Trevor Bayne will be making a one-race return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with Rackley W.A.R. this upcoming weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The news comes as the 2011 Daytona 500 champion from Knoxville, Tennessee, is coming off three starts in this year’s Xfinity Series season with Joe Gibbs Racing, where he led a total of 26 laps and earned a season-best seventh-place result at Bristol Motor Speedway in September. The news also means that Bayne will become Rackley W.A.R.’s third different competitor of this year’s Truck season behind Matt DiBenedetto and Chandler Smith.
“I definitely didn’t see this coming two weeks ago,” Bayne said. “This deal came together rather quickly. [Owners] Willie Allen and Curtis Sutton have been working very hard over the past few years to improve their truck program. The results have shown all season with their consistent top-10 runs. I look forward to working together with crew chief Chad Kendrick and the Rackley W.A.R. team and produce a strong run this weekend. Homestead-Miami has always been good to me, including last season when we were on the pole and ran sixth in the Xfinity race. I’m thankful to the group for the opportunity to be back behind the wheel.”
Having made 164 career starts in the Xfinity Series and 187 in the NASCAR Cup Series, Bayne made his Truck Series debut at Darlington Raceway in 2020 with Niece Motorsports, where he finished 27th. He then competed in seven of the remaining eight Truck events on the schedule with Niece, where he earned a career-best runner-up result at Talladega Superspeedway in October. His latest start in the series was at Phoenix Raceway, where he finished 18th.
Bayne’s latest NASCAR national touring series victory to date occurred in the Xfinity Series at Iowa Speedway in 2013, which marked his second of two series wins while driving for Roush Fenway Racing. He also remains as the youngest-ever winner of the Daytona 500 at age 20 after notching his first Cup Series victory in his second series career start in the Great American Race in 2011 while driving for Wood Brothers Racing.
“The team is definitely looking forward to our partnership with Trevor for Homestead-Miami,” Willie Allen, president of Rackley W.A.R., added. “Trevor brings a lot of very good experience to the table, and he will be a good measuring stick to help evaluate some of the things we are working on moving forward.”
Rackley W.A.R., which is in its third season of NASCAR Truck Series competition, commenced this season with full-time competitor Matt DiBenedetto piloting the team’s No. 25 Chevrolet Silverado RST entry. He made the 2023 Truck Series Playoffs on the strength of nine top-10 results through 16 regular-season events, but did not transfer from the Round of 10 to 8 despite achieving a third-place result at Kansas Speedway in September. Following Bristol, the team released DiBenedetto with three races remaining on the schedule and competed in the previous Truck Series event at Talladega Superspeedway with Xfinity Series rookie contender Chandler Smith, who finished fourth.
Currently, Rackley W.A.R.’s No. 25 entry is ranked in ninth place in the Truck Series’ owner’s standings. Their lone victory to date occurred at Talladega in October 2022 with DiBenedetto, who also recorded the first NASCAR national touring series victory for himself.
The team’s driver plans for the season-finale event at Phoenix Raceway in November remains to be determined.
With his upcoming weekend plans set, Bayne’s first Truck Series start with Rackley W.A.R. is set to occur at Homestead-Miami Speedway this Saturday, October 21, with the event’s broadcast time to occur at noon ET on FS1.
