Bayston and team owner Harley Van Dyke, whose team is based on the West Coast in California, struggled during their preliminary night to get the balance on the No. 5h sprinter where the Indiana young gun needed it to be.
However, they showed Friday night that the puzzle pieces were finally starting to click for them.
“Every time we’ve gotten on the track this week, we’ve gotten better, but we made tremendous gains before Friday night’s A-main,” Bayston noted. “In the heat race, we were pretty good, but our Achilles heel has been starting the feature at the back, in dirty air and with a full fuel load … we’ve just kind of fallen apart. Last night, though, we went a different route to set up for the feature, and it obviously worked.
“That’s by far the best we’ve been, and it’s amazing how much more fun you can have when the car is actually handling well.”
With Friday night in the rear-view mirror and a 12th-place starting position for Saturday’s 22-lap Last Chance Showdown, Bayston’s focus is now firmly on what he needs to do to make the Knoxville Nationals.
If he passes eight cars in the B-main, Bayston will race in the $150,000-to-win finale, and the young Hoosier believes he has a shot to do just that if track conditions play to his teams liking.
“If the car is close, like it was last night, then all we need is the track to slick off and slow down and I think we’ll have a shot,” Bayston said. “We don’t have some of the resources that some of the other big teams do, so the start will be everything for us to be able to pass some cars and get ourselves in position to pounce. There’s so many good cars at that point, they’re not making a lot of mistakes, so your chances to gain many spots are lower than they have been for the rest of the week.
“If I can make some moves on the initial start, we’ll be OK and have a chance here.”
After a season of turmoil, where he parted ways with the Pete Grove-owned Premier Motorsports team mid-year and has been scrapping for opportunities ever since, Bayston has been soaking in just being back at the Knoxville Nationals just as much as he has been trying to get into the Saturday night finale.
“This week has been great. There for a little bit, I didn’t even think I was going to be able to run Knoxville,” Bayston admitted. “I’d had a 360 (Nationals) ride lined up with A.G. Rains for a while, so I knew I had that to fall back on, but I really wanted to run the 410 Nationals. That’s what I was focused on and wanted to do, and for a while I thought I might just be there hanging out and not racing.
“To be able to have the opportunity that Harley’s given me to run has been neat. I know this car has had success in the past, and we struggled a bit early in the week, but we’ve kept a never-give up attitude and made progress every single night,” he added. “We’ve started to learn each other better and figure out what I need and what I like, and I think that’s helped a lot.
“Unfortunately, they’re from California and have to head back to their home after this week, but I’m extremely grateful for the chance they’ve given me to do this at Knoxville and hope to finish strong.”
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