In only his second Sprint Cup race Trevor Bayne burst on the scene becoming the youngest winner of the Daytona 500 one day after his 20th birthday.
Driving the Wood Brothers Ford in livery recalling their last Daytona 500 victory, in 1976 with David Pearson, Bayne held off Carl Edwards for his first Sprint Cup win.
Ironically, Edwards becomes the series points leader because Bayne, who is scheduled to run only a limited Cup schedule declared he was racing for Nationwide points.
"I keep thinking I am dreaming; I really do," said Bayne, who was a popular drafting partner throughout Speedweeks despite having only run in one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race prior to today. "It is unbelievable. Our first 500 – are you kidding me? To win our first one? Our second-ever Cup race?"
"Trevor did a good job of blocking the bottom and that car was a rocket to the finish line. We didn’t have a chance to mount a real charge on him," said Carl Edwards
"I'm going to watch the replay, think about a hundred things I could have done, think about, man, what would it have been like to finish the race. (Then) I'm going to go to Phoenix next week and look at the points and think this was OK. We'll race Daytona 500 again next year," Edwards told reporters.
David Gilliland finished third in another Ford.
The only other surprise is that the two-car tandem-draft did not prevent the Big One.
Fourteen cars were damaged including Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
The new racing surface produced several records in the 2011 Daytona 500 including number of leaders (22) and lead changes (74), besting the previous records of 21 and 60, respectively. Ryan Newman, the 2008 Daytona 500 champion, led the most laps today - nine times for 37 of the 208 laps. Of the 43-car field, 20 drivers finished on the lead lap.
Late in the race Newman was involved in a wreck which took out Dale Earnhardt Jr. and set up a green-white-checkered finish. That put David Ragan in the lead.
On the first restart Ragan moved to the low line before it was permitted which resulted him being black-flagged.
"I wanted to get to the bottom as soon as possible,” said Bayne.
"I think Trevor was the best pusher on the race track all day long and I just got to the bottom a little too early," said David Ragan.
That left Bayne, Edwards, Gilliland and the Toyota of Bobby Labonte ready for a second green-white-checkered finish.
"No, like I said, Bobby Labonte was just an awesome pusher and then I pulled down and it was like perfect timing," Trevor Bayne said.
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| Fourteen cars damaged in a crash. (Image: nascar.com) |
Driving the Wood Brothers Ford in livery recalling their last Daytona 500 victory, in 1976 with David Pearson, Bayne held off Carl Edwards for his first Sprint Cup win.
Ironically, Edwards becomes the series points leader because Bayne, who is scheduled to run only a limited Cup schedule declared he was racing for Nationwide points.
"I keep thinking I am dreaming; I really do," said Bayne, who was a popular drafting partner throughout Speedweeks despite having only run in one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race prior to today. "It is unbelievable. Our first 500 – are you kidding me? To win our first one? Our second-ever Cup race?"
"Trevor did a good job of blocking the bottom and that car was a rocket to the finish line. We didn’t have a chance to mount a real charge on him," said Carl Edwards
"I'm going to watch the replay, think about a hundred things I could have done, think about, man, what would it have been like to finish the race. (Then) I'm going to go to Phoenix next week and look at the points and think this was OK. We'll race Daytona 500 again next year," Edwards told reporters.
David Gilliland finished third in another Ford.
The only other surprise is that the two-car tandem-draft did not prevent the Big One.
Fourteen cars were damaged including Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.
The new racing surface produced several records in the 2011 Daytona 500 including number of leaders (22) and lead changes (74), besting the previous records of 21 and 60, respectively. Ryan Newman, the 2008 Daytona 500 champion, led the most laps today - nine times for 37 of the 208 laps. Of the 43-car field, 20 drivers finished on the lead lap.
Late in the race Newman was involved in a wreck which took out Dale Earnhardt Jr. and set up a green-white-checkered finish. That put David Ragan in the lead.
On the first restart Ragan moved to the low line before it was permitted which resulted him being black-flagged.
"I wanted to get to the bottom as soon as possible,” said Bayne.
"I think Trevor was the best pusher on the race track all day long and I just got to the bottom a little too early," said David Ragan.
That left Bayne, Edwards, Gilliland and the Toyota of Bobby Labonte ready for a second green-white-checkered finish.
"No, like I said, Bobby Labonte was just an awesome pusher and then I pulled down and it was like perfect timing," Trevor Bayne said.
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