Bayne Set To Make 50th Career Sprint Cup Start
April 30, 2014

When Trevor Bayne takes the green flag on Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, it will mark his 50t career Sprint Cup race, and all of them have come in the No. 21 Ford Fusion fielded by the famed Wood Brothers race team.
 
“That’s definitely the best of them,” Bayne said. “And if I get to 400 starts, that will still be the best.”
 
Team co-owner Eddie Wood said Bayne, now 23, has been a good fit for his family-owned team since making his Cup debut and his first run in the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion in the fall of 2010 at Texas Motor Speedway, where he finished a strong 17th.

“We’ve had a lot of good runs with Trevor,” Wood said. “It’s worked out well for both of us, especially with us running a part-time schedule and him having a full-time Nationwide Series ride with Roush Fenway Racing.”
 
Making the milestone start at Talladega suits Bayne just fine, even though he hasn’t had the success there that he’s had at other tracks.  His best run there came in the spring of 2012, when he posted his 2nd top ten finish in just four races for that season, with an 8th place finish.
 
“Talladega hasn’t always been the best for me,” Bayne said. “I’m looking to redeem myself this biggest challenges this weekend is the new “knockout” style qualifying that will be used at a restrictor-plate track for the first time in the Sprint Cup Series.
 
“That will be a little nerve-wracking,” Bayne said, adding that, unlike the race, the most important thing is to be in a fast group but not necessarily at the front of the field, where he hopes to be when the checkered flag falls on Sunday afternoon.
 
Qualifying for the Aaron’s 499 is set for Saturday at 1:10 p.m. eastern, and the race should get the green flag just after 1:00 p.m eastern.
 
The qualifying session and the race will be broadcast live on FOX.

Bayne Finishes 19th in Rain-Delayed Duck Commander 500 at Texas
April 7, 2014
Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team fought hard in a rain-delayed Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
 
When the green flag dropped on Monday, Bayne started seventh after a strong qualifying effort as his Donnie Wingo-led team brought out a brand-new Ford Fusion. Bayne raced around the top 15 for much of the race, and even when his No. 21 Ford Fusion began to develop a tight-handling condition, the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew was able to make adjustments, and he was able to maintain his position.

Two-thirds of the way through the race, Bayne fell a lap behind the leaders but was able to rejoin the lead lap with an impressive performance as he held the “free pass” or “lucky dog” position despite stiff challenges until Kurt Busch brought out the caution flag on Lap 220, allowing Bayne to resume his spot on the lead lap.
 
“We were racing Marcos Ambrose and Carl Edwards for the lucky dog spot, and then Brad Keselowski stopped and got tires and took a couple of dives at us,” Len Wood said. “Trevor was able to hold him off even with Brad on fresher tires. He earned that one.
 
As the laps wound down, Bayne was poised for a top 15 finish when his right-rear tire began going flat. A late-race caution, again for Kurt Busch with tire issues, allowed the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team to put fresh tires on the No. 21 Ford Fusion. Bayne then drove it home in 19th place.
 
Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew plan to be back on the track Tuesday and Wednesday, testing at Michigan International Speedway in advance of the Quicken Loans 400 on June 13-15.

Bayne, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Among The Best In Texas Qualifying
April 5, 2014
The Motorcraft/Quick Lane race team took a step back in qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway – back toward the day when the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Fords were almost always among the fastest Sprint Cup cars on qualifying day.
 
After posting the eighth-quickest speeds in the two practice sessions for Sunday’s Duck Commander 500, Trevor Bayne went out and posted the second-fastest time in the opening round of knockout qualifying. He was sixth in the second round and seventh in Round 3, with a lap at 194.503 miles per hour. His speed of 197.477 mph in the first round was the second-best overall on a day that saw the Blue Oval contingent take six of the top 10 starting spots.
 
Crew chief Donnie Wingo said the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, using simulations and the knowledge gained from a less-than-spectacular qualifying effort at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, built a brand new Ford Fusion that rolled off the truck at Texas ready to go.
 
“The car’s been good since we unloaded it,” Wingo said after qualifying. “Everything’s gone pretty smooth so far. All the guys have done a great job all weekend.”
 
Bayne said his Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew deserves a lot of credit for bouncing back after a struggle at Las Vegas.
 
“It’s great that the Wood Brothers can bring cars like this when we don’t run full-time and be able to come out here and contend with these guys,” he said. “I felt I had a car capable of the pole if everything went perfect… At Vegas I think we were nervous about making the race at the end, so that’s a big turnaround for us coming to a mile-and-a-half [track] and having this much speed.
 
“I’m pretty excited to get going tomorrow.”
 

Bayne, Wood Brothers Roll Out Another New Ford Fusion At Texas
April 3, 2014

Trevor Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are heading to Texas Motor Speedway with the best of both worlds when it comes to race cars.
 
They’re taking a brand-new Ford Fusion to the Duck Commander 500, but it won’t exactly be an unknown because they have a list of set-up notes from their most recent race on a similar track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
 
Texas Motor Speedway is one of the places Bayne knows best. It was at Texas in November, 2010, that Bayne made his Sprint Cup debut in the No. 21 Ford Fusion, driving it to an impressive 17-place finish in the AAA Texas 500. This weekend marks his eighth appearance at Texas in a Cup car, more than any other track in his relatively brief, 48-race career.
 
The No. 21 Ford Fusion that Bayne will drive this weekend is all new, just like the car he raced at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 9, but crew chief Donnie Wingo said this time is different because of their experience at Vegas.
 
“We’ll be able to build on what we learned at Vegas,” he said, adding that among the things the Motorcraft team will work on in practice is determining what the optimum ride height will be now that NASCAR has relaxed some of its rules on measuring heights at the track.
 
Wingo also will be participating in his first qualifying session since cool-down units were allowed on pit road.
 
“The biggest difference is that we won’t have to ride around the track to cool down the engine,” he said.
 
Since the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team runs a limited schedule and therefore is not eligible for a guaranteed starting position, the knockout qualifying sessions carry the very real possibility of being knocked out of the starting line-up in the first qualifying session.
 
Team co-owner Eddie Wood said that for his team, the pressure is on once the opening session begins.
 
“We just need to get locked in the race,” he said. “Then once we’re assured of racing on Sunday, we can get on with the following two qualifying sessions.”
 
When it comes to Sunday’s Duck Commander 500, Wingo said one of the keys for crew chiefs and drivers will be tire management, especially with the increasingly worn asphalt at Texas.
 
“Most of the time, you will take four tires on a pit stop,” he said. “But if the circumstances are right and you don’t have too many laps on your tires, you can do just two.”
 
Wingo also said he doesn’t anticipate another round of tire issues like the ones at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., two weeks ago.
 
“I think that’s more related to flatter tracks like Fontana, Pocono and Indianapolis, and to the roughness of the track at Fontana,” he said.
 

Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Finishes 20th In Kobalt Tools 400
March 10, 2014
Trevor Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team bounced back from a disappointing start to the Kobalt Tools 400 weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and came away with a top-20 finish.

The team brought a brand-new 2014 Ford Fusion to Las Vegas, but during a practice session on Thursday the car was damaged in a pit-road incident. Then during qualifying on Friday, the No. 21 Fusion was just 34th fastest. Sunday, however, the story was much different. By Lap 25 of 267 Bayne had driven up to 23rd position and remained in or around the top half of the field for the remainder of the race.
 
With the 400-mile race featuring long stretches of green-flag racing and just four brief caution periods, Bayne fell a lap down. Each time the team was in position to rejoin the lead lap either through a wave-around or “lucky dog” free pass, the caution flags didn’t fly their way and Bayne wound up 20th.
 
Still, team co-owner Len Wood was pleased with the performance of Bayne, crew chief Donnie Wingo and the rest of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team.
 
“The car remained consistent all day, and we were able to stay ahead on our adjustments,” Wood said. “If the cautions had fallen our way and we’d been able to get back on the lead lap, I believe we would have had a top-15 finish because we had been outrunning a lot of those cars all day.”
 
“All in all, we were pleased with the car, especially for the first time out with a new chassis style and the first time with the new rules package.”
 
Bayne said he was close to regaining the lead lap late in the race but didn’t pass the No. 47 of A.J. Allmendinger quick enough, as the caution flag was displayed before he crossed the next scoring loop after the pass, thereby making the pass unofficial.
 
“I was really frustrated that I didn’t try to roll the top a lap sooner to try and get by him,” Bayne said. “I was working on him, but I should have maybe gone to the top sooner.”
 
“That’s not a bad run for us. ….I felt like we had a 15th-place car at times and passed quite a few cars today, so I’m happy with how the car ran.”

 As it was, Bayne was the fourth-best Ford, with one of his Blue Oval teammates, Brad Keselowski taking the victory and completing a weekend sweep for Keselowski and Ford.

 Len Wood said it was fitting that Fords ruled the day in NASCAR, given the passing earlier on Sunday of William Clay Ford, Sr., the last grandchild of company founder Henry Ford.
 
“All of us with the Wood Brothers and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team send our sincere condolences to the Ford family,” Wood said.
 
Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team return to the Sprint Cup circuit on April 4-6 for the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
 

Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team In Kobalt 400 Field After Intense Knockout Qualifying Session
March 8, 2014
The Wood Brothers and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew got their first taste of NASCAR’s new “knockout” qualifying procedure on Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and it was quite an eye-opener.

“It’s very intense,” team co-owner Eddie Wood said. “You can just sense the pressure in the garage. I’ve got a lot of respect for this procedure and the people who have to do it.”

His own Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew had to put forth a gallant effort to make the starting field for Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 400. After struggling to find speed in practice, the team managed to get Trevor Bayne on the track for three qualifying runs in the opening 25-minute session of knockout qualifying. That meant the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew had to get the engine of the No. 21 Ford Fusion cooled down two different times, and in a hurry. Teams tape off the radiator for qualifying to improve the car’s aerodynamics, but the lack of air to the radiator quickly overheats the engine.
 
“That’ all you can ask for,” Wood said of the performance by crew chief Donnie Wingo and his crew.
 
As it was, Bayne’s second attempt was his quickest lap. His speed of 188.429 was just 34th fastest, but it got him inside the top 36 and thereby in the starting field for Sunday’s 400-miler.

 “It wasn’t very pretty, but it got us in the show,” Wood said. “It’s a relief. The field is really close.”

 With one major hurdle behind them, Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew now turn their attention to tuning their No. 21 Ford Fusion for Sunday’s race on a fast, bumpy Vegas track.
 
Two practice sessions are scheduled for Saturday. The Kobalt Tools 400 is set to get the green flag just after 3 p.m. on Sunday with TV coverage on FOX.

Late-Race Wreck Ends Strong Speedweeks Performance For Bayne/Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team
February 24, 2014
Trevor Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew spent the majority of the 2014 Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway overcoming setbacks, but their good fortune came to an end in the closing laps of the rain-delayed Daytona 500. Bayne, who had worked his way into the top 12 with less than 50 miles to run, slipped in the draft with 16 laps remaining, and the team’s Speedweeks comeback ended with a crash into the wall. He was credited with a 33rd-place finish, but to Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, the most important thing was that they were still in contention as the laps wound down in NASCAR’s showcase race.
 
“It’s frustrating, but we made it that far,” Bayne said. “We made it to the last 20 laps, and that’s kind of your goal at Daytona – to be around at the end for a chance to win.”
 
Sunday’s 500 wound up being much like the entire Speedweeks for Bayne and the Wood Brothers’ team.
 
Just as they had to bounce back from a disappointing qualifying effort and race their way into the Great American Race with a strong run in last Thursday’s Gatorade Duel qualifying race, the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team had to overcome a problem on an early-race pit stop to be in the lead draft near the end. The pit stop issue led to the team going a lap down mid-race, but crew chief Donnie Wingo opted to take the wave-around, and the caution flags fell in the team’s favor, allowing Bayne to return the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion to the lead lap.
 
“We kept recovering tonight,” said Bayne, who led two laps in the 500.
 
“We worked our way into the top 10 a few times and led some laps, but it’s not the finish we were hoping for.”
 
The crash that ended the race for Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team began as Bayne was running in the middle of a three-wide pack with less than 20 laps remaining.

Even so, team co-owner Eddie Wood said that despite the team’s late-race misfortune, he’s not too disappointed.
 
“Any time you get to race in the Daytona 500, you’re happy to be a part of it,” he said. “And if you can make it to the last 20 or 25 laps and be in the top10 or 15 you know you have a shot.”
 
“The biggest thing for us was that we had a fast car. That means a lot.”
 
Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team return to the Sprint Cup Series in two weeks for the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Five days filled with drama, worry and apprehension came to a happy conclusion for the Wood Brothers and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane race team Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway. With the pressure squarely on his 23-year-old shoulders, Trevor Bayne drove one of his best races ever, avoided a last-lap collision in the second of two Budweiser Duels and earned the team a cherished starting spot in the 56th annual Daytona 500.

Team co-owner Len Wood said he couldn’t have been more proud of Bayne and the entire Motorcraft/Quick Lane team.

“I hugged him about five times after the race,” Wood said. “He did exactly what he had to do. We were in a tight spot, and the last thing I said to him before the race was: ‘It’s on you, bud.”

And it truly was.

In many a recent season, the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team had the luxury of a fast qualifying time to fall back on in case there was an issue in the 150-lap qualifying Duel.  This year, the team had no such assurance as Bayne was just 26th fastest in last Sunday’s pole qualifying session. That meant a top-15 finish in the Duels was the key to putting the iconic No. 21 Ford Fusion in the starting field for the Great American Race.

Then the drama ratcheted up a notch on Wednesday when a crash in practice damaged the front end of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion.

Crew chief Donnie Wingo led the way in making the necessary repairs and put Bayne on the track for Thursday night’s Duel with a car that had the speed needed to jump from his 13th starting position to seventh in just four laps.

As the 60-lap race continued to unfold, Bayne dropped back a bit but kept his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion in a transfer spot most every lap. One of the key moments of the race came with 24 laps remaining when Bayne headed to pit road for his only stop of the race.

“We knew the critical part of the race was going to be the pit stop,” Wood said. “Trevor nailed it. He didn’t slide the tires, he didn’t speed, and he did a good job getting on and off pit road. And the crew did their part too. It was a great stop.”

As the laps wound down, Bayne began moving forward, and was inside the top 10 on the final lap when a multi-car crash erupted just behind him. With the race ending under the caution flag, Bayne was credited with sixth place and will start the 500 from the 14th position.

“It was more than nerve-wracking,” Bayne said. “I was waiting on what happened off of [Turn] Four to happen a lot earlier. Fortunately, we just happened to go to the bottom.”

“I can’t take credit for any of that. That’s just being at the right place at the right time, and I’m just so thankful for this team.”

Bayne said that like his car owners and the rest of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew he too has felt the pressure the past few days.

“I’m not going to lie,” he said. “I kind of take it for granted all the time when we qualify good and don’t have to worry about these Duels, but we did it when it mattered, and I’m really proud of these guys.”
 
“They’ve worked hard on this car and deserve to be in the 500.”

There will be one extra special person in the Motorcraft/Quick Lane pit area when the green flag drops on Sunday. As soon as Thursday’s Duels were over, team co-owner Eddie Wood took off for Stuart, Va., to pick up his father, the team’s founder and family patriarch Glen Wood. They will drive back to Daytona for Glen Wood’s 68th consecutive Speedweeks, a stretch that dates back to the era when races were held on the old beach-road course.

“He’s been coming here since 1947,” Len Wood said. “The first time he came to be with his hero Curtis Turner.”

Since then, Glen Wood has gone on to a NASCAR Hall of Fame career and has been associated with many racing heroes at Daytona. His cars have won the 500 five times, most recently with Bayne, the 2011 winner who will begin Sunday’s race from his highest Daytona 500 starting spot yet.

 Donnie Wingo, the veteran crew chief, figures the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion is back to the superspeedway form that Glen Wood has come to expect over the years.

“It’s been nerve-wracking, but I think everything is good now,” Wingo said.
 

Woods, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team Prepared For Daytona Despite Winter Weather Woes
February 13, 2014
The Wood Brothers team will be ready for action in Daytona, despite numerous problems with the weather. Throughout the last few weeks, they have battled rain in Daytona during the test, a postponed Talladega test due to a snow covered track, and sleet on the roadways in the southeast this week.  Despite all of this, nothing stopped Donnie Wingo and the Wood Brothers from arriving at Daytona International Speedway with a Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion ready to race.

Wingo and the Motorcraft Quick/Lane team kicked off the Woods’ 64th NASCAR season – and the team’s 14th with Motorcraft/Quick Lane colors on the sides of the iconic No. 21 – in January with a planned two-day test in advance of the 56th annual Daytona 500.

When rain washed out the first day, Wingo, Trevor Bayne, and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team returned for the second day and literally ran from daylight to dark, turning 47 laps in a rain-delayed session before the track closed at 9 p.m.

Wingo felt there was more speed to be found, so he scheduled a test at Daytona’s sister track, Talladega Superspeedway, only to have the first test snowed out. Even the second test, last week, was delayed by snow, but the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team got in a full two days of testing with the car that will be the back-up for the Daytona 500 entry that was run in the January test.

“The Daytona 500 is so important to our team that we felt we really needed to test more, and Talladega was our best option,” said team co-owner Eddie Wood, as the Woods’ work toward a sixth Daytona 500 triumph. “It had been a long time since anyone tested at Talladega, and it was like old-school testing. We were there by ourselves for the most part, and when you got ready to go out on the track, you didn’t have to wait on anybody, you just went.”

Back at home base in Charlotte, Wingo and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team continued to fine-tune the car, taking it to the wind tunnel three times, including one session at 6 a.m. Tuesday, just before the car was loaded for an early trip to Daytona to avoid being caught in the sleet and ice storm that wreaked havoc on the highways around the Carolinas and Georgia.
 
“There’s been a lot of work done on this car since the Daytona test. I’m sure if there was more time, Donnie and the crew would still be working on it. Teams never stop until its time to load.”
 
Wood also likes the tweaks that have been done to the paint scheme.
 
“It’s still Motorcraft red, white and gold, but the Motorcraft/Quick Lane logos are a little different. I think they look racier, and they’re easier to read on the track.”
 
Qualifying for the 56th annual Daytona 500 is set for Sunday, Feb. 16, at 1:05 p.m. Eastern Time. The 150-mile qualifying races are scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m., and the Daytona 500 is set to get the green flag on Sunday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m.
 

Motorcraft/Quick Lane Crew At Its Best For Daytona Test
January 11, 2014

Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team will return to Daytona International Speedway next month for the Sprint Cup Series season opener on Feb. 23rd.
 

Engine Problems Hinder Bayne’s Bid For a Top-10 In The Ford EcoBoost 400
November 17, 2013

Trevor Bayne and his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion were poised to make a bid for a top-10 finish in the season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 when engine failure ended their charge and left them with a disappointing 40th-place finish.

Bayne started the finale of Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway from the 17th starting position and ran around 20th place in the early stages of the race. Each time he made a pit stop, his Donnie Wingo-led crew made adjustments to his car, and he began to move up through the field.

With a little more than 50 laps to go he was running 11th, but his time there was short-lived.

The first sign of trouble was when the engine’s oil pressure began dropping. That was followed by a loss of power, and then lap times dropped off by about three seconds.

“We had a good run going, and then we had engine issues,” said team co-owner Len Wood. “Unfortunately, you’ll have things like that happen sometimes.”
 
It was just the second time this season that the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion failed to finish a race.
 
Wood said that overall he was pleased with his team’s performance. “We felt good about getting a top-10 finish,” he said. “We were off a little in the beginning, but we were able to make the car better throughout the race.”
 
Wood went on to say that he was glad to end the 2013 Sprint Cup season on a high note, performance-wise, even if the final result didn’t reflect it.
 
“I don’t think any of our teammates had the season we were looking for,” he said. “But I’m proud of our team and the work they’ve done this year.”
 
He said his team is now focused on the season-opening Daytona 500 and preparing for the team’s 61st year of Sprint Cup competition and its 64th in the sport.
 
“We’ve already had meetings about 2014,” he said. “We’ll soon be getting ready for Daytona.”

Bayne To Start 17th in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400
November 15, 2013

Trevor Bayne and his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion picked up the pace significantly from practice and will start 17th in Sunday’s Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Bayne turned a qualifying lap at 175.507 miles per hour, which was more than two miles per hour faster than his best lap in practice of 173.321 mph.

“That wasn’t a bad lap at all,” Bayne said of his best qualifying run since a 15th at Talladega Superspeedway in May. “We just got tight in the center [of the corners] there, and I wondered if I carried a little too much speed in trying not to use any brakes, so the second lap I tried to use more brake and we slowed down a lot”.

“Overall that is a really good pickup for my guys, and they did a really good job making adjustments from practice to this. I think most people were picking up like two-tenths [of a second per lap], and we picked up about five.”

Bayne said his qualifying run gives him renewed optimism heading into Sunday’s finale of the Ford Championship Weekend.

“That is a good run, and we can at least see the front from there and hopefully make it happen,” he said.
 
Photo by Dorsey Patrick PhotographyAmong the 14 Ford Fusions in the starting field for the Sprint Cup season-ending Ford EcoBoost 400 is the No. 32 driven by a former Wood Brothers’ driver Ken Schrader, who is making his final Sprint Cup start.

Schrader, who drove the No. 21 Ford in 2006 and 2007, started his Sprint Cup career back in 1984 in a Ford fielded by Elmo Langley, and 29 years, 762 races and four wins later he’ll end it in another Ford, the Fusion owned by Frankie Stoddard, who has been working on Fords and fielding them for most of his NASCAR career.
 
Wood said Schrader, one of more than 70 drivers to take the wheel of the No. 21, earned his place in the history of the family race team. “We’ve known Ken since he raced for Elmo Langley and then Junie Donlavey,” Wood said. “He came to drive for us at a time we were kind of in a transition phase and needed a veteran driver. He was a big help to us.”

Bobble in Turn Four Drops Bayne to 32nd in Texas Qualifying
November 1, 2013

Trevor Bayne and his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion got off to a good start in qualifying at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday afternoon. When it was time to qualify; however, he was unable to maintain that pace for his entire lap and therefore will have to start 32nd on Sunday.

“It was a great lap until we got to turn four and about plowed the wall,” Bayne said of his run against the clock which nonetheless ended with a speed of 191.347 miles per hour. “We were probably a top-15 run until that point.”
 
As soon as Bayne returned to the garage area, he and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew began putting the disappointment behind them and focusing on Sunday’s race, the final 500-miler of the 2013 Sprint Cup season.

Team co-owner Eddie Wood said he’s confident that Bayne and crew chief Donnie Wingo can work together on a set-up and strategy that will help them overcome a poor starting position.

“We haven’t made any race runs yet,” Wood said after qualifying. “We spent the week testing at Homestead, which is a somewhat similar race track, so I’m not too worried at this point.”

Wood said that it’s never a bad day at the track when the front-row starters both are driving Ford Fusions.

“Congratulations to Carl Edwards for the pole and to Brad Keselowski for the outside pole,” Wood said. “I feel good about Sunday, for their teams and for ours.”

AAA Texas 500 Up Next For Busy Motorcraft/Quick Lane Team
October 30, 2013

With the 2013 Sprint Cup season hitting the homestretch, and just three weeks remaining before the season-ending Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, race teams in every major NASCAR series are picking up the work pace in hopes of going into the off-season with the momentum that comes from a great finish.

Trevor Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, despite running a limited schedule, have been in high gear for the past several weeks. They participated in a NASCAR test at Charlotte Motor Speedway, raced at Talladega Superspeedway, tested two days this week at Homestead-Miami Speedway and are set to run two of the Sprint Cup circuit’s final three races – at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend and the Ford 400 at Homestead in two weeks.

“We’ve been really, really busy,” said team co-owner Eddie Wood. “It’s good to be back at the track on a regular basis.”

Wood said that while his family’s team strives to run well every time out, a strong performance in the Ford 400 at Homestead is especially important for him and his team. “All our friends from Ford Motor Company will be there,” he said. “It’s one of the biggest events of the year.”

First, there’s this weekend’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Wood said he’s more than ready to race again at Texas, where Bayne and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion have shown great potential in recent races, even if the final results haven’t reflected it.

“We’ve always run well there,” he said. “Something always seems to happen that keeps us from being able to finish off a race.”

From an experience standpoint, Texas is one of the few places on the Sprint Cup schedule where the 22-year-old Bayne isn’t hampered by a lack of track time. Although he has just 44 career Cup starts, he has six at Texas, more than any other 1.5-mile track he’s raced on.  In addition to his Cup starts,  he has a Nationwide Series victory there in the fall of 2011.

To help Bayne capitalize on that experience, crew chief Donnie Wingo and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew have prepared chassis No. 745, which made its competitive debut earlier this year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where it carried a special paint scheme to honor Henry Ford’s 150th birthday.

 “It’s our best downforce car,” Wood said.
 

Bad Break on Final Pit Stop Drops Bayne to 23rd at Talladega
October 20, 2013

Trevor Bayne and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew showed in Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 500 at Talladega Superspeedway that when it comes to restrictor-plate racing they’re among the best in the Sprint Cup Series. Bayne had to start 26th after qualifying was rained out, but once the green flag dropped on Sunday, he and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion were on the march toward  the front.

After less than 30 laps, Bayne was knocking on the door of the top 10 and for most of the remainder of the race he kept his Ford Fusion inside the top 10 and was as high as fourth at Lap 96 and posted one of the fastest laps of the day at 201.5 mph. He dodged disaster on Lap 80 when Marcos Ambrose and Juan Pablo Montoya wrecked just in front of him, and the Motorcradt/Quick Lane team had a good day on pit road.

The only hiccup came on the final trip down pit road, a green-flag stop with 25 laps remaining. Trying to get on and off pit road as quickly as possible, Bayne inadvertently locked his brakes, sliding his front tires as he pulled into his pit stall.

Crew chief Donnie Wingo, knowing that the front tires likely had been flat-spotted during the slide, made a quick call to change four tires instead of two. The extra time in the pit area caused Bayne to lose the lead draft. With no more caution flags in the race, he was relegated to a 23rd-place finish.

Team co-owner Eddie Wood said that from a performance standpoint he and his team are proud of their efforts. “We had a fast car all day,” Wood said. “Even on the last stop, Trevor was just trying to get all he could on pit road. “A lot of drivers had trouble getting into their pit stall, and there were a lot of penalties on pit road today due to speeding.”

“And we didn’t have a choice on changing four tires.” “When you’re running 200 miles per hour and have reason to believe you may have a tire issue, you can’t take a chance on changing just the right-side tires.” “Things just happen, especially when you’re being as aggressive as you can be.”

Wood said that in the big picture, the team’s speed at Talladega is a first step toward a strong run in next year’s Daytona 500. “We’ll use this car as a baseline, to build a car for the 500 that’s hopefully even better than this one,” he said.

First however, for Bayne and the Wood Brothers Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, are two more races in 2013, at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 3 and in the Ford Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov.17

Talladega Rain Means Bayne Will Start 26th In Camping World RV Sales 500
October 19, 2013
Trevor Bayne and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion will line up 26th for Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 500 at Talladega Superspeedway after qualifying was rained out on Saturday.

Bayne and his Motocraft/Quick Lane crew had hoped to take a run against the clock, but still took great satisfaction in the fact that they will be racing on Sunday.   The threat of rain on qualifying day causes slight anxiety, as competing on a limited schedule could mean missing an event, should the rains come at just the wrong time. 

“We’re very happy to be in the starting field,” said team co-owner Eddie Wood. “You have to take things as they play out.”
 
Wood pointed out that qualifying likely would have resulted in a much better starting spot, but it also could have turned out to be a disappointment.
 
“Something could have happened, even when you have a fast car,” he said. “The important thing is we’re in the show, and we’ll go from here.”

Bayne’s starting position was determined by his ranking in the first practice session as NASCAR’s rules dictate. His best lap of 198.220 miles per hour came in spite of the fact that he wasn’t concentrating on drafting in that session. Instead, he and his Donnie Wingo-led crew were focusing on single-car runs to prepare for qualifying, as there was very little hint of rain in the forecast at that point.

 “We’ll be fine,” Wood said. “We’ve got a good Ford Fusion for Sunday.”
 

Bayne, Wood Brothers Back on Track for Camping World RV Sales 500
October 16, 2013

Trevor Bayne, the Wood Brothers and their No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion are headed to Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s Camping World RV Sales 500.

Over the years, the Woods have been one of the most successful teams at Talladega. Team founder Glen Wood and fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Walter “Bud” Moore lead all Ford team owners with five Talladega victories each.

Throughout its history, the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team has been known for its fast Fords at Talladega and sister track, Daytona International Speedway. It’s true in recent years too, as evidenced by a win in the 2011 Daytona 500 and a pole and four other starts of eighth or better in the past 10 years at Talladega.

This year’s effort is no different than others in years past. Crew chief Donnie Wingo and his Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew took the best superspeedway car in their fleet and reworked, massaged and fine-tuned it until they were confident it was ready for some fast laps at Talladega.  A recent wind tunnel assessment backed up all of Wingo’s tweaks and tunes, and he said the results were encouraging.“

Everything looked really good there,” he said.

The real test comes on Sunday at the race track, and Wingo is ready to do his part there as well. The veteran crew chief, who went to Victory Lane at Talladega in 2009 with Jamie McMurray driving a Roush Fenway Racing Ford he prepared, said winning at Talladega is all about getting in an advantageous position for those final, frantic laps.

“You have to hope you’re in the right place at the right time and not the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said, adding that the crew chief’s challenge is to try to give his driver the best track position possible after the final pit stop. “You want to try to do as little as you can to the car on the last stop, and make sure it’s full of fuel.”

“After that, it’s kind of a crapshoot.”

Trevor Bayne and the crew of his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion tried some of the best plays in their strategy book at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, but in the end they had to settle for a 21st-place finish in the Pure Michigan 400.

Any disappointment from the afternoon was offset by the fact that the team’s long-time partner Ford Motor Company became the inaugural winner of the Michigan Heritage trophy, which will be awarded to the winning manufacturer of Sprint Cup races at MIS for years to come. The trophy, inspired by professional hockey’s Stanley Cup, celebrates the spirit of the automobile and its importance to the Michigan track, which is the home turf of the U.S. automobile industry.

 “We certainly want to congratulate Roger Penske and Joey Logano on their victory,” said Len Wood, co-owner of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford. “When any Ford wins, we all win.”

Ford and Wood’s team have been a big part of NASCAR history at Michigan. Of Ford’s league-leading 34 Cup victories at Michigan, the Woods own 11. One of their greatest drivers, David Pearson, still leads all drivers in Michigan victories with nine, all of which came in either Ford or Mercury race cars.

While Bayne and the Woods will have to wait for another Sunday to try to deliver Ford another Michigan Heritage trophy, they were encouraged by the team’s performance in the Pure Michigan 400.

Bayne started 18th and held his own through the opening laps. With teams on various pit strategies, Bayne wound up getting all the way into the lead before pitting on Lap 48.

Time after time, his Motorcraft/Quick Lane over-the-wall crew members helped him keep track position with their quick work on pit road.

 At one point he gained 10 positions in a single two-tire stop.

“The pit crew did a great job all day,” Wood said. “Even when we changed four tires we were able to gain positions, and they made adjustments on several stops and still got us off pit road in good shape.”

The team’s strategists, led by crew chief Donnie Wingo, also were at their best, even if circumstances, mostly caution flags, didn’t fall in their favor.

 “We had a fuel-mileage strategy working twice, but because of the way the cautions fell it didn’t work out,” Wood said. “The race wound up with a lot of short green-flag runs, which we did not need.”

Bayne, Motorcraft Crew Find Speed When They Need It In Michigan Qualifying
 August 16, 2013

Trevor Bayne’s first laps in the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion on Friday at Michigan International Speedway weren’t at all what he and the team were expecting.

His best lap in practice; at 196.732 miles per hour, was 34th on the speed chart and cause for concern for a team having to qualify on speed or miss a race at the home track of long-time backer Ford Motor Company.

Between the last lap of practice and Bayne’s one lap run against the clock, the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team found nearly five miles per hour. His lap at 201.337 mph was 18th fastest, putting him safely in a starting line-up topped by the Ford Fusion of Joey Logano.

Team co-owner Eddie Wood said he was proud of the work done by crew chief Donnie Wingo and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew.

“We really struggled in practice, but Donnie and the crew went to work, made a lot of changes to the car and made it much better,” Wood said. “We’re happy to be in the show, and I think the car will race well on Sunday.”

Wood was relieved to see Logano carry the day for Ford, especially at Michigan, the home track for the U.S. automakers.

“But I’m always glad to see a Ford on the pole, wherever we’re racing,” Wood said.

For Bayne, the dramatic pick-up in speed from practice to qualifying came as somewhat of a surprise.

“It kind of threw me off in practice because we were so bad,” he said. “We were really tight in the center [of the corners], hitting the splitter and not turning.”

“We went out for that [qualifying] lap and now I feel like I under-drove it because I didn’t expect it to turn that good. We got down in the corner and it never pushed and I never hit the splitter.”

Bayne, who will practice the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Fusion Saturday morning then fly to Mid-Ohio to race the No. 6 Mustang in the Nationwide Series, said he’s more optimistic about his chances in Sunday’s race after seeing how much Wingo’s adjustments improved the handling of his car.

“We will be good in the race here if we can make adjustments like that,” he said.

Wingo, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Crew Looking for Strong Finish at Ford’s Home Track
August 15, 2013

Getting the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion up to speed at Michigan International Speedway hasn’t been much of a problem for Trevor Bayne and the Wood Brothers in recent races. Securing a fitting finish has been another matter altogether.

In both Sprint Cup races at Michigan in 2012, Bayne qualified in the top seven only to have equipment issues take away opportunities for strong finishes.   An engine failure in the first race and a flat tire in the second, hindered any chance of showcasing the teams full potential.

Back in June of this year at the home track for Ford Motor Company, Bayne was poised to be a big part of a Ford celebration of its 1,000th NASCAR victory before aerodynamic damage from an incident on the track left him with a 15th-place finish behind the winning Ford Fusion driven by Greg Biffle.

The team will use the same Ford Fusion it ran at MIS on Father’s Day, and it will be back in its familiar red-and-white paint scheme instead of the black-and-white colors used at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to honor Henry Ford’s 150th birthday.  Veteran crew chief Donnie Wingo said he and his Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew are determined to do their part to help Bayne steer Chassis No. 745 to a strong finish in Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400.

“We’ve had some of our better runs at Michigan, but we just haven’t been able to finish them off,” Wingo said. “The car’s been good. It just needed a little bit here and there, which we should be able to work on in practice.”

Among the goals Wingo has for the weekend is a strong qualifying effort, for several reasons. Foremost, there’s the matter of making the starting field, as the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team must make the race based on its qualifying speed. Then there are the advantages that come with starting up front, namely a beneficial pit stall and the edge that comes with having track position from the drop of the green flag.

“We’re going to work hard on qualifying,” Wingo said. “I expect we’re going to have a track-position race.”

That means race strategies will focus on keeping drivers as close to the front of the field as possible, especially as the laps wind down.

“You’re not going to take four tires every time you make a pit stop,” Wingo said. “You’ll see lots of two-tire stops and some no-tire stops. It just depends on how much fuel you need at that point.”