New fame helps Bayne spread faith
There were 30 or so green hats to sign for sponsors, and Trevor Bayne glided a black marker over the bill of each one, all the while speaking on racing and fame and a faith so strong you couldn’t move it with one of those monster NASCAR haulers.
The kid can multitask with the best of them.
It’s sort of a prerequisite when you’re trying to become the world’s best driver and transform the planet one spiritual message at a time.
I hope he never changes. I hope that whether you are in the camp that supports Bayne and a desire to use his NASCAR status as a stage for spreading the Christian word or on a side that condemns such a goal, there always exists an appreciation for an athlete so genuine.
I hope he always remains the affable kid signing those green hats with the black marker.
“If I could do anything, I’d be out there in the mission fields hanging with little kids, being the hands and feet,” he said. “But with my career, I can’t be out there all the time. I figure He put me here for a reason, that if I can’t be doing mission work, I can raise funds and awareness for those who can.
“I want to take advantage of being here. I can reach 41,000 people on my Twitter account today and get the message to them. Racing has given me the type of platform very few 20-year-olds have.”
He’s the driver who rolled into the Daytona 500 a couple of weeks back with every intention of trying to push other drivers to victory and instead became the youngest in history to win his sport’s biggest race.
Bayne will be speeding around Las Vegas Motor Speedway today and Sunday, directing the 16 car for Roush Fenway Racing in the Nationwide Series and the 21 in the Sprint Cup Series for Wood Brothers Racing, having delivered the latter to Victory Lane at Daytona for the first time since 1976.
Bayne will try not to crash either day, which he did three times at Phoenix last week. “First time I’ve had to use a backup car,” he said.
It has been a whirlwind.
Bayne, since winning Daytona, has traveled from Florida to Connecticut to Chicago to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Phoenix to North Carolina to Tennessee to North Carolina to New York to here, zigzagging through a media tour of interviews and parades and schmoozing with everyone from George Lopez to Pamela Anderson.
“I don’t know what time it is,” he said. “I don’t know where I am. I only know that I get to drive a race car.”
Daytona taught him about the sport’s limitless possibilities. Phoenix taught him about its sudden pitfalls. He tries to keep teaching anyone who will listen about God’s word.
NASCAR was born and nurtured in the nation’s Bible Belt and remains the one major sport where an invocation is given before competition begins, where the prayer is televised as racers and families and fans openly champion their Christian faith.
Bayne is the newest face among a group of rising stars in offering his beliefs to what has become more and more a diverse following. He tweets verses from Ecclesiastes and Ezekiel and Luke. He talks of mission groups in need around the world. He never wavers in his purpose.
Doubters don’t dissuade him. He moved away from his Tennessee home at age 15 to begin his NASCAR dream in North Carolina after years of begging his parents to allow him the opportunity.
His is an old soul and a baby’s face, all the while owning the driving skill that team owner Eddie Wood calls magic. He could be to NASCAR — whose popularity has grown and declined over different stretches the past few years — a much-needed jolt of energy.
“I wouldn’t care either way what people think of me,” Bayne said. “I’d be the same person. Sure, you have guys after games throwing out a shout to God, but when it’s real, when people see you truly live it every day and there is something meaningful to it … I’m not there yet, but I want to be that guy.
“I’m going to make mistakes. I just want to be the best representative and follower I can be. Fame is great. I want to be the best driver, mostly for selfish reasons but for other ones also. It’s now a platform, you know? We get to stand on it and shine.
“Hey, sorry I had to sign all these hats while we were talking.”
Yeah. I’ll get over it.
I hope he never changes.
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday and Thursday on “Monsters of the Midday,” Fox Sports Radio 920 AM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.
