Ford Racing NSCS Notes & Quotes:
Coca-Cola 600 Advance – Charlotte Motor Speedway
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Roush Fenway Racing announced this morning that Trevor Bayne will drive the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion full-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next season. Bayne, along with car owner Jack Roush, made the announcement before practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
MARK MARTIN VIDEO ANNOUNCEMENT:
“Jack Roush and I went racing together over 25 years ago and, yes, we experienced our share of heartaches as we grew in this sport, but we would go on to experience great victories as well. My time in the 6 car will always be special to me and, yes, there is a part of me that will always be No. 6. Because of that, I’m excited to say that Jack Roush is bringing back the No. 6 Ford to the Sprint Cup Series full-time in 2015. He’ll have Trevor Bayne behind the wheel and be sponsored full-time by AdvoCare. Trevor Bayne is a Daytona 500 champion already and a fine young man in our sport who has worked really hard, and having the experience of working with AdvoCare over the past several years has been a great experience as well. I know the combination will be awesome and I can’t wait to see you guys on the race track in 2015.”
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “I want to thank you guys for coming out today. This is obviously the biggest news I’ve ever had in my life. Although we’ve had some big news before, this takes the cake. I’m really excited to be sitting up here beside Jack Roush and Mike Vaught from AdvoCare. This is a huge opportunity for me to be able to drive the 6 car with a full-time sponsor like AdvoCare, but I could have never done all of this without the people who have been behind me. I just left the Wood Brothers hauler from talking to Eddie and Len, so if I’m a little shaky and look like I might have been teared up a little bit it’s from talking to those guys, and just the support they’ve given me over the last three years – to be able to get to a place where I could have this opportunity. To drive that 21 car has been incredible and now I get to move on to another legendary number in the 6 car. This is something I’ve waited on since I was five years old, always wondering what car would I be in with what brand. When you think about Jeff Gordon, the 24 and Dupont, I was a big fan of that as a kid and the older I got the more the economy changed and the less and less it looked like I would have one sponsor to be behind me for a full season. Now I can gladly say I know what that brand is gonna be for me. It’s AdvoCare. I look forward to a long relationship with them. This company has been incredible for me this season, getting to know the people behind the brand, getting to know what the brand stands for, and getting to know their product this year with all the training that I’ve done being in the race car. It’s just one of the best companies you could ever ask for to represent and to represent you. There are hundreds of thousands of distributors who have become fans and it’s been incredible to watch this year, but the person that I wanted to thank the most in this room is Jack Roush for standing behind me over the last four years now. We’ve been through a lot of ups-and-downs, but he and his organization from day one has said our goal was to get to Sprint Cup. We always wondered when that day was gonna be. There were times when it felt like things were moving really fast and times where we had to really bite down and be patient, but one thing has stayed constant and that’s Jack and Steve Newmark and everybody else – Evan Lyall – at Roush Fenway Racing that have been committed to me and my career. They’ve always developed young drivers and I’m glad to be one of those that have had the opportunity to drive Jack’s Nationwide cars and now I’m finally gonna get to drive one of his Sprint Cup cars. This is just such an opportunity and this room is full of people who have supported me along the way. My parents over here, my mom and dad who gave me the first opportunity to drive anything, and now my wife, Ashton, who has been behind me these last few years and really this season, our first year being married. I can’t possibly thank everybody because there have been so many people that have allowed this to happen, but today is about AdvoCare, the number 6 Roush Fenway Ford, and me finally getting to live out my dream, so I couldn’t be more excited.”
MIKE VAUGHT, AdvoCare director of sponsorships – “In life everything is about relationships and with Roush Fenway, from Jack to Steve, all the way down to our No. 6 crew this year is a first-class organization. They’ve been fantastic for us and for Trevor to drive our car, Trevor is a great ambassador for our company. He really fits what we’re all about. We have almost 500,000 distributors that are gonna be really excited today. They love Trevor and they love Ashton, so this is gonna be big news for those guys. In life people come in your life that make you a better person by being around them and Trevor is one of those guys, and we’re really excited about him being on our AdvoCare team now and into the future. We’re excited about running for a championship this year in Nationwide and enjoying the rest of this season, but we’re really excited about going to Sprint Cup next year. It will be a great branding opportunity for our company and we can’t wait to get to that point. We also want to thank NASCAR for letting us be a part of this great sport.”
JACK ROUSH, Car Owner – No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion – “This is a great day for me. I remember when I started with Mark Martin in 1988 and NASCAR gave us the No. 6. Of course, we had trials and tribulations, we were up-and-down that year and actually won our first race in 1989. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it, but as we’ve gone through the years – 26 years this fall – this No. 6 DNA has worked its way throughout the organization. It’s been really great to think about getting the No. 6 back on the track. I remember how sad I was at the end of our 18th year together when Mark decided he was gonna retire and, of course, I talked him out of it for another year and put it off so we got 19 full years out of him. But to have Trevor and AdvoCare back in the No. 6 car is just gonna be great. To watch Trevor develop and to understand the path they take with the family support down through the decades, he’s really a success story for his family and a role model for a lot of youngsters who want to make the most of their lives. He’s following the same path that Greg Biffle did and Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth did in finding their way into the sport through one of NASCAR’s lower series, and then being able to move up to the Sprint Cup Series. I look forward to being able to enjoy success and be part of his career for many years to come. AdvoCare is a great American entrepreneurial success of its own. Richard Wright and Sherry are the principals in charge of the organization right now, but Charles Ragus and his family have been custodians of things and they’ve really lived the American Dream for themselves and for all of their direct marketers. The products AdvoCare sells, the things that they bring forward to the population are in the interest of human wellness. They’re a high moral company with high standards that really make me proud to be a part of it and I thank Mike Vaught for the part he did an bringing this deal together and look forward to watching Trevor develop as years go by.”
QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – DOES THIS MEAN YOU’RE EXPANDING TO FOUR CARS NEXT YEAR OR IS SOMEBODY NOT GOING TO BE WITH YOU NEXT YEAR? “Our plans for 2015 are still in a state of flux. Certainly the fact we’ve taken the No. 6 indicates that we have our plans open for a fourth car, but it’s still in a state of flux. We’ll have more to announce on that later.”
TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED – WHAT WAS THAT CONVERSATION WITH THE WOODS LIKE? “It’s been such a ride with the 21 guys, and they’ve become part of the family, and I’ve become part of their family. That was the thing, you think about the history that we’ve had together over the last three, four years and it’s always hard to make changes, but this is such a great change and, really, just their support is really what made me almost want to tear up because they’re telling me how much they’re behind me and how much they’ve appreciated what we’ve done. I was actually standing beside the trailer talking to them and they pointed up to the Daytona 500 sticker and said ‘that’s one thing that will never change right there is you got your first one here. I don’t care if you get 25 more, this was your first one and we’re so glad we were able to be a part of it.’ So just to have that almost family-like support from them is incredible. I hope to talk to the rest of my guys as soon as this is over before I get in my car for practice. I talked to Donnie Wingo and he had the same thing, and really that’s how it’s been from everyone – from Roush Fenway and from AdvoCare and from Wood Brothers – it’s just the excitement. Everybody understands how big of an opportunity this is. God has blessed me so much with this opportunity to have the consistency of one sponsor, one car, to be able to go full-time and we’ve all known that was the goal since the beginning when Roush allowed me to drive the 21 car. They knew that was the goal at the end of the day was to be a full-time Sprint Cup driver for Jack Roush and they played such a big part of my career and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”
JACK ROUSH CONTINUED – DO YOU HAVE ANY SAY WHAT EDDIE AND LEN DO WITH THE 21 CAR GOING FORWARD? “As far as what the Wood Brothers plans are for 2015, I’m not privy to all the considerations they have going on. Certainly, we’ve got two rookies that would be candidates for a part-time Cup program if that suits their purpose, but they’re part of the Ford family and now that Penske is part of the Ford family, in addition to the other Ford teams out there, I’m sure Ford and Motorcraft and the Wood Brohters will look through the entire group of rookie drivers that are coming up that would be available to them. If they make a decision to come to one of our rookies, that will be fine. If it doesn’t, we’ll support them as we always have.”
DID YOU LOOK AT ANY OTHER DRIVERS FOR THIS RIDE AND WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN IN TREVOR THAT CONVINCED YOU HE’S READY FOR A FULL-TIME CUP RIDE? “When we started with Trevor he came to us four years ago and we put our deal together it was with the goal of putting Trevor in a full-time Cup ride as soon as he was ready and as soon as we found the right relationship with a sponsor/partner. We achieved that with AdvoCare and with Trevor for 2015. We really hadn’t thought about a different driver for the 6 car at this time. We were just working to get Trevor to where he was confident with him being ready. The fact he won the Daytona 500 early was really a good indication of where he was going and his progress in the meantime had made that decision look very good.”
ANY UPDATES ON THE PROGRESS OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH CARL EDWARDS AND GREG BIFFLE? “There is nothing to announce at this time. We’re still in a state of flux on that and we’ll let you know when we have something more definite.”
