On February 20, Trevor Bayne's NASCAR career went from idling along to overnight news.
The Daytona 500 was the stage, the Wood Brothers provided the car, and Bayne took the checkered flag in the sport's biggest and most prestigious event. An unlikely winner to the sport's savior in one afternoon.
After all the buzz from that weekend came down, Bayne didn't even think about another aspect of his victory. Because of that win, Bayne was now eligible to enter and compete in the Sprint All-Star Race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
There was only one problem. The Wood Brothers had the car, but didn't have a sponsor. It meant that the winner of the biggest race of the year may not make the trip to race for the $1 million purse.
That is...until this week.
Good Sam Club, a sister company to Camping World who sponsors the NASCAR Truck Series, signed on to be the sponsor of the No. 21 Ford for Bayne, meaning he will be able to compete against the sport's top drivers.
"You never give up in this business until it's time to load the car and you can't go," said team co-owner Eddie Wood. "In my heart, I thought that something would come up for the All-Star because it just seemed like too many people wanted it to happen, we wanted it to happen, Trevor did, everybody did, so, thankfully enough, Marcus Lemonis (Camping World Chairman) came along and he was the lifeline to it."
Bayne was contracted to only run 18 races with the Wood Brothers because of sponsorship. The team's usual sponsor, Motorcraft and Quick Lane Tire and Lube, was not the sponsor for the All-Star weekend because going in, the team wasn't planning on making the trip.
"When I found out I was invited, it didn't even cross my mind that we didn't have sponsorship for that," Bayne said.
"We started talking about it, and they were like, 'Well, we think we might run the All-Star race. We're invited but that doesn't mean we can go."'
The Wood Brothers were not the ones who initiated the talks with Lemonis and Camping World. It was actually Bayne's father, Rocky, who made the initial call approximately three weeks ago. The two met several years ago at the Dover International Speedway for one of the race weekends at the "Monster Mile."
"I told his father when he was leaving that if he ever needed anything to give me a call," Lemonis recalled. "I got a call about three weeks ago from Trevor's father and he said, 'Marcus, I need a favor. My son won the Daytona 500. ... I really want my kid to get into the All-Star race and a couple of other races. Do you have any ideas?'"
Good Sam Club is also sponsoring Bayne for this Sunday's Aaron's 499 at the Talladega Superspeedway.
With Bayne added to the line-up, there are currently 18 drivers that have earned their spots for the Sprint All-Star Race. Drivers not yet eligible can still get in one of three ways.
The first way is to win one of the next four races, between Talladega and Dover. The weekend of the All-Star Race, the drivers not entered in will compete in the Sprint Showdown, in which the top two finishers will transfer into the main event.
The final way is to be the winner of the fan vote, as fans can vote on NASCAR.com for their favorite driver.
The Sprint All-Star Race is on May 21, 2011. Coverage will be on SPEED.
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