Nascar ~ Daytona 500(Amarican Greatest Race)

Bayne becomes youngest Daytona 500 winner!!!
Twenty-year-old, in throwback paint scheme, returns Woods to Victory Lane...

The planets aligned. Heck, the heavens stood still. And Trevor Bayne recaptured the magic of David Pearson in the Wood Brothers throwback No. 21 Ford, winning Sunday's 53rd running of the Daytona 500.

On the second attempt at a green-white-checkered-flag finish at Daytona International Speedway, Bayne crossed the finish line .118 seconds ahead of Carl Edwards, returning the Wood Brothers to Victory Lane for the first time since 2001.

Bayne became the first driver to win the Daytona 500 in his first attempt since Lee Petty won the inaugural event in 1959. By winning in his second start in the Sprint Cup Series, Bayne tied Jamie McMurray for quickest victory at the start of a career.

In a war of attrition that set track records for lead changes (74), number of different leaders (22) and number of cautions (16), David Gilliland finished third after pushing Edwards toward the front on the final two laps. Bobby Labonte was fourth in his first race for JTG/Daugherty Racing, and Kurt Busch, last Saturday's Budweiser Shootout winner, ran fifth.

With three-time Cup champion Pearson in attendance for the start of the race as a member of the 2011 NASCAR Hall of Fame class, Bayne gave Wood Brothers its 98th victory and first at Daytona since Buddy Baker in the 1983 Firecracker 400. It was the Wood Brothers' fifth Daytona 500 victory, the last by Pearson in 1976.

"I keep thinking I'm dreaming," Bayne said in Victory Lane. "Our first 500 -- are you kidding me? To win our first one in our second-ever Cup race, I mean this is just incredible. Wow, this is unbelievable. How cool is it to see the Wood Brothers back in Victory Lane?

"It's crazy to get my first win before a Nationwide win -- I didn't know how to get to Victory Lane."

Bayne's accomplishment was doubly remarkable, given that his car was wrecked in the final few hundred yards of Thursday's second Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying race. He missed both practice sessions Friday as crew chief Donnie Wingo and the Wood Brothers team repaired the car.

Edwards said the runner-up finish would haunt him for days, but he didn't begrudge Bayne the victory.

"Look, right now this is going to be a long night for me," Edwards said. "I'm going to go back to the motor home, I'm going to watch the replay, think about a hundred things I could have done, think about, 'Man, what would it have been like to [win] the race?'

"You know, as a competitor, in a way it really doesn't matter who beats you. But as a person, as a friend of Trevor's, it's amazing to watch him have that success. I've only known him for a short time, but he's what seems to be truly a good guy. I think a lot of people in the sport see that. Hopefully, a lot of the fans see that. So that's good for the sport.

"I still would have liked to beat him -- that's for sure."

Every time Daytona is paved, something out of the ordinary happens. In 1959, a year after the speedway was built, Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500 in a three-way photo finish. Daytona was repaved in 1978 before the first live flag-to-flag TV coverage of the Great American Race in 1979.

That event ended with Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison wrecking each other in Turn 3 on the last lap, and with Yarborough and Bobby Allison fighting on the infield grass while Richard Petty came from nowhere to win the race.

Small wonder there was an electric buzz in the air when the field came to the green on Sunday. But who would have guessed this year's 500 would get its youngest winner ever? Bayne turned 20 the day before the race.

Jeff Gordon had been the youngest driver to win the 500. He was 25 years, 6 months and 12 days in 1997. The oldest driver to win the 500 is Bobby Allison, who was two months past his 50th birthday in 1988.

The event was not quite 29 laps old when a wild melee in Turn 3, triggered by contact between the Toyotas of Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann, trashed a dozen cars and set the tone for the entire race.

On this day, however, even if all the contenders had been running at the finish, Bayne had a good enough car to beat them all.

Polesitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. led three times for nine laps but was involved in a wreck during the first green-white-checkered finish and finished 24th.

Five-time defending Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was collected in a 17-car pileup on Lap 29. He returned to the race and finished 27th, 19 laps back.

This was the first race under NASCAR's new points system. Because Bayne is racing the for the Nationwide Series points championship, he did not earn any Cup points for the victory. Edwards is now the points leader with 42 points.

Result!!!

FIN ST CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR PTS/BNS LAPS STATUS
1 32 21 Trevor Bayne Ford Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center 0 208 Running
2 22 99 Carl Edwards Ford Aflac 42/0 208 Running
3 39 34 David Gilliland Ford Taco Bell 41/0 208 Running
4 31 47 Bobby Labonte Toyota Kroger / USO 41/1 208 Running
5 3 22 Kurt Busch Dodge Shell / Pennzoil 40/1 208 Running
6 13 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target 39/1 208 Running
7 5 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 38/1 208 Running
8 10 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's 37/1 208 Running
9 19 27 Paul Menard Chevrolet Peak / Menards 36/1 208 Running
10 17 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 34/0 208 Running
11 15 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Best Buy 34/1 208 Running
12 29 09 Bill Elliott Chevrolet Security Bene
fit / Rydex / Billboard.com 32/0 208 Running
13 25 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Office Depot / Mobil 1 31/0 208 Running
14 34 6 David Ragan Ford UPS "We Love Logistics" 31/1 208 Running
15 43 32 Terry Labonte Ford U.S. Chrome 30/1 208 Running
16 30 7 Robby Gordon Dodge Speed Energy 29/1 208 Running
17 6 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet Cheerios / Hamburger Helper 28/1 208 Running
18 14 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 27/1 208 Running
19 20 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 26/1 208 Running
20 36 77 Steve Wallace Toyota 5-Hour Energy 0 208 Running
21 18 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express 24/1 207 Running
22 21 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet U.S. Army 24/2 206 Running
23 38 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot 21/0 206 Running
24 1 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet Amp Energy / National Guard 21/1 202 Accident
25 11 4 Kasey Kahne Toyota Red Bull 19/0 199 Running
26 42 36 Dave Blaney Chevrolet Golden Corral 19/1 198 Accident
27 23 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's / Kobalt Tools 17/0 189 Running
28 2 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet Drive to End Hunger 17/1 173 Running
29 16 2 Brad Keselowski Dodge Miller Lite 16/1 166 Accident
30 24 00 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine 14/0 164 Running
31 27 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 13/0 160 Running
32 40 38 Travis Kvapil Ford Long John Silver's 0 153 Accident
33 37 71 Andy Lally * Chevrolet Super Eco-Fuel Saver 11/0 149 Running
34 9 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal Black 10/0 133 Accident
35 26 16 Greg Biffle Ford 3M 9/0 126 Accident
36 4 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 9/1 92 Engine
37 35 9 Marcos Ambrose Ford Stanley 7/0 82 Running
38 28 37 Robert Richardson Jr. Ford North Texas Pipe 0 45 Accident
39 41 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota AM FM Energy 0 29 Accident
40 8 115 Michael Waltrip Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 4/0 28 Accident
41 12 192 Brian Keselowski* Dodge K-Automotive Motorsports 3/0 28 Accident
42 7 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Budweiser 3/1 22 Engine
43 33 46 J.J. Yeley Chevrolet Red Line Oil 1/0 10 Engine

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