Nationwide Series - Bayne Takes First Victory At Texas

FT. WORTH, Nov. 6, 2011: Trevor Bayne took the lead with only six laps remaining in Saturday afternoon’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Nationwide Series race at Texas Motor Speedway and held on to score his first career Nationwide Series victory. The win marked Roush Fenway’s 299th NASCAR victory and places the team in solid position to score its 300th win in tomorrow’s Sprint Cup race.

“This is just as surreal as the 500,” said Bayne in victory lane. “That’s hard to say, but this has been so long. We’ve worked so hard to get our first Nationwide win. These guys worked their butts off to get us here and God pulled us through.”

Roush Fenway was in championship form from the drop of the green flag, exhibiting the type of strong performance that has earned them 16 career NASCAR victories at Texas Motor Speedway. Carl Edwards, who led a race-high 157 laps finished third in the race and pulled to within two points of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Owners Championship. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rallied late for a sixth-place finish, increasing his Nationwide Series points lead to 17.

“I couldn’t be prouder,” said team co-owner Jack Roush. “Texas has been real good to us. We won with Jeff Burton here in the inaugural race back in the nineties. That was a wonderful event. I’m really proud of Trevor and proud of (crew chief) Chad (Norris) and proud of the job that Mike Beam and all the guys did to get the cars to have all that speed in them. Doug Yates and the guys did a great job with the engine and, of course, I’m especially happy to be here with Ford Motor Company to win (the Manufacturer’s Championship).”

For Bayne it was the second career NASCAR victory for the 2011 Daytona 500 winner and his first in a Roush Fenway Ford. It marked Roush Fenway’s 17th NASCAR win in 2011 and its 12th in the Nationwide Series this season.

Roush Fenway now has seven NNS victories at the TMS. The organization won both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup events at Texas in the spring and will look to complete the year sweep on Sunday.