Fort Worth, TX – Ninth months after his surprise victory in the Daytona 500, Trevor Bayne captured his first Nationwide Series race win by taking Saturday's O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge in dramatic fashion at Texas Motor Speedway.
Bayne passed his Roush Fenway Racing teammate Carl Edwards for the lead just after the final restart with six laps remaining in the 300-mile race. He then held off a hard-charging Denny Hamlin during the last three laps for his first win in his 77th Nationwide start.
Hamlin, substituting for Kyle Busch in Joe Gibbs Racing's No.18 Toyota, had to start from the rear of the field due to a driver change. Earlier in the day, NASCAR suspended Busch from this weekend's Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races at Texas following his retaliation against Ron Hornaday Jr. in Friday night's Camping World Truck Series event here.
Edwards, who had dominated the race with 157 laps led, wound up finishing third. Clint Bowyer and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s sixth-place finish coupled with a ninth-place run for Elliott Sadler allowed Stenhouse to increase his points lead to 17 over Sadler.
Just two races remain -- Phoenix (November 12) and Homestead (Nov. 19).
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