Trevor Bayne astonished the sports world—and himself—on Feb. 20, 2011, when just one day after his 20th birthday and during only his second Sprint Cup start, he won the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most prestigious race.

Today, the defending champion is preparing for the 2012 running of the Great American Race scheduled for Feb. 26 at Daytona International Speedway. American Profile recently caught up with Bayne, who became the youngest Daytona 500 champion in history while driving for legendary Wood Brothers Racing, NASCAR’s oldest continually operating team. He reflected on winning the Super Bowl of NASCAR, his plans for the future, and the illness that temporarily stalled his meteoric rise. - Full Story by M.B. Roberts @ American Profile

NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Glen Wood receives his jacket during the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Charlotte Convention Center on January 20, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images for NASCAR)

2012 NASCAR HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY:

GLEN WOOD

MIKE JOY:  When you consider that the Glen Wood Company was a single car team and for many seasons ran a partial schedule of most of the Cup races, 98 premier series victories over seven decades, well, those are the numbers.  Behind the man that founded an organization that through three generations has done so much to define NASCAR as a family sport.

I think half of Patrick County is here tonight to honor the pride of Stuart, Virginia, Glen Wood.

LEONARD WOOD:  Good evening, everyone.  I’d just like to – what a night this is.  I mean, we’ve got like must be half of Patrick County here.  I would just like to say, this is one awesome Hall of Fame.  They’ve done such a great job of recognizing all the competitors, and there’s so much to be seen in this place that it’s well worth the tour.  I’d like to congratulate all the inductees.  All very deserving.

I was highly honored when Glen asked me to induct him into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and I told him I’d be more than happy to do so.  Glen has always been my big brother, and he still is.  Glen started racing 61 years ago.  Glen and his partner, Chris Williams and I, were riding down the road.  Chris says, what we’ve got to do is get some fame, and I’ll have to say, this is as good as it gets.

Glen and I worked really well together.  We believed in each other, and we was at Bowman Gray practicing, and when he was on the racetrack his brakes would go to the floor.  He’d come in the pits, and he’d say, I know you think I’m lying to you, but when he come in the pits he had full pedal, and I said, no, Glen, I know you’re not lying to me.

So the problem was the exhaust was blowing back on the master ceiling heating the fluid.  So we just take the exhaust completely off, he goes out and wins the race.  And I’ve got to tell you, nobody was better at Bowman Gray than Mr. Glen.

He had great success at Daytona Beach, he went down there three years in a row, he sat on the pole, won his class.  In ’58 he sat on the pole and beat the record with 12 miles an hour, beat all the modified, finished first, and then third overall.  And then also in ’59 he sat on pole at the new track in a convertible race.

And of course I know you guys have already figured it out that Glen and I both talk slow.  We went to Indianapolis, picked Jim Clark.  We just learned recently that when they heard us talk, they were talking to theirself, I sure hope they can pit faster than they’re talking.

Glen has been supporting this sport for a long, long time.  They were having races on the beach back in 1947 before NASCAR was formed, and he’s been to Daytona every year since.  Not only did Glen win 96 races as a driver, but he provided the opportunity for a lot of young drivers to win their first race.  75 drivers have driven for the Wood Brothers, 20 of which were the NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers.  The Wood Brothers feel extremely honored to have all those drivers driving for us, and I would like to point out there’s a lot of former Wood Brothers drivers here tonight, and it’s certainly a pleasure to see them.  I would like to have time to tell a story on one or two of them, but as slow as I talk, we’d be here all night.

Glen was always fair, honest, gave good advice, needed no more than a handshake.  Glen was a great race car driver, great businessman, proud of his family Eddie, Len, daughter Kim, his wife Bernice, and Glen was so proud of Eddie, Len and Kim for winning this past Daytona 500.

And speaking of this Daytona 500, Richard Petty, I would like to thank you for walking my brother Glen to the winner’s circle, one of the most celebrated winner’s circles ever.  And now on behalf of Eddie, Len, Kim, Bernice, the entire Wood Brothers race team and myself, it is now my honor on this, the 20th day of January, 2012, to present the Hall of Fame inductee ring and thus officially inducting one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers, my big brother, Glen Wood.

GLEN WOOD:  This is a long way from the cornfield.  Thank you, Leonard.  First of all, I’d like to thank the voters that voted for me and thank NASCAR and the France family and the Wood Brothers, all the employees at the Wood Brothers and crew members and drivers.  We’ve had so many great drivers, but David and Cale were most successful, so I’m proud to join them in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  And 17 other drivers have won races in Wood Brothers cars, starting with Speedy Thompson, Joe Weatherly, Tiny Lund, Marvin Panch.  I think he’s here, Dan Gurney, Curtis Turner, Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt, Donnie Allison, Neil Bonnett, Buddy Baker, Kyle Petty, Dale Jarrett, Morgan Shepherd, Michael Waltrip, Elliott Sadler and Trevor Bayne, who won the last Daytona 500.  There’s others who have driven our car, too, Jim Massey, Junior Johnson, Fred Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, Boris Said, Marcos Ambrose and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.  So you see why I had to read that.

And many thanks to Holman-Moody, who has helped me a lot in the old days and all their employees, especially engine builder Tommy Turner and Howard Dehart, and thanks to Jack Roush for his support over the years.

And we couldn’t have done this without sponsors over the years.  Purolator with Paul Cameron and Citgo with Larry Britton, and I think he’s here tonight.  And our current sponsors, Ford Motor Company, Motorcraft and Quick Lane.

I would like to acknowledge some of the old guys at Ford in the 1960s, Charlie Gray, Don Worman, Jack Pasinow, Mose Nolan, Don Sutherland and Peter DePaulo.  And a special thanks to the current leaders at Ford Motor Company, Alan Mullaly, Mark Fields Jim Farlane, Edsel Ford, Jamie Allison and the rest of the Ford racing staff.

Ford gave me a chance in 1956 when they asked me to be a part of the Ford racing team, which has led to this induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and I’m proud to have been with Ford Motor Company for the last 60 years.  We started racing in 1950, and I’d like to thank all my friends and fans from the past 60 some years, and especially from Patrick County.

A special thanks to all my brothers, Ray Lee, Clay and Delano and Leonard and my sister Crystal.  I’ve said it before, had it not been for Leonard and Ford Motor Company, I wouldn’t have been here today.  And to my family, Bernice, Eddie, Len and Kim, and Carol, Nancy and Terry and to my grandchildren John, Kevin and Jordan.

I would like to thank Quinn Collins for use of the biography the other day for all his hard work, and I’d like to thank the guest speakers who had such good words to say about me.  And to all the NASCAR Hall of Fame staff here, too.  They’ve been pampering me like I’ve never been before.

Now, this is not just about me being inducted in the Hall of Fame.  It’s also about the Wood Brothers.  And it’s about NASCAR.  And I’m proud to have been a NASCAR driver and car owner for the past 60 years, and I’m proud of this great honor, and this is about two families, the Wood family and the Ford family working together, which has resulted in me being here tonight.  Thank you.

Source: NASCAR, Press Release

Glen Wood - “The Woodchopper”

Before Wood was a racer, he was a sawmiller. Sawmilling in the 1940s was physically demanding, required long hours and mechanical ability, and involved both physical and financial risks. In other words, it was a lot like running a NASCAR race team. And Wood was good at it.

His first sawmill experience came as a teenager, when he hired on to a crew and was assigned the job of carrying the slabs away from the mill.

In a typical portable sawmill of Wood’s era, the person running the saw, the sawyer, operated the levers and determined what kinds of boards would be cut from a log. One person stood to his right and helped roll the logs onto the rolling carriage that carried the logs down the track where the spinning blade sliced off a section at a time.

The sawyer and helper rotate the logs as the round bark edges, or slabs, were sawed off, leaving a square beam that would then be sliced into lumber. On the other side of the large circular blade would be one person who would “off bear” or remove the freshly sawn board.

Another would dispose of the slabs, and still another would operate the edger, a separate device consisting of multiple blades that cut the edges off wide boards, many of which still had bark on the sides.

In a modern sawmill, hydraulic lifts move the logs around. In Wood’s day, it was done by hand, with a tool called a “cant hook.” Cant hooks have heavy wooden handles, with a swinging spike at the end. The spike is hooked into the log before turning, but it will easily come loose once the log is turned.

Still, great strength is required to roll over a log weighing several hundred pounds.

“It was a hard job, especially to turn a big log,” Wood recalled. “How I was big enough to do it, I still don’t know. But I got pretty good at it.

“The sawyer, Will Hopkins, would sometimes help me turn it. Sometimes the logs were big enough that both of us could hardly turn them over.”

Wood went from turning logs to hauling lumber after it was sawn.

“I had an old cab-over-engine truck,” he said. “It was a very awkward truck to drive into the woods to get the lumber.”

He eventually swapped it for a conventional – and more powerful – truck, and continued on with his hauling business until he and his eventual racing partner Chris Williams went into the sawmill business.

“We bought the mill and had different people sawing for us,” he said. “One morning we went out to saw, and the sawyer didn’t show up.

“I decided: ‘I’ll just see if I can do this.’ I’d been turning logs and running the edger, so I knew enough about it, I thought, even though I’d never attempted to do any sawing.

“I was cautious to begin with, but before long I was sawing as good as anybody we’d been hiring.”

On good days, Wood could saw between 8,000 and 10,000 board feet. (A board foot is the equivalent of a 1-by-12 inch board one foot long.) Production depends largely on the size and quality of the log, the skill of the sawyer and the horsepower at his disposal.

Eventually he and Williams sold their mill and Wood went to work sawing for Williams’ brother.

By then he was also driving race cars, which made for many a long day and night. He’d be in the woods by daylight to start sawing, then go straight from the woods to a race track and drive a race car that night.

“Somebody would bring the car by where I was working, and pick me up and go on to the track where we were racing,” Wood said.

Among the many items in the Wood Brothers Museum in Stuart, Va., is an old cant hook, which says as much about Wood and his team’s work ethic as any other piece there.

The Woodchopper himself is there most days too, and even at age 86, he’s still strong enough to turn a good sized log if he needed to.

Source: Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

Glen Wood NASCAR Hall of Famer

Petty:  “

Trevor Bayne’s breakthrough win in last year’s Daytona 500 was one of the most popular NASCAR victories in recent memory, due in part to the youngster’s charisma and likeability, but also because he put the esteemed Wood Brothers Racing back in Victory Lane for the first time since 2001.

Glen Wood has been a fixture in the NASCAR garage for seven decades, both as a driver and an owner.  The Stuart, Va.-native and his brothers built the No. 21 into one of NASCAR’s most legendary rides, propelled by deep-rooted ethics and values, and the industry rewarded Glen Wood’s innumerable contributions with a place in the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame.

SPEED reflects on Wood’s career in a one-hour biography special premiering Friday, Jan. 13 at 8 p.m. ET.  The NASCAR Media Group-produced special incorporates unique roundtable discussions with Wood’s family and never-before-seen photos and videos.  Wood will be inducted into the third class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Jan. 20 (airs on SPEED Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. ET) alongside Cale Yarborough, Dale Inman, Darrell Waltrip and the late Richie Evans.

Wood Brothers Racing, NASCAR’s oldest active team, dates to 1950 and boasts a roster of drivers that reads like a who’s who of NASCAR, including David Pearson, Curtis Turner, Marvin Panch, Fireball Roberts, Dan Gurney, Tiny Lund, Parnelli Jones, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Fred Lorenzen and Bill Elliott, among others.  The organization also won the 1965 Indianapolis 500 with Jim Clark.

The Wood Brothers are a cornerstone of NASCAR history, but more importantly, they are known and respected as much for their affability and ethics as for their mechanical prowess.  Renowned for running their business like one big family, the Wood Brothers invoke a sense of kinship among their employees that transcends a birth certificate.

“I grew up in racing in a family organization and after driving for the Wood Brothers, I can tell you I saw first-hand what a tight family organization they truly are,” said Kyle Petty, former driver and now a SPEED analyst.  “When you drove for them, you became part of their family.  All the way from Curtis Turner to David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Dale Jarrett, Michael Waltrip and me, the guys who drove for them in the later years, you truly felt a part of their family.  They never treated you like a driver or an employee.  You didn’t work for them; you worked with them. I think that policy came from Glen and from growing up in that area where everybody helped everybody, neighbor helped neighbor and family helped family.”

While some made their mark on the sport in a boisterous and flashy manner, Wood etched his legacy into the sport in an unassuming and humble manner.

“(David) Pearson was the perfect driver for them because he went about winning races in a quiet way and they went about everything they did in a quiet manner,” Petty stated.  “That personifies Glen – a quiet man who went about doing his job the best he could.  Probably the biggest thing I learned from him is that you can be successful without being flamboyant and hogging the spotlight all the time.” 

Before Wood became a successful owner, he laid the foundation for the Wood Brothers as its first driver, running a limited schedule on a fairly regular basis, mostly at tracks close to home. Wood competed in 62 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races between 1953 and 1964, and found Victory Lane four times. He posted his best season in 1960, during which he won three races and scored six top-five and seven top-10 finishes in just nine starts.

“I think Glen’s driving career contributed greatly to his success and leadership as an owner,” Petty said.  “Glen understood that the driver couldn’t carry the car all the time and if the car wasn’t right, the driver couldn’t win.  So, he’d give his driver the best equipment he could and he’d also get the best driver he could.”

Not only did the Wood Brothers win races, 98 to-date, they revolutionized the pit stop for generations to come.

“I don’t think guys on pit road today understand the way things used to be,” Petty stated.  “The Wood Brothers were the first to recognize the importance of the pit stop.  They realized that the shorter amount of time they spent on pit road, the better off they’d be on the race track.  Picking up positions is easier on pit road.  It’s a timed event.  It’s not about how fast you run on the track sometimes, but rather how fast you can be on and off pit road.

“Look back at some of their early pit stops from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s — the way they’d spin around and rotate around the car was like watching a ballet,” Petty continued.  “Their pit stops looked almost choreographed.  While most teams just went out there and executed stops as fast as they could, the Wood Brothers had a plan.  Today’s pit crew coaches still use that same play sheet.  Those guys were so far ahead of the rest of the sport and everybody else played catch-up for years.”

About SPEED™

SPEED, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in nearly 84 million homes in North America, SPEED, a member of the FOX Sports Media Group, is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services, including SPEED2, a groundbreaking new broadband network featuring live, streaming and on-demand events complementing offerings of the linear network. For more information, please visit SPEED.com, the online motor sports authority.

About FOX Sports Media Group

FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) is the umbrella entity representing News Corporation’s wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets under Chairman & CEO David Hill.  Built with brands that are capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, FSMG includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships.  FSMG now includes FOX Sports, the sports television arm of the FOX Broadcasting Company; Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, their affiliated regional web sites and FSN national programming; SPEED and SPEED2; Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus; FUEL TV; and Fox College Sports.  In addition, FSMG also includes FOX Sports Interactive Media, which comprises FOXSports.com on MSN, whatifsports.comand scout.com, reaching nearly 30 million unique visitors monthly.  Also included are Fox’s interests in joint-venture businesses FOX Deportes, Big Ten Network and STATS, LLC, as well as licensing agreements that establish the FOX Sports Radio Network, FOX Sports Skybox restaurants and FOX Sports Grills.

Source: SPEED, Press Release

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Trevor Bayne

Bayne, who delivered the Woods their fifth Daytona 500 triumph in just his second start in the No. 21 Ford Fusion, said he’s pleased to be putting any off-season uncertainty behind him.

“I’m excited,” he said. “It’s a big deal for me. It’s what I had hoped for. We’re all excited to be back together.”

Team co-owner Eddie Wood said he too is pleased to have Bayne back behind the wheel of his family’s race car.

“It’s taken a long time to get to this announcement, but it’s good to be back together,” Wood said.

“We all wanted to do what was best for Ford Motor Company and its young drivers, and to be sure everybody had a place to race.”

For Bayne, one of the younger drivers in the Sprint Cup Series, driving for the sport’s longest running team is something he appreciates even more as time goes by.

He was made even more aware of the team’s history and heritage – and its long-standing relationship with Ford Motor Company – when he watched a video on the team’s history at the company Christmas party.

“There’s no question at all that since the beginning, the Woods and Ford were going to stick with each other,” he said. “The Woods are such a great racing family, and it’s amazing that they’re the only one of the original teams that has survived since the beginning.”

But the Woods and Bayne aren’t just interested in celebrating the past. Beginning next week, they’ll be back at Daytona International Speedway for Preseason Thunder testing and trying to figure a way to adapt to a new rules package and defend their 500 victory.

“It’s going to be very different at Daytona,” Bayne said, referring to a rule change that will block off air to the car’s radiator and thereby limit the two-car tandem racing that Bayne so quickly adapted to. “It’ll be like starting all over again, but that’s OK.

“We’ll just go try to do it again.”

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

Trevor Bayne and the No. 21 crew celebrates winning the 53rd Daytona 500 in the infield at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. - Photo Credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images

But Eddie Wood, co-owner of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion driven by Trevor Bayne, isn’t among those awaiting the end of the 2011 campaign. He’d just as soon see the good times continue to roll.

The 2011 season has seen his family team return to its winning ways in grand fashion, with a victory in the Daytona 500. His father and team founder Glen Wood has been elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and the No. 21 Motorcraft/ Quick Lane Ford Fusion has been consistently fast throughout the season. Despite being out of the top 35 in car owner points for much of the season and therefore not assured of starting spots for races, the Woods have qualified for all 17 races the team has entered.

The Woods’ popular Daytona 500 victory came in Bayne’s second career Sprint Cup start and was the fifth for the team, the first coming in 1963 with Tiny Lund driving. It also was the 98th for the 61-year-old team, which got its first Cup triumph at Bowman Gray Stadium on April 18, 1960, with Glen Wood driving a 1958 Ford. He went on to win two more Cup races that season at the Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., then put Speedy Thompson behind the wheel for the 400 miler at Charlotte Motor Speedway, where Thompson gave the Woods their first superspeedway victory.

The Woods spent much of this season using special paint schemes to honor both Glen Wood and the team’s most successful driver, David Pearson, in the year he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

“I’m kind of not looking forward to the season being over,” Eddie Wood said. “It’s been such a good year, with winning the 500, running really well every time out, and Daddy getting inducted into the Hall of Fame.

“It’s more than you can ask for in a single year.”

Wood is anxious to get to Homestead, but for a different reason. The Sprint Cup championship is coming down to a classic battle, and he’s proud that Bayne and his Donnie Wingo-led crew, get to be a part of it all.

“The Ford Championship weekend is coming down to Carl Edwards versus Tony Stewart, and Ford versus Chevy,” he said. “That’s what NASCAR is all about, and that’s the way it should be.

“It’s exciting to be a part of that race.”

Qualifying for the Ford 400 is set for Saturday at 2:40 p.m., and the race is scheduled to begin just after 3 p.m. on Sunday with TV coverage on ESPN.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

Trevor Bayne - Wood Bros. Racing

But one disappointing run late in the race robbed him of a chance to finish among the leaders in the AAA Texas 500.

Bayne started 13th but fell a lap down during a long stretch of green-flag racing. He eventually raced his way into the “Lucky Dog” spot as the first driver one lap down, then when Jimmie Johnson spun on Lap 241, Bayne was able to rejoin the lead lap.

Twenty laps later he lined up 14th for a restart and was ready to move on up when he went backwards instead. He suspected that oil from the blown engine on Joey Logano’s No. 20 Toyota could have been to blame.

“I don’t know if we got his oil on our tires or just garbage or something was wrong, but that run we were 14th, and I thought we were going to be able to drive to the top 10 because our car was strong,” he said. “But it was just slipping and sliding, and it drove like a different animal and I fell back to twenty-something.”
A change of tires fixed whatever was wrong, and Bayne was back on the charge. “At the end we had a good car again, and I was able to rally back to 17th.”

Team co-owner Eddie Wood said he was pleased with the team’s performance at Texas and proud of Bayne’s break-through Nationwide win, which came in a Roush Fenway Racing Mustang.

“We had a fast car most of the day; it just didn’t work out for us in the middle of the race.” Wood said. “And we’re very happy that Trevor won on Saturday. He’s been trying so hard to win one of those races.”

Bayne and his Wood Brothers team will close out a historic season that has seen the team win its fifth Daytona 500 and team founder Glen Wood elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame with the running of the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

CARL EDWARDS – No. 99 Aflac Ford Fusion – WHAT DID YOU SAY TO TONY WHEN HE DROVE BY.

WHERE DID YOU COME UP SHORT TODAY? “I think Tony said it there. On that last restart, I think if I could have stayed in front of him, I’d have been able to get him. The restart before that he spun his tires and I felt really good about that one, and he timed it just right on that last restart and hung on my door. I give those guys credit, they’ve done a good job, but now we get to kind of pull out all the stops here. Our Aflac team, we’ve been hanging on. We’re leading these points. We get to pull out all the stops for these last two races and there couldn’t be a better place to finish it than Homestead. I think folks ought to stay tuned. It’s gonna get pretty exciting and I’m just glad Tony and I are out there and we can race for this thing.”

GREG BIFFLE – No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – “We had a pretty good car. I got the car off a little bit on Saturday, I have to admit. I probably didn’t have the right front swaybar in it, a few other things. The car was just real twitchy and hard to drive. I couldn’t drive it at all when the sun was out. When it cooled down and got dark, my car really took off. The last pit stop of the day when you’re trying to make up, that extra little inch made me slid through the box and that probably cost me a third-place finish or a couple of spots anyway. We fought hard and came back and that’s what a championship team is made of – not giving up and fighting back.”

MATT KENSETH – No. 17 Crown Royal Ford Fusion – “It’s hard to be disappointed when you run in the top five. I was a little disappointed in our performance. We just dropped the green and we weren’t really that great. We led some in the beginning having the track position and clean air. We kept fighting it, but we just could never get enough rear grip in it off the corner all day and really kind of struggled. So I’m happy to get a top five. I wish we could have performed a little bit better, but that’s all we had. We had great pit stops. Jimmy made great adjustments. I thought we did everything we could possibly do, but we just weren’t fast enough.”

ROUSH FENWAY WAS STRONG TODAY. “This has always been a pretty good track for the organization. You always want to win. It’s fun to be disappointed to be fourth, but all of our stuff seemed to run okay.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER – No. 43 Best Buy Ford Fusion – “That was probably the most comfortable I’ve ever felt on a mile-and-a-half, especially one like this. It was fun. From the start we were just passing cars and making good adjustments. The track was tough because the sun would keep popping out and the track would change a lot, but, overall, I felt like it was definitely the best I’ve ever felt in a car around one of these places. We just got a bad break there on the two tires. We didn’t need that extra caution. I got back into sixth on the restart and we were good, and then the yellow came out and we went backwards after that. It was a good fight to get back to 10th, but, overall and more importantly, that’s something to build on.”

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – “We had to battle there all day long. We missed it to start the race because the track freed up a lot, but we didn’t really expect it to be that much freer. We knew it would free up a little bit, but we just didn’t adjust enough. And then every time we would make a change the track would change more and we never got ahead of it until the very end. Once it started cooling back off our car was really fast. We had one bad run after the 20 car blew up. I don’t know if we got his oil on our tires or just garbage or something was wrong, but that run we were 14th and I thought we were gonna be able to drive to the top 10 because our car was strong, but it was just slipping and sliding and it drove like a different animal and I fell back to twenty-something. At the end we had a good car again and I was able to rally back to 17th.”

CARL EDWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE –

“I’m proud of our cars for turning what looked like was gonna be a bad night overall, or a disaster really in the points, to something that is real manageable and something we can move forward with. Obviously, we definitely wanted to beat Tony tonight and pad that lead a little bit, but at the end of the day we can walk out of here with our heads up. We’re still the points leaders and the third and fourth guys, I’m not sure how far back they are, but we had to open up a little bit of space on them, which is good. Man, we’re gonna hold Tony to it. They’re gonna have to run that well to beat us these next two races and I think, really, it’s gonna be a great battle. I’m really excited about it.”

WHAT CHANGES DID YOU MAKE THROUGHOUT THE DAY? “We struggled a little bit with the balance. The car was kind of all over the place and I was really proud of the guys for getting it tuned back in at the end. I think if we would have had one more stop, we could have made another adjustment and made it a little better, but I’m sure everybody could say the same thing. We never got it quite right and, like I said in here on Friday, we gave the best performance we could and we lost a little bit of ground, but it could have been a lot worse, so I’m really proud of my guys and, if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t do anything differently. That was a good, solid race for us.”

WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE AT PHOENIX? “I think that Phoenix is still a huge unknown. Tony was out there for that tire test with us and I got to see how good those guys were. I feel like we’re gonna be pretty good, and, really, I think the surprising thing for all of us today was how well Tony ran here. I didn’t expect him to run quite that well, so those guys did a really good job and it makes me think that Homestead could be a lot closer than I expected before this race. We’ll go to Homestead with the same package, the same ideas and, hopefully, have similar performance and it looks like Tony might be in the same boat. Their mile-and-a-half program is good, so we really think that next week at Phoenix has a larger opportunity by a landslide to change the outcome of this Chase. That one will be a very important race. If Tony and I go run one-two at Homestead, there’s not gonna be much of a points change if we run like we did tonight, but Phoenix has the potential to be huge.”

WILL YOU ENGAGE TONY VERBALLY? “I don’t plan on it. I go out and compete as hard as I can and it is fun to joke around a little bit, but, at the end of the day, any extra energy I spend thinking about other stuff or worrying about other things is not spent in the right place. I’m focusing on what I’m doing and it would be really fun to be standing up there the last one on stage at the banquet, and I might have a couple of jokes then. That would be a good time for them, but I learned early in life that you’ve got to be careful about throwing the jabs out there because somebody might get you.”

WHY WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH TONY’S EFFORT TODAY AND THEY HAVE GAINED POINTS ON YOU THREE STRAIGHT WEEKS. HOW DO YOU ADDRESS THAT WITH YOUR TEAM? “I think we’re very fortunate to have led the points for as long as we have this season. I think the guys, I know myself, have a certain comfort level with it. We’ve watched guys make runs at us and fall away, and make runs and fall away. At the end of the day, it truly doesn’t matter what the 14 team does or what Tony does or what anyone else does, all we can do is just go do the best that we can do. It might feel comfortable to them to be in the position they’re in, to be gaining points, but, truly, the past is history. We’ve got to go out and run these next two races and, yeah, I don’t underestimate them for a second. I know how good they are, but we’re gonna be good as well.”

WHAT SURPRISED YOU ABOUT THEM TODAY? “I was just surprised they were able to put together two weeks like that that were so good. That was really good work on their part and there’s nothing saying that will play into another solid two weeks after that, but it very well could, so we’re just gonna go home and work hard and put all our notes together from our test at Phoenix and do the best we can. But I figured from the way practice went and everything, I thought we would have a little bit more of an advantage, or I thought we’d have a little advantage tonight. They did all their jobs very well.”

HOW DO YOU THINK THE EXPERIENCE CHASING NNS TITLES THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS HAS AFFECTED WHAT YOU’RE GOING THROUGH NOW? “I forget about those things, but I guess you keep the lessons with you. I think, at least to this point, the story of our season and the story of this Chase for us has been just never quitting, never giving up. No matter how well someone runs, we’re always gonna be right there racing them every lap, racing them hard and I think having those championship battles in the Nationwide Series and a couple in the Cup Series lately, I think they’ve made us tougher in general and a little wiser. I guess the best way to sum it up is I feel more comfortable right now in this points battle than in any other points battle I can remember. I feel like we really only have to worry about one other guy. We still have the advantage in the points. I’ve raced Tony long enough. I feel comfortable with him. He’s not gonna surprise me with anything, and I’m grateful for all that experience. I hope I can turn that into a championship.”

DID FRIDAY NIGHT’S INCIDENT CALM THINGS DOWN TODAY WITH THE DRIVERS? “This track lends itself to clean racing. It’s so fast and it’s easy to drive a little bit sideways – you don’t lose control as quickly. It’s a fun race track. There might have been a little more restraint on the part of all the drivers just because of what happened. I can say for myself I didn’t really think about that much during the night tonight. I think Phoenix will be the test. Everybody is gonna be fighting for a place in line on the bottom and you’ll see a test of how big a message NASCAR got across there at Phoenix.”

WERE YOU AWARE AT BURTON’S FUEL SITUATION? “Yeah, I never cheered so hard for Jeff Burton in my life (laughter). If I could have loaned him some fuel I would have, but that’s what they had to do. I thought that was a good move. They had to do that. I’m sure Bob thought about doing that, but as early as he ran out I’m glad we didn’t. I think we did the right thing to stay out there. I’m really proud of Bob. I think, on a side note, he’s been a really good leader throughout this whole thing. He’s not letting me lose my head. He’s not flailed and tried for something crazy, and he’s a huge part, if not the most important part, of why we’re leading the points right now.”

DO YOU STILL THINK TONY WAS STILL ALL WORKED UP FROM WINNING THE RACE? “I think he was. I think he’s calmed down a little bit this week, but it didn’t slow him down any. I’ll have to maybe bring him some lunch over before Phoenix. Maybe that will help. I hope this roll doesn’t last much longer, otherwise this is gonna be really tough.”

WHAT DIDN’T GO RIGHT TODAY. THIS SOUNDS LIKE A PATTERN. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? “We haven’t had a dominant car since Dover. That’s been the last time we really had a dominant car. For us to finish the way we’ve been finishing without those dominant cars, I think, says a lot about our team. I’m still waiting. Once we get that dominant car again, I hope we can use it and make the most of it. Tonight, really, as frustrating as it is to see Tony go out there and win that race and close in on us, the biggest thing that I’m gonna go back and talk to my guys about and think about when I leave here is, ‘Hey, take a breath. We’re leading the points. We’re fighting hard, and two races is a long time. We can’t look in that mirror. We have to keep moving forward’ and hopefully all of these experiences of making the most out of something, hopefully we won’t have to do that the last two races. Hopefully, we’re just a little bit faster.”

IT LOOKS LIKE JIMMIE IS OUT OF IT. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO KNOW THERE WILL BE A DIFFERENT CHAMPION? “I still refuse to count anyone out. I think from what you saw go on this weekend with everything, including the Truck race and NASCAR making rulings, literally anything can happen in this sport, so until somebody is mathematically out of it, I can’t let myself count them out.”

WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE TIRES TODAY? “It kind of surprised me as loose as were at the beginning that Bob said we had a little problem with the right-front, so for a few runs there I was kind of babying the tires and just being real careful. I knew how much we had to lose if we had a tire failure, but I’m assuming it was something we did with the setup because I don’t think a lot of people had trouble with tires. Did anyone pop a tire or blow a tire? I imagine we were a little aggressive on something and we might have missed something there, but that’s not a good feeling after the first stop, ‘Hey, you’ve got to be easy on the right-front tire,’ because I felt like I already was being easy on the right-front tire.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

2010 NSCS Trevor Bayne with Wood Brothers Racing

That was the case a year ago when the Woods went to Texas Motor Speedway for the first time with Trevor Bayne as their driver and Donnie Wingo as crew chief.

It wasn’t exactly what they’d planned, but it worked out just fine, as the next time out, the new combination delivered one of NASCAR’s most popular wins as Bayne, in just his second Cup start, scored the team’s fifth Daytona 500 triumph.

Len Wood, co-owner of the team’s No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion, recalled that when the decision was made to run Bayne at Texas the Woods weren’t thinking as much about the future as they were simply trying to get to the next race after their crew chief suddenly quit.

“It was kind of a quick decision,” Wood said. “We moved to Roush cars and engines, and Trevor came with the package.”

Roush had intended to run Bayne at Texas, as the rookie driver needed to race on an intermediate track to be approved to run the 2011 Daytona 500. Wingo was to be his crew chief.

Then when the Woods approached Roush looking for a crew chief, he sent Wingo – and Bayne – over to the No. 21 shop.

“We needed help, and we agreed to run Trevor,” Wood said.

It was a risk though, as Bayne had never attempted to run a Cup race and the Woods weren’t among the top 35 in car owner points and therefore had to make the race on their qualifying speed.

The results turned out to be a pleasant surprise all around. Bayne qualified 28th, safely earning a starting spot. He had to start from the rear after the team changed the transmission between qualifying and the race, but once the green flag dropped it was pretty clear that the Woods had a lot more going for their future than they thought they did before they went to Texas.

“We had a really good run,” Wood said. “Trevor passed about 140 cars. It was a great day for us.”

According to NASCAR’s stats, only Kasey Kahne, who drove by 145 cars, passed more than Bayne, who led all drivers in passing differential as he was only passed 104 times, giving his a difference of 36, tops among the 43 starters in that race.

Then Bayne followed that up with a Daytona 500 victory the next time out.

“To start with we were just helping get Trevor approved for Daytona,” Wood said. “Little did we know we were working on more of our future than we thought.”

As Bayne, Wingo and the Woods return to Texas a year after their first race together, they’re coming off two strong runs – at Charlotte and Talladega – even though their finishing positions didn’t reflect the speed of their Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion. At Talladega, the car performed well all day, but Charlotte a problem with the fueling system robbed them of a chance at a really strong finish.

“We easily had a top-10 car at Charlotte,” Wood said. “I’d like to think we had a top-five car.”

It’s that same Fusion that the Woods are taking to Texas.

“We’ve got a really good engine again,” Wood said. “Hopefully we can go out there and get us a win.”

Qualifying for the AAA Texas 500 is set for 3:40 p.m. (4:40 Eastern Time) on Friday, with the race getting the green flag on Sunday just after 2 p.m. (3 p.m. Eastern) with TV coverage on ESPN.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

Trevor Bayne - Wood Bros. Racing

Bayne said that when it comes to qualifying on superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega, it’s the crew that deserves most of the credit.

“I think that shows how much work the 21 guys put into these cars,” he said. “They do a great job at the superspeedways, and the work shows up here. It is all about speed, and our car has it. I think it is a solid run for our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion.”

Now it’s on to Sunday’s race, where Bayne and his Donnie Wingo-led crew will have to come up with a plan to succeed in the two-car “tandem” racing that has become the norm at Daytona and Talladega.

“Hopefully we can keep it up there all day,” Bayne said. “Qualifying doesn’t really matter once the green flag drops with all the drafting that is going on. You will move around from the back to the front and back again. We will hang out and see who we hook up with.”

Bayne and Wingo say the logical plan would be to hook up with another driver from the Ford camp, but since that’s a group of seven and the Wood Brothers are a one-car team, they’re the odd man out when it comes to a drafting partner.

Wingo said the pre-race plan is for Bayne to try to initially hook up with someone who qualified close to the front, then go from there.

“We’ll see how it all shakes out,” Wingo said. “We’ll just see who’s available to draft with.”

Wingo said he’s not worried that Bayne didn’t participate in drafting practice on Friday as he and the team were concentrating on qualifying.

“Trevor was able to come here and run a full day during the [Electronic Fuel Injection] test,” he said. “He got back in his rhythm running with David Ragan.”

Team co-owner Eddie Wood said he’s not overly concerned that his team is heading into Sunday without a definite drafting plan, especially since his driver and team are this year’s Daytona 500 winners.

“I’m sure we’ll have one by the time the race is over,” he said.

The Good Sam Club 500 is set to get the green flag on Sunday just after 2 p.m. Eastern with TV coverage on ESPN.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

Ford Racing

David Gilliland, No. 34 World Hunger Relief Ford (Qualified 42nd)

TONY STEWART SAID THAT YOU GUYS AREN’T GOING TO BE ABLE TO HOOK UP LIKE YOU HAVE IN THE PAST. “Yeah, we aren’t. It is such a tight points battle right now and we are going to try to help the Ford guys out all we can. We are going to go that route. Our teammate Travis made the race and in the past he has had to do stuff to ensure he made the race and had to go behind the wall sometimes and change the oil and stuff like that. This time he is not doing anything like that so we can make a plan to work together and stick together. We are One Ford. That is the goal for this weekend. I feel good about it. Tony was great to work with those last couple of races and you never know what will happen. If you get down to the end and he is out of a partner and something happens to Travis, we are 100-percent comfortable working together, with each other. You never know what can happen on into the race. As far as our initial plan, it is to work with Ford.”

SO WILL YOU HELP IF CARL OR SOMEONE LIKE THAT NEEDS IT. WILL YOU HELP THE CHASE GUYS? “Yeah. I worked with Carl at Daytona and we worked really well together. He was really comfortable with us working together. We have kinda built a rapport with those guys. So much can change throughout this race as you guys know. When it gets down to the end, we are going to leave our options open.”

SO YOU CAN HELP SOMEBODY IN THE COURSE OF A RACE. YOU AREN’T BANNED FROM WORKING WITH ANYONE? “No, we aren’t banned. When you lay out your initial plans you have to think of the big picture and Ford does a lot for us and we would really like to see a Ford win this championship.”

DID THAT DIRECTIVE COME FROM FORD RACING? “You know, obviously they would like to see that. We are here to help them just like they help us if we can.”

Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Jeremiah Weed Ford (Qualified 11th)
“It drove good. I hope it drives good going that slow. Qualifying is pretty uneventful here for the driver. It seemed like our speed was reasonable and that should probably get us 15th or so hopefully.”

David Ragan, No. 6 UPS My Choice Ford (Qualified 8th)
“Our UPS Ford has some speed. Drew and the guys, this is all about them on qualifying days at Daytona and Talladega. Our job is to try not to go out and make a mistake. Our car was fast and drives real nice. The engine shop has been doing a good job, it has good power. I think we have a fast car and it will be in the top-10 for sure and have a good starting spot for Sunday.”

FOR THIS RACE THERE IS A RESTRICTOR PLATE CHANGE AND THE VENT FOR COOLING. HOW HAS THAT AFFECTED YOUR RUN HERE? “Zero. No affect. We will be able to push all day long and run like we have all year at these restrictor plate tracks.”

YOU HAVE BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL AT THE RESTRICTOR PLATE RACES THIS YEAR. WHY SHOULDN’T I BET THE FARM ON YOU FOR SUNDAY? “Because there are 42 other cars and the B factors come into effect. Anything can happen but we will have as good a shot to win as anyone this weekend. I guarantee we will lead some laps and we are going to be fast. We are going to have some fun but crazy things do happen. Mechanical problems do bite you sometimes but we will be fine. We’ve got good race cars, good teammates, good engines and it is a lot of fun here being at Talladega.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 Best Buy Ford (Qualified 24th)
“That was pretty much all skill by me right there. Actually no, we didn’t qualify very fast so that was all the car then. It was pretty stable. We got on the back straightaway there and there are a couple people partying pretty hard so that was pretty good. I was pretty impressed. I think they were left over from last night. I heard them last night as well. Other than that it was Talladega qualifying. The Best Buy Ford should start mid pack to start with and end up front. That’s the plan.”

WHAT’S THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THIS TO YOU? “Yesterday it seemed like all the stuff they did to make us not be able to push as long still didn’t help. NASCAR will figure out how to do something but the teams are so smart now that they figure out a way to still make it better. I think it is honestly how long you can run in a tandem group and whether we will do that all race or all pack up for awhile and then get with our partners and try to race at the end. We will see.”

WOULD THERE EVER BE A SCENARIO WHERE A MANUFACTURER WOULD SAY YOU AREN’T ALLOWED TO PUSH ANOTHER MANUFACTURER? “I haven’t been told that yet. Maybe I will be told that after this now. Maybe they forgot to get to me. I could easily see that though. The biggest thing is that first off, I want to win the race for myself, Best Buy and Richard Petty Motorsports. Secondly we want to get one of these Fords to win the championship and Matt and Carl are right there for it. Anything we can do to help them is what is always going to be our focus.”

Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley Ford (Qualified 19th)
“Me and Todd Parrott have been through a lot together. I have a lot to thank him for. He has been a great crew chief for me and we get on well. We’ve had a really good month with three top-10s in row and that run will put us somewhere around 15th here. We are close to AJ, our teammate, so we should be able to find each other pretty quick on Sunday and get to the front.”

YOU HAVE ‘NO BRAKES’ WRITTEN ON YOUR HAND, WHAT’S THAT ABOUT? “That is just a cue for me when I jump in the car I always tend to test the brake pedal and here that will push the pads back. I didn’t want to be that guy that pumped the pedal and forget about it. It is just my mental cue before I put my gloves on to make sure I don’t touch the brake. This stuff here is unique. The car has all this stuff in it to make it run fast and produce drag.”

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST THOUGHT ABOUT THE WEEKEND’S RACE? WHAT IS STILL ON YOUR MIND? “I just want to get to the finish. It is one of these deals here where I have had trouble finishing lately being caught up in weird accidents. Our goal here is to be in contention coming to the checkered flag and hopefully put ourselves in good position.”

DO YOU SEE A SCENARIO WHERE YOU WOULD PUSH A CHEVY? “If it is Kevin Harvick then there is no chance. We are trying to help as best we can our Ford drivers win the championship. Carl and Matt Kenseth have had a great year so far and I don’t want to get in the way of the championship and don’t want to change the outcome, I don’t want to be in the way. I think pushing a Chase contender in a Chevrolet would probably not be the best thing for your career if you have blue blood, and that I certainly have.”

SO YOU PAIR UP BASED ON WHERE THEY ARE IN THE CHASE AND WHAT MANUFACTURER IS ON THE CAR? “In the end you want to have a dance partner already set. If you can’t find your teammate or person you want to work with then it will be a scramble and you have to do what you have to do to get your car as high as you can. I don’t think that if there are 43 cars out there that I will be looking for anyone but a Ford driver to get me to the line.”

Carl Edwards, No. 99 Subway Ford (Qualified 9th)
“You know, it is Anytober and we are promoting Subway. They will sell any regular foot long sub for five dollars. Here comes the other six inches of my foot long sub, the 16 of Greg Biffle. He is 17th? Okay, we will be probably eighth or ninth and Greg will start back there and that will make it easy for us to meet up and work together. I was just talking to Mark (Martin) and the driver can’t do much on these laps. You have to just not make a mistake and get through the gears correctly. Our car was pretty good and the great thing is that working with Greg I felt like we could pass anybody yesterday. This is going to be a fun race.”

Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M/O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Ford (Qualified 18th)
“It was a pretty uneventful lap, always is qualifying here at Talladega. We got a pretty good gust of wind down the backstretch and I could feel it slow the car down. The wind is starting to pick up a little bit and I think it hurt us a little bit. Carl and I, we have a marriage made in heaven and we are going to work together in the race. The 21 car was really fast in practice, so we will see if he can knock Mark off the pole. We will have to wait and see. We didn’t qualify quite where we wanted. I think we lost a tenth with that gust of wind and Carl’s car and my car really match up on speed pretty well.”

Trevor Bayne, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford (Qualified 4th)
“I think that shows how much work the 21 guys put into these cars and they do a great job at the superspeedways and the work shows up here. It is all about speed and our car has it. I think it is a solid run for our Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford. Hopefully we can keep it up there all day. Qualifying doesn’t really matter once the green flag drops with all the drafting that is going on. You will move around from the back to the front and back again. We will hang out and see who we hook up with.”

Andy Lally, No. 71 TRG Motorsports Ford (Qualified 33rd)
“It means a whole lot to the manufacturers and we have a good strong motor here. This Ford is pulling real well. We are a small team and this is a real good effort by these guys. There is no wind tunnel time on this car. We are relying on the Roush Yates Ford power under that hood and some little tricks these guys learn along the way. They have been learning a lot and we have been working behind the scenes as hard as we can. I am proud of them. They have done a good job.” DO

YOU HAVE A PARTNER STRATEGY FOR TOMORROW? “I got to work with Terry Labonte at Daytona and had a blast. To get to work with a veteran like that, you just want to keep coming back and doing it some more. If he will have me I will certainly be willing to push him all day tomorrow. We have a couple other guys we are talking to in case things get shuffled around but Terry is good people and a champion and it would be very cool to get to do that with him again.”

Travis Kvapil, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford (Qualified 17th)
“It was a good run. It is hard to really do anything as a driver here. It is all on the team and Front Row Motorsports did a good job. This is a different car than we have had for speedway races. We wrecked our Daytona car earlier in the year and we brought this one here. I have to give a big thank you to Ford and Doug Yates for the great horsepower. The guys at the shop pay attention to all the details and so far, so good. Surely it won’t hold up for a pole but we are solidly in the show and that was objective number one for us.”

DO YOU HAVE A PARTNER FOR TOMORROW? “I think so. It all can go out the window but myself and David Gilliland are planning to work together and be there for each other all day long. We are looking for a good solid day tomorrow because that can go a long way for our fight to get back into the top-35. We want to keep chipping away at it. That is the plan.”

JJ Yeley, No. 55 Front Row Motorsports Ford (Qualified 28th)
“It was good. The most important thing is that we are locked in now. The biggest disappointment was that we were in full qualifying trim and had really good speed yesterday. We thought we would pick up a couple tenths today. The first lap wasn’t bad but we didn’t pick up those extra tenths on the second lap. I’m not exactly sure why but again at the end of the day the goal has been achieved and we are in the race.”

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR TOMORROW? “I think you almost have to shoot from the hip. You can sit there and plan but as soon as the green flag drops there are 40 other guys out there to disturb your plan. It is tough because there are 43 cars starting this race so there will be one guy left out, as long as you aren’t that guy you will be okay.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release

Trevor Bayne stands next to the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane/Wood Bros. Racing Ford Fusion

Although he has made just 15 career Sprint Cup starts, the 20-year-old Bayne has developed a reputation for knowing how to push and be pushed in the two-car “tandem” drafting that has become commonplace at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway, the two giant tracks where restrictor plates are used to reduce speeds.

Bayne won the Daytona 500 in February and started on the outside pole at Daytona in July. In April at Talladega, he ran among the leaders and led five laps before being collected in a crash.

Over the years, his Wood Brothers team has been among the best at the two mammoth superspeedways. They’ve won 15 times at Daytona, including five Daytona 500s, and five times at Talladega.

Bayne said he’s ready to take on Talladega again.

“I’m excited about it,” he said. “Last time we didn’t get the run we wanted, but we showed speed. At all the superspeedway races, the Wood Brothers have done a good job of building a fast hot rod.

“I like going to [restrictor-plate tracks]; we just have to stay out of trouble.”

Avoiding crashes at Talladega and Daytona is a big part of the challenge at those two tracks, and Bayne is making that a big part of his race day strategy.

“If we can keep that mindset until the end, we’ll be really good,” he said. “I’m pumped about the car. They say it’s really good.”

A new factor this time around at Talladega is a rules change by NASCAR that has been implemented with the intention of trying to limit the amount of time two drivers can stay hooked up in tandem while also providing for more passing.

The restrictor plate that will be used in practice will have openings that are increased by 1/64 inch to 57/64 inches in diameter, and the pressure relief valve on the cooling systems will be changed to reduce pressure by about eight pounds per square inch from that allowed in April at Talladega. Teams also will be prohibited from applying any substance to the bumpers, something that was done in recent races to aid in pushing.

Bayne said the new rules will cut down on the time drivers can run bumper to bumper.

“I don’t think we can stay hooked up as long with the water pressure being lower,” he said. “It’s going to be easier to blow off that water, and you don’t want to do that.

“It’s going to mean more switching [positions].”

And that, he said, could increase the likelihood of crashes.

“You’re going to have to be more cautious, kind of stay back a little bit or get up front and try to lead,” he said.

Despite his record of success, Bayne has had difficulty securing a drafting partner before the race, and this time around at Talladega is no exception. It’s one of the disadvantages of being with a single-car team in an environment where most of the top drivers belong to one of the multi-car camps.

With seven Ford teams in the mix, Bayne knows he could wind up starting the race with a driver from another manufacturer as his drafting partner.

“I’ve been working on it,” he said. “I found out last time that you have to be prepared. You have to have a running mate.”

Qualifying for the Good Sam Club 500 is set for Saturday at 12:15 p.m. Eastern Time, and the race is set to get the green flag on Sunday just after 2 p.m. Eastern with TV coverage on ESPN.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion honors Glen Wood’s final win as a race driver

The celebration continues during the Bank of America 500 weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, as the paint scheme on the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion honors Glen Wood’s final win as a race driver.

The Motorcraft/Quick Lane car will be painted in the same colors as the 1963 Ford Galaxie that Wood drove to victory at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., on July 13, 1963, and crew members will wear shirts just like the ones the Wood Brothers wore in the mid-1960s.

That No. 21 Ford from 1963 was rugged, fast and versatile. In its first race, at Riverside, Calif., Fred Lorenzen turned the car over in practice, but the Woods repaired it at the track, and Lorenzen took a 22nd-place finish. From there it was on to Daytona, where the Woods’ regular driver Marvin Panch was badly burned in a sports car crash and one of his rescuers, Tiny Lund, took over the No. 21 and drove it to victory in the Daytona 500 in one of the biggest stories ever in auto racing.

Wood returned to the seat at Bowman-Gray that July, and the “Master of the Madhouse” lived up to his nickname earned on the quarter-mile track known then and now as the “Madhouse.”

He started on the pole, but was involved in an early spin. While fellow future Hall of Famers Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett took turns on the point, Wood was using his mastery of the Madhouse to work his way back to the front, no small feat on the small, narrow track. On Lap 107 of 200, he took the lead from Jarrett and led the rest of the way.

The red-and-white Ford was back in Victory Lane on Sept. 29 at North Wilkesboro Speedway with Panch driving, and Dave MacDonald finished second in it at Riverside. That talented stable of drivers combined to give the Woods the 1963 car owner’s championship for the series now known as Sprint Cup.

Then that history-making Ford was turned back in to Holman Moody in exchange for a new model, and the Woods began to focus on building a faster car for the 1964 season.

The Stuart, Va.-based team also began to change its strategy when it came to its driver line-up.

With the team finding increasing success with other drivers behind the wheel of their fast Fords, Glen Wood soon cut back on his driving. After his win at Bowman Gray, he only ran three more races, two of them at Bowman Gray. Then the driving portion of his Hall of Fame career came to a close on Aug. 23, 1964, at Starkey Speedway in Roanoke, Va., where he started on the pole and finished third in a race that he also helped promote.

The 2011 version of the Wood Brothers’ car will carry the same color scheme as the ’63 version, with red on the bottom of the car and white on top, and the logos will be 60s style as well. Glen Wood’s name will be on the roof, but where the Glen Wood-driven version carried the logos of English Ford in High Point, N.C., the Trevor Bayne-wheeled car will have Motorcraft/Quick Lane instead. But as Wood’s son and team co-owner Eddie Wood pointed out, the sponsor really is the same, even after nearly 50 years.

“Back then it said ‘English Ford’ but it was really sponsored by the Ford factory,” Wood said. “And 48 years later we’re still sponsored by Ford Motor Company.”

Glen Wood NASCAR Hall of Famer

“When they’re telling stories, I think, ‘Did racing really used to be that way?’” he said, adding that the Woods’ history is in many ways the history of NASCAR. “The Wood Brothers are timeless. They have wins and history from the early days of the sport until now. They’re very proud of their history.”

Bayne said that as he runs paint schemes like the ones he’s run featuring David Pearson and now Glen Wood, he’s reminded that the men he knows only as friendly senior citizens once were tough competitors behind the wheel in an often rough-and-tumble era.

“But you can tell that once they put the helmet on they’d really go for it,” he said. “Glen Wood is The Man.”

Donnie Wingo, the current crew chief on the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion, has only been a part of the Wood Brothers history for a short time, but he’s been friends with the family for years.

So it’s no surprise that he’s already a fan of the throwback paint scheme that will adorn the same Fusion that Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. drove to an 11th-place finish earlier this year at Charlotte when he was filling in for the recovering Bayne.

“It’s pretty cool,” Wingo said. “The car really stands out. I like the background and the way it makes the numbers and the writing on the car stand out.”

And Wingo likes the idea of being part of a gesture to honor a true racing legend.

“It means a lot,” he said.

Qualifying for the Bank of America 500 is set for Thursday at 7:10 p.m., and the race is set to get the green flag on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with TV coverage on ABC.

- Wood Brothers Racing, Press Release

Trevor Bayne Driven by Faith - The Trevor Bayne Story

“When we surrender control to God, He can do way more than what we could ever imagine.”-Trevor Bayne, Driven by Faith

After winning the Daytona 500 in 2011, twenty-year-old Trevor Bayne became a role model for NASCAR fans everywhere. Now you can read his inspiring story in the new biography, DRIVEN BY FAITH: The Trevor Bayne Story (Zonderkidz; $6.99; January 2012) by award-winning MotorSports journalist Godwin Kelly.

The youngest winner ever of the Daytona 500, Bayne candidly shares the story of his faith-driven racing career with NASCAR enthusiast Kelly. Kelly’s undeniable love of the sport shines through as he details each crowning moment of Bayne’s young life – how the child attached to his toy cars went on to win three WKA national and world championships, and NASCAR’s highest honor, the Daytona 500. For each accomplishment, the Knoxville-born racer credits his faith.

“The biggest thing I’ve ever done – and ever could do – is find Christ,” Bayne says in the book. “That’s the reason I’m here.”

Young readers and NASCAR enthusiasts will especially appreciate Bayne’s remarkable humility and passion, not only for his work on the track, but for helping families in need with Back2Back Ministries in Mexico and spreading the word of God.

A champion, a big brother, a son and a devoted Christian, Bayne continues to inspire others on and off the race track. DRIVEN BY FAITH proves that the best is yet to come from this young star, who, with faith in his heart, has already touched many lives.

“Victories are great, but they go away with time,” Bayne said. “A relationship with Christ is something that can never go away.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Godwin Kelly has been the Motorsports Editor at the Daytona Beach News-Journal since 1982 and is a two-time winner of Motorsports Journalism Awards of Excellence in honor of Russ Catlin. He has written four books about stock car racing, including Fireball: Legends Don’t Fall From the Sky. The Evanston, Illinois-born journalist now lives in Palm Coast, Florida, with his wife. They have three children.

ABOUT TREVOR BAYNE: 2011′s record-breaking youngest Daytona 500 Champion, 20-year-old Trevor Bayne, was born in Knoxville, Tenn. Since he turned five years old, he has been racing and breaking records in almost every competition. Bayne competed for eight years on the go-kart circuit earning three World Championships, with more than 300 feature wins and 18 State and track Championships combined. In 2008, he began competing in the NASCAR Camping World East where he grabbed his first NASCAR Series win at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway. He went on to earn six top-five and seven top-10 finishes and finished fourth in the NASCAR Camping World East point standings. In 2011, Bayne is making a run at the Nationwide Series Championship while also running a limited schedule in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. He’s based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
www.trevorbayne.com

Zonderkidz™, a division of Zondervan, inspires young lives through imagination and innovation. As the leader in Christian children’s communications, it produces bestselling and award-winning Bibles, books, board books, graphic novels, audio, video and digital products that awaken the hearts and touch the souls of kids under 16 and the people who love them, from family members to educators. Zonderkidz is the publisher of the NIrV (New International Reader’s Version) Bible translation, the 3rd-grade reading level edition of the NIV that is ideal for children and those who speak English as a second language. Visit Zonderkidz on the Internet at www.zonderkidz.com.

Zondervan, a HarperCollins company headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a world leader in Christian communications and the leading Christian publishing brand. For more than 75 years, Zondervan has delivered transformational Christian experiences through general and academic resources authored by influential leaders and emerging voices, and has been honored with more Christian Book Awards than any other publisher.

-DJ Communications for ZonderKids, Press Release

Ford Racing

Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Crown Royal Ford (Qualified 1st)

Greg Biffle, No. 16 3M Filtrete Ford (Qualified 7th)
“I just was probably a little to scared down there in three and four. I should have put the gas down sooner. I have been giving up a lot of time down there and the track is a little bumpy. I waited a little long on the gas pedal and I could tell as soon as I put it down that I waited long. Matt’s time is looking pretty good. That is going to be hard to beat. Hopefully we will stay top five. We will see.”

Carl Edwards, No. 99 Cheez-It/Kellog’s Ford (Qualified 5th)
“My hat seems to have shrunk. I guess my head is getting really big now that I made the Chase. They can’t ever get hats big enough for my skull. The lap was pretty good. Imagine how bad this hat would fit if I had knocked Matt off the pole there. That is a fast lap for him. Our lap was really good. It is all about the Chase right now. Hopefully that will hold up for a top-five or six starting spot and get an opening on pit road and it will be a great race for us.”

Marcos Ambrose, No. 9 Stanley/Dewalt Ford (Qualified 17th)
“We had a great one and two and I have to thank my Stanley and Dewalt team for a much better qualifying. I just got tight off of four and started to shake the tires. I don’t know. We were close. I think with another quarter pound of tire pressure we might have had something.”

AJ Allmendinger, No. 43 Best Buy Ford (Qualified 18th)
“I don’t know what happened. We didn’t have that problem yesterday but we just bounced it off the race track in three. I probably drove it in too deep. It just crashed to the ground so when it crashed it got the race track and when you are this fast and not in the throttle we missed it. I am not very happy with the lap. At times we have had the car really fast and at other times it is not as quick. I think track position will be key. I was hoping to start out higher but we will just have to pass some race cars tomorrow.”

David Ragan, No. 6 UPS Ford (Qualified 15th)
“Our UPS Ford is pretty good. We didn’t make a lot of qualifying runs yesterday; with the new schedule, we really just needed to run as much as we could in race trim. We always would like to go a little bit faster, but here, it’s all about winning. I think we’ve got a great car for tomorrow. It was a fun lap; I was bouncing around and loose the whole lap, and it was okay.”

Trevor Bayne, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford (Qualified 28th)
“Well, we are in but it isn’t exactly what I wanted. We have been pretty fast all weekend so we definitely wanted to be top-15 in qualifying here. It is tough coming back and forth from the Nationwide car. I didn’t have enough grip in three and four and moved around too much and lost a lot of time down there. I think it will be good in race trim, so I am ready to start this thing.”

David Gilliland, No. 34 Taco Bell Ford Fusion (Qualified 39th)
“Track conditions felt very similar to where it was yesterday. But we had some issue with, I think, the carburetor. So we’re going to go to work on that and get that taken care of. We’ll have a ways to go tomorrow, but I feel like the car drives good and our Taco Bell Ford Fusion will be what we need to get up through there.”

J.J. Yeley, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Fusion (Qualified 32nd)
“It was an OK lap. The car was a little bit too loose, at least for my comfort level. When we went out, the racetrack had changed from what we had yesterday. We had really good balance yesterday and the car was a little bit on the snug side, so we just left it alone. I got through Turns 1 and 2 really good, a little bit on the edgy side, so going through 3 and 4 I just had a hard time getting the throttle down. I legitimately thought we could run a 29.80, but at the same time I had to be smart about what I’m doing out there and know that going for it could cost me at the same time.”

MATT KENSETH POLE PRESS CONFERENCE

TALK ABOUT HOW GOOD YOUR CAR IS AND STARTING OUT FRONT TOMORROW FOR THE FIRST CHASE RACE. “Well, it reminds me a little bit of Vegas so yesterday we worked on race trim the first practice and then only made one qualifying run the second practice and it drove as good as I could expect it to drive. I told them to just leave it. In race trim we struggled just a little bit more but it seems like the key is getting through the bumps in turn three. It reminds me of the bumps in turn one in Vegas. In qualifying trim it went through the bumps perfect but we struggled with it in race trim. I was thrilled with our car for one lap and being in qualifying trim and race trim I think we have a little bit of work to do.”

WHAT DOES TRACK POSITION MEAN HERE? “It is a factor everywhere. I think the track is really wide so there are a lot of grooves to pass. I think it is going to be important. There were a few times in practice yesterday that I ran up on some cars and it was more difficult to get around then what I expected. I think it is always important and starting up front and having a good pit stall is nice. Hopefully you get a good start and get bonus points and try to keep up with the track a little better. We have been qualifying a lot better, if you throw Richmond out, but slipping at the end of the race. I am happy to be on the pole but it is still just a starting position and we have to work hard on the race and keeping up with our adjustments.”

I ASKED YOU AFTER BRISTOL ABOUT YOUR NEW QUALIFYING PROWESS AND YOU DIDN’T WANT TO TAKE CREDIT FOR IT. IS IT NOTHING PERSONALLY YOU ARE DOING? “Not really. My cars have just been fast and driving really good. I have always tried really hard. I have probably done a little better job at not over driving the car. That has been a fault of mine in qualifying in the past, over driving and driving the corner too hard and messing up the rest of the corner. I think Jimmy (Fennig) works really hard on it too and it has always been really important to Jimmy. Back in the day when it was easier to pass it probably wasn’t as important to us as it is today. Maybe I am a little better at it but the main thing is the cars have been really fast.”

AT THE END OF THE DAY TOMORROW IF CHASE GUYS STRUGGLE HERE ON THE MILE-AND-A-HALF WOULD IT BE FAIR TO SAY THEY ARE IN BIG TROUBLE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP OR IS THERE ENOUGH TIME TO GET IT FIGURED OUT? “Not necessarily. I know we always group them together because they are the same size track and there are guys that seem to run good at all of them or not as good. They are all really a lot different. I think this is similar to Texas but a lot different than Charlotte for instance. You want to start off running good here but it is a little of a unique track, a little like Texas and Kansas. We only come here once a year and haven’t been here in a long time. Last year we saw David get the set-up perfect and blew everyone away. Some other guys you maybe expected to run better kind of missed it. I think it will be a little bit of a race like that. I think a few guys will hit it better than the others and hard for the rest to keep up.”

YOU SAID YOUR QUALIFYING TRIM GOT YOU THROUGH THE BUMPS BUT NOT YOUR RACE TRIM. IS THE RACE TOMORROW GOING TO BE DECIDED ON WHO CAN GET THROUGH THE BUMPS THE EASIEST? WHAT IS THE TRICK WITHOUT REVEALING TOO MUCH? “It is not just about who can get through the bumps but the way they are in turn 3, especially with the tail wind today that is an important part of the track. Where the biggest bumps are is kind of your entry and where you are trying to get to your marks in turn three. For me, when we didn’t have it quite right, no matter what I did it was hard to make a fast lap time. Turn one and two is not bad. It is not just about that but I think to have the front end working good everywhere it is going to have to work good in those bumps. Certainly if you go high enough you can go around them but I would assume most guys are going to be on the top on a long run and if you expect to pass or the better cars will have to get through there. It is pretty tough getting into one but it doesn’t affect the corner much. Turn three and four the whole thing is pretty rough.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED A FORD HAS NEVER WON HERE? “I haven’t really thought about it to be honest with you. I guess we have been close here a few times and just couldn’t quite get it done. This has been one of our better tracks, maybe not the last couple of years. You gotta have a lot of things go right to win these days, it is pretty competitive.”
“I think the concentration for the Chase is every track the same. This isn’t an exciting answer but all ten races pay the same amount of points and I don’t think you want to try to give up anything. Really we honestly do have a plan ahead of time for what cars we want to bring and things you want to implement through the next 10 weeks but we don’t really plan much farther ahead than one week. You try to bring your best stuff and put your best foot forward, get the best result we can tomorrow. We try to learn from that for the future tracks and put it behind you and move on to New Hampshire and do the same thing. Ten races is a lot of races.”

DOES GETTING ON THE POLE MENTALLY HELP YOU FOR THE RACE? “Yes and no. You feel good about having the first pick for the pits. You feel good about hopefully leading a lap and get one bonus point. It doesn’t sound like a lot today but it really kind of is. You feel better about those couple of things but on the other side of it you started on the front, you qualified on the pole and everybody is expecting big things. It puts pressure on you and the team to keep up with the track and adjustments and try to keep the car there all day.”

- PCGCampbell for Ford Racing, Press Release