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Trevor Bayne’s Bandwagon: Custom Made or Mass Produced?

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Bandwagons are illus ional mysteries.

There are no definitive pictures, sketches or photos. Anyone can be a part of the bandwagon.

The only requirement is that you must jump on.

During a race weekend the Sprint Cup garage is truly where the action is.

At any given moment you can stop, look around, and be treated to a panorama of today’s NASCAR.

A simple check of visual acuity will tell you who the reigning Sprint Cup Champion is, where each driver stacks up in points, and which drivers carry the burden of go-or-go home.

During speed weeks at Daytona, a trip through the back side of the Sprint Cup garage is where you would find the go-or-go home rides of Derrick Cope, Joe Nemechek, Michael Waltrip, Casey Mears and the car of a young kid named Trevor Bayne.

Bayne made it clear during qualifying that he wasn’t going home. Running a fast lap of 185.445 mph secured the outside of row 1, until Dale Earnhardt Jr. bumped him to third.

After finishing 19th because of a last lap crash in his Gatorade Duel, Bayne would settle for a 32nd starting position in the Daytona 500.

By now just about everyone around the world has heard the news about the outcome of the Great American Race.

Winning the Daytona 500 is the difference between I am here and here I am!

Construction of the Trevor Bayne bandwagon began right about the time the checkered flag waved.

It’s quite possible the shape and size was determined by the amount of space occupied by friends, media, sponsors and fans.

Who, or what, drives the bandwagon can also be considered an anomaly. Those entities driving the positive side are almost certainly jockeying for position with those driving the negative side. For Trevor Bayne, both carriages will carry many occupants.

No matter which bandwagon carries the majority, it doesn’t mean it’s the right one for the bandwagon namesake.

In this case, Trevor Bayne, his handlers, or advisors, have many options and many decisions to make in the coming weeks. Those decisions have to be what’s best for him, and may not be what’s popular with the bandwagon construction crew.

Being thrust into a career change because of one successful event can be very costly and damaging, especially if the one being thrust is not ready, or even worse, not capable of handling it.

Previous Daytona 500 winner Derrick Cope, and Sprint Cup single event winner Brad Kezelowski had similar bandwagons constructed for them.

Bandwagons are a dime a dozen, made of opinionated materials and painted with water colors.

Unfortunately, bandwagons also come without warranties.

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”133″][/media-credit]Winning a single race only proves you can win; it doesn’t make you a proven winner.

NASCAR will head out to Phoenix in a few short days. Construction on the next bandwagon begins soon.

Comments

7 responses to “Trevor Bayne’s Bandwagon: Custom Made or Mass Produced?”

  1. Sal Sigala Jr. Avatar
    Sal Sigala Jr.

    Horn fan you never cease to amaze me with your well thought out comments. Its no wonder you quit using your real name, since you don’t want anyone knowing who you really are. Now if you can only stay quiet for a second, I think I hear B/R calling you.

    Reply
  2. Horn Fan Avatar
    Horn Fan

    Guess your well versed on bandwagon fans, since Junior Nation runs rampant with them. As a fan that keeps an eye on the young talent, I could have told you that Bayne would be a winner in Cup. Just not the 500 in his second race, or before winning in the Nationwide, and NASCAR will benefit from it.

    Sal, the Kids 20 years old, let’s let him race a few years before we try to analysis what he’ll do. Just typical of you with your blogger mentality trying to over analysis a Kid after two races.

    Reply
    1. David Yeazell Avatar
      David Yeazell

      Thanks for the comment SM.

      Reply
  3. Dat Dude Avatar
    Dat Dude

    As usual, David, your ignorance knows no bounds. A kid wins the biggest race in NASCAR in just his second start in the series. He’s humble, people love him and they celebrate with him. The real question is what he and his team expect of him, not you, not me, nor anyone else.
    There are few in the NASCAR media whose writings I consistently, genuinely dislike, but yours is one of them. Just my opinion.

    Reply
    1. David Yeazell Avatar
      David Yeazell

      Thanks for the comment. I appreciate your opinion and the fact that, while you dislike my writings, you still read them.

      This article was fair and balanced on both sides. I like Trevor, spoke with him more than once at Daytona and feel he has a bright future.

      That future cannot be defined by one race.

      Bandwagons are a dime a dozen, and often are built with left over parts from others.

      Brad Kez had a band wagon after Talladega, where is it now?
      Derrick Cope won the Daytona 500 also, and only one race after that. Where is he now?

      How did TB do in Phoenix?

      Reality often sucks, but its part of life and cannot be avoided.

      I am almost sure Trevor Bayne would agree with this article. He is that grounded and that in touch with reality.

      As always, it’s just my opinion.

      Reply
  4. Sal Sigala Jr Avatar
    Sal Sigala Jr

    David it so true about the bandwagon, and the truth to the matter is if he doesn’t produce a top-10 finish the rest of the season, the ramifications can be disastrous. His morale as well as his confidence can take a major blow, and the blame could be placed on those who chose to put him on a premature pedestal.

    Reply
    1. Ingrid Avatar
      Ingrid

      It should also be noted that the Dewalt comnpay that sponsored Kenseth was doing very poorly financially (Dewalt power tools and a recession that wiped out a bunch of contractors due to the terrible housing market don’t mix well) and was bought out by Stanley tools. That is the reason that Dewalt/Stanley sponsors the #9, because Stanley was always with RPM (or evernham, gillette, whatever name it went by through the past 10 years or so)Last thing to say You can’t judge a driver by the number of sponsors they have had, or whether a sponsor decides to continue with that driver. Companies make decisions based on far more than just one person when they decide to sponsor a Nascar team. Managers change, advertising budgets change, etc. If Crown Royal simply didn’t like Kenseth, then they would have sponsored another driver. They didn’t.

      Reply

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