Race Fast Facts
Daytona International Speedway
53rd Annual Daytona 500
Provided by NASCAR Statistics – Sun, February 20, 2011 @ 06:20 PM Eastern
Race Winner: Trevor Bayne
Age: 20
Team : No. 21 – Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford
Owner: Wood Brothers
Crew Chief: Donnie Wingo
Trevor Bayne won the 53rd Annual Daytona 500, his first victory in only his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.
Bayne is the youngest Daytona 500 winner in history (20 years, one day).
This is team owner Wood Brothers’ fifth Daytona 500 victory, the last coming in 1976 with David Pearson. It is their 98th series win overall.
Bayne is the seventh driver to earn his first points win in the Daytona 500 (Tiny Lund, 1963; Mario Andretti, 1967; Pete Hamilton, 1970; Derrike Cope, 1990; Sterling Marlin, 1994; Michael Waltrip, 2001).
There were track records in lead changes (74), leaders (22) and cautions (16).
The victory is Ford’s 600th win.
Carl Edwards (second) posted his sixth top-10 finish in 13 races at Daytona International Speedway. It is his first top-10 finish in 2011.
David Gilliland (third) posted his second top-10 finish in six races at Daytona International Speedway.
Because Bayne has chosen to earn championship points in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, Carl Edwards now leads the points standings by one point over David Gilliland.
(i) Ineligible for points in this series

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Trevor Bayne won the Daytona 500 on Sunday, a day that featured records for cautions and lead changes. Bayne, who turned 20 Saturday, led the final two laps of the race that was decided with a green-white-checkered-flag finish.

Carl Edwards finished second, with David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch rounding out the top five. The victory was the first for the Wood Brothers since 2001 with Elliott Sadler. Bayne is the seventh driver to get his first Cup victory in the Daytona 500.

The race went eight laps beyond the scheduled 200 laps because of crashes and needed two green-white-checkered-flag finishes before Bayne became the youngest winner of the 500. He led the field to the green flag on the final restart.

Some of the Sprint Cup Series top drivers were knocked from contention early at Daytona International Speedway, including five-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who was caught up in a 17-car pileup early in the race.

2011 DAYTONA 500 RACE RESULTS

Overheating also was an issue, as cars raced in pairs—nose to tail—throughout the afternoon.

“Keep an eye on those water temperatures, even if you have to switch every two laps,” Richard Childress Racing vice president of competition Mike Dillon radioed to Clint Bowyer and Paul Menard, the only two RCR drivers left after engine failures took out Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton.

It didn’t take long to for the “big one” to gobble up more than a third of the field in Sunday’s Daytona 500.

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 Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin.

The cars of Kenseth, Biffle, Kurt Busch, 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.”

Ambrose, in his first points race in the No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, was trying a conservative approach. It didn’t work.

“Everybody is trying to find partners to work with and pull away,” Ambrose said. “I think everyone is just trying to work out how to do it. Today, I was just trying to make sure I didn’t drop off the back without finding a good partner and got caught up in a mess, too. I was trying to play it safe, and it didn’t work out too well for me.”

An early casualty was Harvick, the 2007 Daytona 500 winner and one of the heavy prerace favorites. The engine in Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet grenaded on Lap 23, erupting in a dense cloud of smoke.

“It looks like it dumped a piston,” engine builder Danny Lawrence told team owner Richard Childress, who was concerned about the engines in his other cars. “The oil pan is bent and the block’s torn up.”

Childress had good reason to be concerned. Burton’s motor blew on Lap 93, knocking the half the RCR contingent out of the race.

RACE RECAP | DAYTONA 500
10 Mark Martin
9 Paul Menard
8 Kyle Busch
7 Regan Smith
6 Juan Montoya
5 Kurt Busch
4 Bobby Labonte
3 David Gilliland
2 Carl Edwards

VICTORY LANE

1 Trevor Bayne a rookie in just his second Cup Series race ever, wins the sports biggest race driving for one of the sports most storied car owners in Wood Brothers Racing. He’s also the youngest driver ever to win the Great American Race.

OTHER STORIES ON THE DAY

– Kyle Busch brought out the first caution spinning in the two-car draft with Michael Waltrip, no damage to the 18 machine.

-Kevin Harvick blew an (ECR) engine early on in this race, from the smoke Jeff Gordon tagged the back of Robby Gordon’s machine.

-Massive wreck on lap 29 when David Reutimann got spun by Michael Waltrip, involved are Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Brian Keselowski, Greg Biffle, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Vickers, Travis Kvapil, and others. 17 cars in total in this Big One.

-Jeff Burton is the second victim of a blown RCR (ECR) engine.

-Juan Pablo Montoya spun off turn 4 about half way

-Matt Kenseth wrecks hard in the tri-oval.

-Greg Biffle, Juan Montoya wreck hard for caution 11

-Brad Keselowski got turned into the wall

-Kasey Kahne blew a tire with 18 laps to go

-Jamie McMurray’s engine (ECR) dropped a cylinder

-Wreck with 4 laps to go, Regan Smith, Ryan Newman, and Clint Bowyer

-Dale Earnhardt Jr. came in for a flat tire under caution

-David Ragan black flagged on the restart for changing lanes too soon

GREEN WHITE CHECKERED #1 – Dale Earnhardt Jr, Martin Truex, Ryan Newman involved

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