’s so talented. Like, people don’t understand how well he applies things. Tanner [Gray] is hard on himself sometimes, very talented. Gio Ruggiero is putting in more work than I’ve ever seen a driver put in, so all three of our guys here are very talented, and they have good work ethics.
“So that’s why I enjoy being a part of it. If I get to drive again, great, but working with them is really fun.”
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.