Notebook: Bayne’s win is salve to Wood Brothers

Notebook: Bayne’s win is salve to Wood Brothers


Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR  Service
(February 2011)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—The Wood Brothers had fallen on hard times.
The most venerable race team still operating in the sport, Wood Brothers Racing hadn’t seen victory lane since Elliott Sadler beat John Andretti to the checkered flag at Bristol in March 2001.
In recent years, the Woods have been more concerned with qualifying for races than with winning them. But in winning Sunday’s Daytona 500 in a car painted like the machine David Pearson raced in the team’s glory days, Trevor Bayne provided both a glimpse of the past and the window to a brighter future.
“We struggled so much in the past couple years just to make the Daytona 500, much less win it,” an emotional Eddie Wood, team co-owner, said after the celebration in victory lane. “It’s so special—so many people that’s responsible for this that it’s just unbelievable we’re sitting here.
“Trevor Bayne did such a good job. To be 20 years old and go out there and go fender-to-fender with all those guys—he’s got the composure and savvy of a veteran. Now he’s a Daytona 500 winner. I’m just so happy for him. I’m happy for my dad (team founder Glen Wood).
“Just so much happened in the last 10 laps—in my head. I walked into victory lane with Richard Petty and Edsel Ford and my dad. I don’t know how much better that can get.”
Black flag costs Ragan dearly
With Sunday’s race already in overtime, David Ragan was black-flagged for changing lanes (dropping to the inside) before the start/finish line as the field took the green flag to begin Lap 203. The resulting stop-and-go penalty cost Ragan a chance for what would have been his first Cup win.
Bayne had pushed Ragan to the lead before a four-car accident on the backstretch brought out the 15th caution of the race. It’s also fair to say that Bayne is pushing his fellow Ford driver for his job, given that Ragan is in a contract year at Roush Fenway Racing.
Ragan was disappointed but philosophical about the penalty.
“I was just a little bit too greedy,” he said. “If I would have waited an extra split-second to start moving down … but I felt like when I crossed the plane of the start/finish line, I wasn’t totally on the bottom. I felt like you could start moving over before—but you live and learn.
“That’s a tough one to get away, but congrats to Trevor. He did an awesome job. If it wasn’t for the 21 (Bayne’s Ford), we wouldn’t have been up there, so Trevor did a great job.”
David Gilliland? Really?
David Gilliland had a strong enough engine to run third in the Daytona 500, evidence that Front Row Motorsports has made a commitment to improve.
Gilliland pushed Carl Edwards to second place in Sunday’s race and finished third himself, a giant step forward for a team that didn’t post a top 10 last year and was fighting all season to keep its cars in the top 35 in owner points.
“In the media day last week, I told a bunch of people you can look for Front Row Motorsports to be the most improved team from last year,” Gilliland said. “We stepped up our motor program to run the (new Ford) FR9 motor. (Owner) Bob Jenkins bought a bunch of motors from RPM (Richard Petty Motorsports).
“It’s taken us 10 steps ahead on the competition side. I’m proud to have weathered the storm last year and now have a top-three finish at Daytona, not only for myself, but (for) Bob Jenkins. He does this deal out of his pockets, and to come and do that and be here with this success is something to be proud of.”
The Big One Comes EarlyIt didn’t take long to for the “big one” to gobble up more than a third of the field Sunday.
In a pack of cars in Turn 3 on Lap 29, Michael Waltrip tapped David Reutimann’s No. 00 Toyota—a car Waltrip owns—and triggered a 17-car melee that damaged the cars of a dozen potential race winners, including those of five-time defending Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin.
The cars of Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Vickers and feel-good story Brian Keselowski also were heavily damaged in the collision, as were Waltrip and Reutimann.
“It’s just a product of this type of racing,” Reutimann said. “It wasn’t Mike’s fault. The guys in front of us started moving up, and when you’re pushing, you’re at the mercy of the guy in front of you. The guy in front has to tell you what’s going on, and I probably was a little late there and got us both in trouble.
“I know it tore up a lot of cars, and I hate that ended up happening. It’s unfortunately a product of this type of racing. In those situations you wish it was a single-car wreck. You don’t want to mess everybody else up.”