Trevor Bayne Charlotte II post-race interview

Trevor Bayne

Photo by: Action Sports Photography

TREVOR BAYNE – No. 16 Fastenal Ford Mustang

“It’s been a while since we’ve been in here, so we had to get a good run soon enough so I could come and see you guys. I was really happy with that run. I think that we’ve had some really good cars in the past few weeks, but we haven’t been able to show it by the finishes due to little things that have happened on the track or on pit road, but we’ve had speed and I was glad that we finally got to showcase that a little bit tonight with a finish. Chad Norris did a great job all night long. We spent the first part of the race really tight and on the splitter really hard and finally on the very last run when it counted he got me off the track and got it dialed in for us. I’m really happy with that for Fastenal and for Carl to get a win for Fastenal as well. I was able to push him out there to the lead a little bit on that last restart, which was pretty neat."

HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THIS GIVE YOU FOR TOMORROW? “It’s a lot. Track time is awesome too at these kind of places. With the new pavement, you don’t really think of this as being a bumpy race track or having patches on it, but I learned a lot for tomorrow, I believe as far as the line and little things about the track and its characteristics and not overdriving the race car. We found a lot of speed in that tonight, which was really good, but that Wood Brothers 21 car has been fast all weekend, so that gives me enough confidence in itself – qualifying in the top 10, being really fast on the lap tracker today in all of practice, so I’m happy to get out there tomorrow in that ’63 paint scheme with Glenn Wood above the door. Having that above the door gives you some confidence, too. That’s pretty neat.”

WERE YOU THINKING ABOUT STAYING IN FRONT OF SADLER FOR RICKY’S SAKE IN THE TITLE CHASE? “First of all, I was thinking top three. That was the first thing that crossed that my mind and I just wanted to finish as good as possible, and I knew we were better than Sadler so we could hold him off. You definitely have some more people in your ear when it’s a championship contender behind you when he’s battling your teammate. I knew Jack would be a little happier with me on Monday if we beat Sadler, so you race them all the same, but I think that was good to keep him in our rearview mirror for Stenhouse for the championship there at the end."

HAVE YOU BEEN TOLD HOW MANY RACES IN THE 21 CAR NEXT YEAR? “No. So far I think they have sold 12 to 13 races. How many of those I’ll be racing, I don’t know. Hopefully, all of them, but I think we’re just kind of waiting to see what happens on the Nationwide side first, too. Next year is kind of uncertain right now at this point with a lot at Roush Fenway Racing. If you look at their Cup programs and their Nationwide programs, it’s just really tough right now for everybody. Hopefully, we can pick something up to be full-time Nationwide and then hopefully take on all 12 of those Cup races would be my plan – very similar to this year. But I would love to run for a championship next year in Nationwide. That’s my goal and, hopefully, Roush Fenway will be able to have the funds and partners to help me do that.”