The pair’s journeys within the sport both centered around perseverance, but often both intersected.
For a period of time, when he wasn’t starting-and-parking in Cup Series races, McDowell was Bayne’s motorcoach driver in an attempt to remain visible to his competitors and to team owners.
“Man, it’s the little things that give you life, especially when you feel like you’re at the bottom of a hole and then you have a good run,” McDowell explained. “I drove for Randy McDonald and I drove for Phil Parsons, and Phil was a huge part of me getting the experience I needed in Cup, even though it wasn’t full races. I learned so much in that time. I learned a lot from Tommy Baldwin and Dustin Whitney also.
“When you show up to the race track knowing you’re not going to race, it’s hard. I drove Trevor’s coach for a while, even,” he added. “I drove my own coach here. I did whatever I could … just knowing that I would get an opportunity eventually.”
McDowell connected with Bayne over the phone as the sun was preparing to rise Monday, finally able to soak in the moment as the two discussed their Daytona accomplishments.
“I finally got to talk to him (at) about 5 a.m. and he was just waking up getting ready to go to his coffee shop,” McDowell noted during the traditional Daytona 500 Champion’s Celebration. “He said, ‘Man, I woke up and I had all these phone calls and text messages. I can’t believe it.’ Trevor and I are close friends and we just have that brotherly bond and I said, ‘Man, can you believe it? We’re both Daytona 500 champions. How crazy is that?’ It was really special.
“This sport has so many highs and lows. The lows can be low and the highs can be really high, and being on both sides of them teaches you to appreciate each moment for what it is.”
While Bayne spent eight years trying to replicate his Daytona 500 win at other tracks on the NASCAR circuit, he is no longer driving race cars on a regular basis, though he did return for a handful of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts with Niece Motorsports last fall.
McDowell, however, hopes his Daytona 500 victory isn’t the end of his NASCAR success story.
The 36-year-old sees his breakthrough as a new beginning, and one that he hopes can catapult both himself and Front Row Motorsports into a fresh chapter of their racing careers.
“When you win, the fire (to succeed) gets deeper, but we all know that’s not an every week thing for us and our race team right now. We’ve been making great gains and I’m so proud of Front Row, but we know that on 26 of the race tracks this year … we’ll just be happy to be in that top 10,” McDowell reflected. “When we go to the superspeedways, when we go to the road courses and when we go to some of the short tracks, we can definitely contend. We’re getting better and better every year.
“I think this definitely gives us a lot of confidence and you always want more, but I am so thankful that I am not going to go my entire Cup career without a win,” McDowell said with a smile. “It’s such a relief to me now to know that I won’t go 400 starts without a win. I’ve always said I want one and I’ve got one now, and obviously because of that I want two, right? I want to win the road course next week, but if I don’t, believe me I’m (still) going to be very happy.
“I’m very happy with what I’ve done in my career and what we were able to accomplish. It’s all special.”