NASCAR Cup Series

Bayne joins drivers in triathlon

Published Jan. 24, 2013 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Trevor Bayne certainly hasn’t been idle in his hours out of the race car.

In December, he showed that racers are indeed athletes. He trained with fellow NASCAR drivers Josh Wise and Blake Koch to run the Tri Key West Sprint Triathlon in Key West, Fla.

The event included a 20-kilometer bike ride, 0.75-km swim and 5-km run.

It all started as a simple way to exercise while hanging out with his friends.

“Josh Wise, Blake Koch, Scott Speed, we all hop on our road bikes and go ride for two hours and you can talk and still breathe and not be dying or anything like that, so the bike riding is what I enjoy,” Bayne said. “And once we felt like we were getting strong at that, then we started running some and swimming some and just doing different training so you don’t get bored. We’re so competitive; we wanted to be able to compete in something.”

That something turned into the sprint triathlon.

Bayne said he thinks they started training for it in June — and could train for lengthier events if time permits.

“Nothing too crazy, but it was enough to get your heart going,” he said. “It was a start. This year we’d like to do — I think Josh and Blake are doing a full Ironman, but I’m not doing that. No way. I don’t have enough time to train for that, so maybe a half at the end of the year.”

Although he failed to mention it, according to the official results online, the 21-year-old Bayne finished second in his age category with a time of 1 hour, 22 minutes, 41.96 seconds.

As Bayne considers more events of that nature this season, spare time will be rarer. He’s racing full time in the Nationwide Series and running a limited schedule in the Sprint Cup ranks. Bayne will contend for the Nationwide title with Roush Fenway Racing, taking over the No. 6 entry recently driven by two-time series champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He’ll also continue his role as driver of the Wood Brothers Racing Ford in the Cup series, the team with which he won the 2011 Daytona 500.

Still, he’s working to keep up his training when he can — something that can only boost his on-track efforts as he chases that Nationwide title.

“I’ve still been trying to keep up with the training,” he said. “It’s hard when it’s cold outside; it’s hard to motivate yourself to go hop on the road bike or to go run, but that’s something you’ve kind of got to do for racing.”