By Jerry Jordan, Editor
LAS VEGAS – Trevor Bayne gave it his all during the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, so much so, that when he stepped out of the car for post-race interviews, he felt light-headed and fainted.
“I’m okay,” he said, after getting helped over to the pit wall to complete his interview with NASCAR on NBC’s Parker Kligerman.
Bayne finished the ALSCO 302 in fifth driving the Devotion Nutrition No. 18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. It was his eighth start of the season in what was only supposed to be a seven-race deal. The 2011 Daytona 500 winner will now regroup and head to Homestead-Miami Speedway for next week’s “
“We were talking and after I got done talking, I started to feel out of breath and I’m like, ‘Parker you’re getting too close here.’ When I got out of the car, my left ear was ringing, and I knocked one of the crush panels out so I don’t know if I got gassed. All I can say is I guess I was trying as hard as I could there.”
Bayne was pleased with his run, especially after having spun out on pit road and having to recover for fifth place.
“I think it’s been as eventful now as it could ever possibly be. I spun out, got a pit road penalty and drove back to fifth,” he said. “What I was saying right there when I started feeling light-headed is that when I got to fifth, I felt like I moved the top up better than anybody.
“In the end, a fifth-place finish is good, but my opportunities are winding down here and I’ve got one left at Homestead and I feel like we’ll be good there, but I want to win one of these things so bad. You can’t run the 18-car with Jason Ratcliff (crew chief) and not win, but I feel like we’ve got the speed and Jason’s doing a great job. We just have to get off pit road. That’s been our Achilles heel all year. Probably cost us four races. The guys have good stops when they’re good. We just have some mistakes we have to clean up and today it was somebody falling over the wall. What do you do? You just have to come back and race hard. Thankful to Devotion for giving me this opportunity this year and I’ll try not to ever pass out again.”
Bayne’s finishes this season have all been in the Top 10, except for two. He was 28th at the newly repaved and reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway and he was 13th at Talladega Superspeedway. He has five Top 5’s overall with three Top 3’s.