Trevor Bayne will return to a full-time NASCAR ride for the first time since 2010 – before he became a Daytona 500 winner – if all goes as planned with Roush Fenway Racing next season.
Bayne reiterated Friday that team owner Jack Roush intends to run him full-time in the Nationwide Series next season – with the team Ricky Stenhouse Jr. uses now – and said "it sounds like (the plan) is in concrete."
If it happens, it would be Bayne's first-ever full-season ride with a single team. Even in 2010, his Michael Waltrip-backed ride ran out of sponsorship and he was forced to switch to Roush before the year was over.
"I never ran that one full season all the way through with one team and one group of guys, and that's what I'm looking forward to next year," he said.
Bayne said he was "a little bit bummed" at first because he wanted Roush to put him in a Cup car (the team isn't currently running four cars due to a lack of sponsorship). But he eventually realized the experience of running a full Nationwide season would "be good to get under our belt."
As of now, Bayne said he will also continue to run a partial Cup schedule for Wood Brothers Racing next season.
Tonight's Nationwide race at Bristol will be the 21-year-old's first event in the series since March, and he said it could be his last one of the year unless he can convince Roush to let him run a few races toward the end of the season.