For the first time in over five years, Trevor Bayne is racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. For the first time in over a decade, he will run a NASCAR race in a Toyota.
On Wednesday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced Bayne will drive the #18 Toyota Supra in seven races at Auto Club Speedway (26 February), Phoenix Raceway (12 March), Charlotte Motor Speedway (28 May), Nashville Superspeedway (25 June), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (16 July), Las Vegas Motor Speedway (15 October), and Homestead-Miami Speedway (22 October). He will be sponsored by Devotion Nutrition.
Bayne’s NASCAR career is synonymous with his win in the 2011 Daytona 500 as a 20-year-old. Much of his Cup and Xfinity Series career has been with Ford as a member of the now-RFK Racing family, which included running full-time in the premier division between 2015 and 2017. His 2018 full Cup slate dropped down to a part-time schedule and he fell out of NASCAR for the next two seasons. He made his NASCAR return in 2020 by running eight Camping World Truck Series races for Niece Motorsports. Bayne scored two top tens including nearly winning at Talladega; he also had a top five taken away at Bristol after being disqualified. He did not race in NASCAR in 2021.
With his full-time career mostly over, Bayne has since returned home to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he runs Mahalo Coffee Roasters with his wife Ashton. Outside of stock cars, he also races dirt cars like late models, which Devotion Nutrition sponsors.
Bayne last drove a Toyota in the 2009 and 2010 Xfinity Series for Michael Waltrip Racing. He ran the full 2010 season in the team’s #99 Toyota Camry before signing with then-Roush Fenway Racing to finish the year.
The #18, driven by Daniel Hemric to the 2021 Xfinity championship before he departed for Kaulig Racing, becomes JGR’s multi-driver car. The role was previously filled by the #54, which won eleven races and finished second in the owner’s championship. The #54 will therefore presumably become a single-driver ride, which many expect to be filled by Ty Gibbs. Additional drivers for the #18 have yet to be revealed, especially as Kyle Busch recently confirmed he will not return to the series after 102 career wins.
