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NASCAR PRESEASON THUNDER TESTINGJanuary 12, 2014Trevor BayneMATT HUMPHREY: We are joined now by Trevor Bayne, driver of the No.6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang for Roush‑Fenway Racing. Trevor, rolling into this race you've got such a special history here at the World Center of Racing. Can you talk about your preparation and your mindset as you come in here preparing for the DRIVE4COPD 500. TREVOR BAYNE: Well, it is a special place for me, obviously, and we always love coming back here, but you never know what's going to happen, so the only thing we can focus on here during Preseason Thunder is just getting all the speed out of that No.6 AdvoCare Mustang that we can during single‑car runs. Obviously single‑car runs aren't going to matter much when we come back because qualifying is going to be a group effort, and obviously in the race it's all about how you do in the draft. The only reason you see us out here doing single‑car runs is just working on speed things. You can see a bigger difference in your car when you're by yourself versus being in the pack because there's just so many other factors when you're doing that. It's been a really fun last four days for me. The first day obviously not when we sat inside and watched it rain all day, but I felt like the last couple days were really productive for us in the 21 Wood Brothers car and then also in the 6 car. Yesterday was fun getting out in the draft. That was the first time I was able to do that all week, and really learned a lot about these cars and what it's going to take to win this race. Obviously not being able to tandem draft, even though you have the ability to, your cars are capable of it, and you know that you can do that and go blowing by people. It's going to be hard to hold yourself back from that and know that you're not allowed to. I think this is one of the first times I can remember a restriction on the drivers versus the cars, other than the double yellow lines, and that's something we'll get used to, and we'll just figure out how to do it another way. Q. You're almost a veteran at this point. The Daytona 500 was 2011. What is a good year for Trevor Bayne in 2014 and what's a great year? TREVOR BAYNE: Man, it is weird being almost the old guy in the series now. You see a lot of new faces coming through and a lot of guys getting opportunities in Cup and it's exciting for them. We're definitely ready for that opportunity, but we're also going to make the most of the fun that we have now. To have AdvoCare on board full‑time this year, I think that's probably the most special thing for me, to know that I have one sponsor all year that I can take care of and grow with. It's a great company that I've used their products for a long time with the triathlon training and stuff like that, so it goes right over to my lifestyle. But for the race season, a successful year is obviously a championship‑contending season. We wanted that last year and a couple things took us out of it. A couple of them were parts failures, a couple of them were driver failures and making bad decisions on the racetrack, and those are things we have to eliminate. The last half of last season we gained almost more points than anybody. I think Austin Dillon was the only car that gained more points than us, and that was good to see, but this year we need to be the guy that gains the most throughout the whole season and don't get that big deficit off the start. Daytona kind of got us off on the wrong foot last year; coming out of here, past 30th, we had a rear gear break running second. So those little parts failures and attention to detail, and then like I said for me, I have to pay attention every single time from having a mediocre day, I can't make that a bad day. I think back to Darlington last year where I got in an incident with a lap car running 10th, so I was going to finish 20th and I wasn't real happy about that, so I tried to make it 15th, so I finished 30th. You can't dig a hole for yourself, and I think I learned a lot about that last season, and that's what's going to help us be a championship contender this year. Q. We are talking to Kyle Larson a little bit and he said that the cars were having difficult sucking up to one another, and maybe that's not been a problem for you in your car‑‑ TREVOR BAYNE: Sorry, Kyle. Q. Obviously not. How much has the dynamic changed with the changes that have been made to the car? TREVOR BAYNE: Well, I can't see a huge difference in the cars as far as rule configurations and the different rear spring packages and all that stuff. I think these cars are probably the most fun to drive out of all the series that I've been in. Obviously I've never run a truck, but with the Cup cars versus this and even watching the ARCA races, Ive never been in that, but I feel like these are the most racy cars, so that's one benefit of them not changing all the rules to where we couldn't push. That restriction that they put on us, we still have racy cars that are capable of it, like I said before. So you can pull up and bump each other and move around if you need to. Yesterday during the draft I think there were only eight cars out there and I was still able to get to people's bumper. The biggest difference is if there's somebody behind you or not. If you're by yourself or it's three cars in a line, it is hard to get to somebody's bumper, but that's not how the race is going to be. There's going to be 20 cars in one big pack out there, similar to the Cup cars, and in the middle you've just got to be careful of that accordion effect because it closes really fast when you're 5th to 10th place and you have a couple cars behind you. That's something we'll have to pay attention to. Obviously you have to be careful not to lock onto somebody and stay connected because that's what's going to get us black flagged. So you have to be strategic in how you're going to bump people or get them to roll faster without connecting to them, and that's just the new game that we have to learn, kind of like 2011 when we tame here and had to figure out how to tandem. New style of racing, but the cars are still capable and very racy, so I'm looking forward to it. Q. I just wanted you to elaborate a little bit on the tandem drafting. That's been very successful for Trevor Bayne, especially with the Daytona 500 win. But now that NASCAR is trying to prohibit it, can you talk a little bit about that and your mindset, and are you sad that it's going away or how do you go into Speedweeks knowing that tandem racing isn't allowed? TREVOR BAYNE: Well, and that's why I gave you a hard time about it. It worked pretty good for me. I think it's going to be different, like I said. But whoever figures it out the best is going to win, other than the people that get crashed out, because we know that's going to be a factor. You're going to have crazy races, whether you're tandem drafting, whether you're in a huge pack, whether you're just barely bumping each other. There's still going to be situations that are going to cause pile‑ups and everything else. Obviously as a driver you try to keep yourself out of those situations. I love tandem drafting because I had more of a control of where I was at. I could keep myself out of trouble more, lay back, go to the front. When you wanted to pass, you could hook up to somebody and take off. With this form of racing you're going to have to be more strategic throughout the whole race. I don't think you can wait until five laps to go and hook up to somebody and go barreling to the front. I think you're going to have to more or less do what Jimmie Johnson did here in the 500, get to the front and do everything to play defense that you can to keep that track position and keep yourself in a position where if there's a green‑white‑checkered, you're in those first couple rows because I think that's what it's going to come down to. Q. How did having a new crew chief affect you last year, and how will it be different this year? TREVOR BAYNE: Well, it was a great opportunity to work with Mike Kelley. I mean, he's a class‑act crew chief and really talented. So I'm excited for him to have an opportunity in Cup. Obviously you hate to lose somebody of that caliber, but for Chad Norris to step in, I'm gaining somebody, again. So Chad and I have had a lot of success together. 2011 he came in halfway through the year. We finished off the season with a win at Texas, and then at the beginning of 2012 we ran about the first four races together and I believe we were only four or five points out of the lead when we ran out of funds. So I know Chad can do it, and I'm really happy with the guys I have going forward this year. I think our team is probably the most set it's ever been going into a season as far as funding, sponsorship, having our pit boxes and haulers already ready to go. It seems like normally Daytona sneaks up on you and you aren't completely prepared with your guys and cars and equipment and all that. But I feel like this season we're the most prepared we've ever been for February to come around. Q. As far as you mentioned the young guys coming in, as far as the learning curves that you've hurdled in NASCAR, what would you share with those young guys, the ones that really stick out in your mind that would help them most? TREVOR BAYNE:  Yeah, so I've kind of been an open book towards my teammates especially, to Chris and Ryan. I remember when I came in and I'd try to ask for help and people were all secretive. It wasn't fun trying to learn on your own, so I try to help out as much as I can, but I don't know how much help I am. They're smart guys and pretty successful race car drivers. Chris Buescher has been a great teammate, super humble kid that when he gets behind the wheel he's got the talent. Last year on the mile‑and‑a‑halfs I think he really surprised a lot of us with the ability that he had. And then Ryan Reed, when he came to Richmond, his short track abilities, he was really strong, so they've both got their strong suits as far as my teammates, and I'm looking forward to seeing them grow. As far as other guys, even Ty Dillon in the Nationwide Series now and Dylan (Kwasniewski) ‑‑ I don't know how to say his last name, you can say it again for me, but I'll butcher it, so I know the gist of it. But anyways, seeing him out there in the 31 car, it seems like he's doing a great job. Chase Elliott, he seems really young but he's doing an awesome job, also. I'm excited for these guys to develop and get better. I think the competition level is going to be just as tough as it was even though it's new kids, what Kyle Larson did last year was really cool to see him battling for wins and running well in the points. I think that's going to be a trend. I think the youth movement is coming as strong as ever, and I think there's new opportunities because the guys have moved on to Cup. I think I saw four or five, six guys in Cup cars at the test here on Friday that I wasn't‑‑ I didn't really know they had Cup rides, so that's exciting to see that for them and then that creates opportunities for younger drivers to move up to Nationwide. Q. Do you have a sense now of how many races you're going to be doing with the Wood Brothers on the Sprint Cup side of things, and what's your outlook with the 21 team? TREVOR BAYNE: Yeah, so I think our season will look pretty much like it did last year at this point. About 12 races are funded with Motorcraft and Quick Lane, which has been a great sponsor for us. But they're always looking for more funding. I don't think they have the capacity of employees and things like that, cars to run a full season. But we would run as many races as we could, and if a full sponsor came along I'm sure we'd figure it out. Obviously 18 to 20 races would be our perfect scenario for this season, and we'll just see what we can do from there. Q. Can you talk about AdvoCare and what it's like to be partnered with them? Obviously they've been around in the Nationwide Series for a long time. You said it fits your mojo. Have you done anything with them or do you have anything good that's planned and what are you looking forward to about the partnership? TREVOR BAYNE: It's been fun to work with them. The best thing about having one sponsor for a full season is that you can build relationships. You can do a lot of things together versus being spread thin over six different sponsors. Some of the cool things we've got coming up, I'm going to Houston here in a couple days and then going back to Dallas. They've got a lot of presence in the Cowboys Stadium. I know we talked about doing some things there with their success school. The good part for me is that it's a brand I believe in. I think it's really cool, their business structure, how they help other people get income through their distributorship program, and then the product. I actually have Spark and Rehydrate in here versus just water in a red bottle like a lot of people do. I really use their product, and that's cool for me. The other cool thing is that their slogan last year was "we build champions," and Austin Dillon won the championship, so I'm hoping they can build a second champion here and we can live up to that. It's just a great company with great people. The car looks awesome. I can't say enough about it and how exciting it is to have them on board. Q. Do you feel like despite this young gun movement coming in that it'll be easier for them because the attention is kind of spread out? You were so in the spotlight because you were like the only youngster at the time when you kind of jumped out onto the scene. TREVOR BAYNE: Yeah, I kind of see that both ways. I think it was a blessing for me because I did get some attention through that, and that created a lot of opportunity. I was kind of the only guy coming through at that point other than Justin Allgaier and Ricky Stenhouse and I think Colin Braun was around at the time. So there were just a few of us, and that was a good thing because I think it got me an opportunity at Roush‑Fenway. There weren't six other guys trying to get into the sport, and I would say I was one of the last few to get a ride without funding. Besides Gary Bechtel coming in to help own the team, I didn't have a huge sponsor behind me. I was really blessed in that aspect of it. But now it might be easier for their learning curve. The competition might be a little bit different, and there's going to be other guys going through that, so when they do have mistakes the spotlight won't be as bad as that. Like I said, I think that can go either way, but just to have an opportunity in the Nationwide Series, you can't go wrong with that, whether it's then or now, and like I said before, I'm looking forward to seeing how those guys develop. Q. Can you talk about as a young racer and you see Chase out there and racing and practicing and testing with his father, does that make you a little envious that he gets that opportunity? TREVOR BAYNE: It's cool, that's for sure. Obviously my dad was a huge part of my life for a long time and helped me in racing, and you walk around the garage and you see Mike Dillon with Ty talking to him and you see Bill Elliott with Chase and then even you see Rusty Wallace get in a car yesterday. There's a lot of guys that are still around that have been around the sport for a long time, and some of them have sons that have been successful in racing. Chase has got a great opportunity there with NAPA and with JR Motorsports, and it's really cool to see Bill out here again driving around in race cars, whether he's helping Chase or not. I think it's cool to have him back in a car. But it is neat to watch those guys working together. I watched the replay of the practice yesterday on TV, and it was neat because you could see him teaching him. You could see him pushing him a little bit and side drafting and then they'd come in and talk about it. You know there's no hidden agenda there with Bill when he's working with Chase. You would hope for that in any teammate. But it's definitely something cool to watch. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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