Photo Credit: Mike Holtscalw
TREVOR BAYNE – No. 6 Cargill Ford Mustang and No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – “Obviously, you know why we’re here, so if you have any questions I’m ready to go.
WHY THE QUICK NOTICE ON THIS? WAS THIS SOMETHING YOU JUST FOUND OUT? “I just didn’t want to leave everybody in the dark. It’s not something I was told I had to do or anything like that, but it’s just a decision we made as a group to let everybody know. There’s not really any reason why we shouldn’t let everybody know, so I just wanted to do that with you guys and obviously I found out a little earlier this year – late summer – and I just took some time to talk with some partners and our team here and my family and just everybody involved that’s really close to me and just think about this for a little bit and digest it and now I felt was the best timing to let everybody know.”
IS THIS WHAT YOU’VE BEEN DEALING WITH SINCE 2011? “Two thousand eleven is what led to my eventual diagnosis this year. Obviously, I’ve been going to the Mayo Clinic regularly for checkups and evaluations and they started checking on me and researching. We didn’t have a diagnosis then, so this is what has led to the diagnosis.”
SO WHAT THEY THOUGHT MIGHT HAVE BEEN LYME DISEASE TURNED OUT TO BE THIS OR DID YOU REALLY HAVE LYME AND THIS IS SEPARATE? “There could have been local Lyme’s on my elbow and that’s why at the time we were like, ‘That’s what it is,’ and it was an easy thing because I did have the rash on my arm from a bug bite. I don’t know if the two are connected. I’m not a doctor and I wouldn’t want to make that call, but they wanted to do more research because I wasn’t satisfied with not knowing, so as a competitive person and as a racer you guys know how we work. We want to know how everything works and causes and effects, so I just kept going back for checkups and this is what it has led to.”
THE RELEASE SAID YOU HAVE NO SYMPTOMS NOW. DO YOU EXPECT TO BE SYMPTOMATIC AT SOME POINT? HAVE THEY GIVEN YOU ANY KIND OF TIMEFRAME? “My hope is not to ever have symptoms again. Obviously, there are people who have gone with completely normal lives with MS and I hope to be one of those people. Nobody knows exactly what the future holds for anybody, but, for me, I trust that whatever God has planned for me is what’s best for my life. I’d love to be healed. That would be perfect if that’s what He plans for, but, if not, then we’ll move on day by day with it and at this point I have no symptoms and feel completely fine to drive. I just got done with a workout a few minutes ago. Last year, December 1, I did my first triathlon because I just wanted to push my body. I wanted to see what that is and where is my limit, and I haven’t hit that limit yet. So I did my first triathlon and there were 440 people there. I finished 38th overall and finished second in my age group. I got passed on the last half-mile, so that was the worst part of it for my age group. I wish I would have trained a little harder for it, but it was really cool to see that I can push my body like that, that it performs and I’ve been completely fine.”
HAVE YOU BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH RELAPSING/REMITTING MS? DO YOU KNOW? “I really don’t know the huge medical terms. I just know MS and I can’t even say the full name. I go with MS.”
HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED ANY SYMPTOMS SINCE JUNE 2011? “No, none at all. That’s been the great part about it is without doctors I wouldn’t even know. I would just keep going on like my life was completely normal and everything has been normal, so that’s the great thing about it.”
DID THEY JUST KEEP RUNNING TESTS? IT SEEMS STRANGE THIS DIAGNOSIS COMES TWO YEARS AFTER THE BUG BITE AND NOTHING ELSE HAS HAPPENED IN BETWEEN. “That’s the thing, I think MS takes time to diagnose and, as a doctor, you don’t want to jump right in and give a diagnosis to somebody. I think a smart doctor is gonna continue to do things. Obviously, it’s a different kind of condition than something where you can just see it immediately, so over time they just evaluate you and the doctors just run a bunch of different tests. You would be amazed. They’ve got everything except for an eight-post like we run our race cars on that they can put you through to figure out what’s going on, so I’ve been super-impressed and really educated on how our medical stuff works. It’s been neat to see and I’m definitely appreciative for the knowledge that the doctors have and the time that they spend studying these things because looking something up on Wikipedia doesn’t do it. The years of medical school that these guys have, it’s nice to have that.”
STRESS CAN SOMETIMES BRING ON SYMPTOMS. HAVE THEY TOLD YOU WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO PREVENT SYMPTOMS FROM COMING? “I’m 22 and the doctors recommend what they recommend for everybody and that’s to just take the best care of your body you can, stay hydrated and keep yourself cool and do everything you can and that’s something we already do as performance athletes anyway. We want to take care of our bodies, train hard, stay hydrated in the race car because you sweat so much, and that’s what I’ve been doing and I’ve always done that. You want to keep yourself as healthy as possible with or without a condition and now it just makes that even more apparent.”
YOU SAID KEEP YOURSELF COOL? “Sure. In the race car a lot of guys keep hoses and things like that blowing on you. That’s something I like to have anyways, so if you can keep yourself cool and hydrated, that’s the best thing for any person whether they have a condition or not.”
FATIGUE WOULD BE THE BIGGEST CONCERN IN THE RACE CAR? “I’ve not seen any fatigue issues at all for myself and, like I said, I’ve experienced a lot more stress on my body doing triathlons than I ever have in a race car and pushing myself. At this point, there’s still be nothing at all that has ever pushed me to that limit and that’s what is a really good sign for me to see.”
YOU CONTINUED TO GO BACK TO MAYO BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO KNOW? “Yes.”
BECAUSE OF YOUR SISTER’S HISTORY WAS IT SOMETHING THEY WERE LOOKING FOR ALL ALONG? “Not at all. MS is not a hereditary or family kind of condition, so it’s something that is an individual basis.”
DO YOU FIND THAT STRANGE WITH TWO SIBLINGS IN ONE FAMILY? “Not really. They don’t connect them at all because it’s not a family kind of thing.”
IS THERE ANY MEDICATION YOU’RE ADDING NOW OR ANY MEDICATION YOU COULD TAKE THAT YOU CAN’T BECAUSE YOU NEED TO RACE? “There are no medications required for it at this point and that’s another great thing. There’s nothing that I do daily that changes, so at this point it doesn’t require that, which is nice. So I’m going on with normal life pretty much. That’s what you guys are gonna hear. We have a diagnosis, which is a great thing because now we know. It’s something that we didn’t have the advantage of knowing a couple years ago, but now we do and now I’ll take the best care of my body as possible and go on with normal life and try to lead a career that is contending for championships, race wins and all the time depending on my faith in the Lord to hold me up and for me to withstand all this. It seems like my career has been a rollercoaster with wins and things that have not been great. We’re adding on to it now and adding on to my testimony, but I’m actually thankful to be going through this because it makes me appreciative for the days that you have, for things that you go through, for a race team that supports me, for sponsors that support me. Obviously, when I first started talking to Roush Fenway, Wood Brothers, my sponsors, our partners about these things, of course you’re gonna be a little nervous – what are the impressions and things like that – but they’ve been so supportive and that’s been unbelievable. Without going through something like this, you don’t understand what it means to be unconditionally supportive and when you go through it and you see sponsors and teams like this that have your back all the time, that believe in you and know that you can still get the job done, that’s been awesome for me to see and I’m so appreciative for that. I think it’s built this team even stronger and that’s the best part of it.”
WHAT WAS THE PROCESS LIKE TO TELL ROUSH FENWAY? “I talked to Steve Newmark first. He goes through a lot of things, but this is one of them and I took it to him and Jack and talked to them. We came in this exact room you’re sitting in right now and sat down with Jack Roush, Steve Newmark and the Wood Brothers and when I told Jack he said, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir. I’m ready to go.’ And he said, ‘Well, alright, what can we do to make our cars better?’ So that’s Jack Roush for you. He’s a competitor and he wants to know what we can do to make our cars better to win races and championships. He trusts me. He trusts the doctors that have cleared me. I trust the doctors that have cleared me and we’re ready to go racing. Like I said, Jack’s concern is how can we make all of our teams faster as it should be.”
DID YOU HAVE IMMEDIATE CONCERNS ABOUT YOUR CAREER WHEN YOU WERE DIAGNOSED? “For me, I don’t have concerns about that. To me, I’ve felt great. I feel like I can continue on with my job without any differences. My competitive nature is still exactly the same as it has always been since I started racing when I was five years old. I want to go win races and go win championships and contend at the highest level. To me, there’s nothing that has changed for me in my physical world, so I’m able to go on.”
STEVE NEWMARK, President, Roush Fenway Racing – WHAT WAS THE BIG CONCERN FOR ROUSH FENWAY? “From the Roush Fenway perspective our primary concern was, first and foremost, was Trevor’s health and Trevor’s situation and what was right from Trevor’s perspective. I think that it was refreshing that he actually got a diagnosis because there had been some uncertainty about what had unfolded previously, so I know it was comforting to him and that’s why he pursued it so strongly. As far as the process from a racing perspective, there have been no manifestation of any symptoms and, quite frankly, we will rely on the Mayo Clinic, which is one of the premier medical facilities in the world, and they have indicated to us on several occasions that he is completely fine to drive. As you guys know, we’ve had several experiences at Mayo and Jack has had some personal time up there, so he’s got a lot of faith and trust in that. And then obviously we’ve corresponded with NASCAR and they’ve had contact with the Mayo Clinic as well, so once you get approval from both of those authorities you’re pretty much good to go. One of the things that I admire and respect a lot about what Trevor is doing is he has no obligation to be coming out and sharing his personal medical issues. Once Mayo and NASCAR have cleared him, he’s got authorization to drive and proceed. This was something he decided on his own, that was the right thing to do, and that he wanted to be forthright about. I think it’s an admirable thing and I appreciate Trevor’s honesty on that front.”
WHAT DID NASCAR SAY? “I think NASCAR probably had similar questions that we all did and, first and foremost, was how are you feeling? How are you doing from a health perspective? And then it really is just making sure that the doctors who have evaluated him regularly have said, ‘Yes, driving is something that you’re permitted to do and we give you the authorization.’ I think that’s really what NASCAR was looking for. I’m not sure what the process was internally, but I can tell you that Mike Helton and that crowd have been extremely supportive of Trevor.”
AND SPONSORS? “Sponsors, and I think you’ll probably hear directly from some of them when you’re talking about AdvoCare, Motorcraft, it has been in resounding support. First and foremost, everyone’s questions were concerns about Trevor personally, and then after that they’ve lined up and said, ‘Tell us what you need us to do to stand behind him.’ I think that’s a testament to the type of young man that Trevor is, but each one has said, ‘You let us know what we need to do and we’re 100 percent supportive of your effort and we want to see Trevor out there winning races.’”
ANY CONCERN WITH ADVOCARE? “None at all.”
TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED – “And you guys might ask, ‘Why now? Why come out and do this kind of stuff?’ Like Steve mentioned, I didn’t have to do this. There are a lot more people in our community and in our world that can relate to somebody who is going through hard times and somebody who is winning races, who is winning championships, who has won the Daytona 500, who looks like he has it all together – that has a team around him, just got married. I mean, it looks like everything is going great, but how many people can relate to that? So, for me, going through something hard – why hard something that’s kind of hard that shows our true character when we’re gonna show all the great things? So as a Believer, as a Christian, for me, this is part of my testimony I wanted to be able to talk about. When I go to places and speak and I tell people about my faith, it’s not that I trust Him because everything is going great. I trust Him through everything, whether it’s good, whether it’s not so good, whether it’s hard, whether it’s inspiring, whether it’s difficult. So for me this is something else. This is just another piece of my story and another part of my life that I deal with and I feel like I’m a pretty open book and I never wanted to feel like I had anything to hide or ever had anything where somebody talked to me about it – I had to sit in the corner and try to push the question a different way. It’s something that I just feel like is important to me in my life and obviously Ashton is very supportive of me and my family is and our team, so why not share this with everybody? Hopefully, they can be inspired by it and know that you can lead a completely normal and successful life with things that don’t seem like you could.”
DO YOU THINK THAT’S WHY THIS HAS FALLEN ON YOUR SHOULDERS BECAUSE YOU HAVE THAT PLATFORM? “For sure. Why not? Why not help other people through their struggles and point them in the right direction? For me, I feel like that’s what I’m called to do, so why be silent about it and why just sit back on our heels and not do anything? I’m a race car driver, that’s what I do, but it’s not all of who I am. I have a lot of aspects in my life, so I want to do these things and lead a life that’s worthy of the calling I’ve received.”
DID YOU NEED SOME TIME TO COME TO TERMS WITH THE DIAGNOSIS? “Yeah, I think anybody that gets a diagnosis is gonna sit back and think about it. What does this mean? What does it mean to my family? What does it mean to me and my partners? Our team. The more and more I thought about it and the more and more I realized that I was fine, the more and more it sunk in that everything is gonna be OK. So at that point is when I talked to Roush and everybody and the process began.”
DO YOU HAVE RELAPSING OR PROGRESSIVE MS? “I don’t know a ton about the different styles or what types or anything. I just have that one diagnosis is all I have at this point.”
SO 99 PERCENT OF THE TIME YOU HAVEN’T HAD ANY SYMPTOMS? “I haven’t had any symptoms 100 percent of the time.”
DID IT SCARE YOU AND DO YOU THINK BY THE TIME YOU’RE OLDER THEY’LL DEVELOP A CURE? “I’m not completely educated on everything. You research as much as you can on the internet, so I don’t know how much that helps you, but it’s something you can always be hopeful for. Medical things are advancing. Sometimes my mom wishes I would have gone to school to be a doctor because I had good grades, but now we’ll rely on people that can figure it out and for them to learn and be led to discoveries that can help people with MS and with other conditions. We’re always hopeful for cures and different things that can help people.”
IS YOUR 2014 SCHEDULE THE SAME AS THIS YEAR? “Yes, sir. It will be full-time Nationwide again with AdvoCare coming for the first time. We’ll have a full-time deal with them, which is really exciting for me, and to have a company with you all the time – not having to wonder which crew shirt and firesuit you’re taking to the race track is gonna be good for our guys – and there aren’t many of those in this sport, so we’re excited bout AdvoCare. We started with a relationship and developed into a partnership, so we’ve got that going on. The Wood Brothers thing is going that way. I’m sure we’ll run a partial schedule similar to the schedule we ran this year. You’re always hopeful to add more races for them up to 18 or so would be our goal. I don’t that they could do many more than that with the personnel that they have, but the Wood Brothers are great people and I’ve enjoyed driving for them, and we’re definitely looking forward to next year with Motorcraft.”
HOW DID YOU TELL YOUR TEAM AND WHAT WAS THEIR REACTION? “You know how NASCAR works. If you inform too many people before I come and do this kind of stuff it’s gonna be difficult to release it how we want to and do this kind of thing. Honestly, until today they knew about as much as you guys did. So I went down this morning and talked to them and spent some time with them and their reaction – they work with me every day, every week, so they know that nothing is wrong with me as far as symptoms or things like that. So I don’t think to them it’s a big deal because they work with me and they know how I am on a daily basis, so it’s not like they were taken back or anything like that. They’re like, ‘Man, I’m sorry to hear that,’ and let’s keep going.”
DO YOU FEEL THIS HAS IMPACTED YOUR SEASON AT ALL? “No, sir – not at all as far performance and runs and things like that. What’s impacted our season the most is how competitive the Nationwide Series is this year and how tough some of the competitors are. I feel like we’ve got to step up our game a little bit and get our cars a little better. This was my first year back full-time and working with Mike Kelley and getting that relationship going, and now we’re hoping that next year we can get our cars better all the way around on the competitive side at Roush Fenway Racing. I don’t think it’s the season any of us would have hoped for, but we’ve had some bright lights also with a win at Iowa. That was two weekends after I found out, so if that tells you anything we went to the race track and won. I don’t think it’s had any effect on us as far as that’s concerned. Actually, that would have been as I was going to the Mayo Clinic, and then I found out after that, so it was right after I went to the Mayo Clinic, I believe, and I found out right after that. So I would have just been there, going through the processes, and any stress that would have weighed on me though that would have been during that time, but we went and won the race and then found out right after that.”
AND YOU GOT MARRIED DURING THAT TIME? “I did.”
SO YOU WERE GOING TO THE MAYO CLINIC AND GETTING MARRIED? “There’s a lot going on in race car drivers’ lives (laughing).”
WAS IT A LOAD OFF YOUR SHOULDERS TO KNOW? “It is, for sure. You always think about what’s the worst thing you’re gonna see, what’s the worst question you’re gonna get asked? And you guys are being nice to me today, so now having this opportunity to share this and get these things going lifts a weight off your shoulders because now everything is out and you don’t have to worry about it.”
DID THEY THINK YOU HAD SOMETHING OTHER THAN MS LIKE CANCER OR ANOTHER DISEASE? “Cancer is something totally different. They did not make any rash decisions or diagnosis’ until they had one and I respect them for doing that – without coming to me and saying, ‘Here are options A, B, C, D, E that you might have.’ Some doctors may do that, but they don’t make assumptions or presume things to be until they have a definite answer and maybe that’s why it took this long.”
WHY WERE YOU SO DOGGED IN WANTING AN ANSWER? “Why not go back and find out? Obviously for me I want to take the best care of myself possible, so if there are things that help you, or if you have a diagnosis and there are ways to keep yourself better, then it’s better to have information than to not have information in my book. What’s engrained in me from racing is you get as much data, as much information as you can and you make the most of it, and that’s what I wanted to do.”
STEVE NEWMARK CONTINUED – DO YOU FEEL YOU NEEDED IT TO CONVINCE TEAMS AND SPONSORS YOU ARE OK? “I’ll answer that one. I think the answer to that one is clearly no. He was completely fine and cleared after it and the reality of it is if Trevor wasn’t a race car driver and didn’t have the means, he probably would never have been diagnosed at this point. It was through his determination of just regularly getting checked that it came to light. But considering he’s had no symptoms, and we had absolutely no concerns. We would never get questions by any existing sponsors or prospects about his condition. So this was something he did of his own accord and I think it’s helpful for him to understand where he sits, but it was not something that was prompted by any pressure from an outside party.”
IS THIS UNCHARTERED TERRITORY? “I’m not sure I could speak whether it’s unchartered territory. I don’t know what other teams have gone through because, in all honesty, there could very well be other drivers who have had conditions that they just haven’t disclosed. All I can tell you is for us that we look at it as just another component of who Trevor is at this point and our support is unfettered. We fully expect him to be out there competing for wins next year. This may be a little bit of a blip in the road and it gives Trevor a little bit of a forum to talk about some of the things that are important to him, but, for us, he’s no different than any other race car driver that we have.”
TREVOR BAYNE CONTINUED – SO THEY DIDN’T RECOMMEND ANY CHANGES IN DIET? “Like I said, they recommend the things that are good for healthy people. Take care of yourself. Eat healthy. Do the best you can and that’s what I do.”
STEVE NEWMARK CONTINUED – WHAT WILL YOUR NATIONWIDE PROGRAM LOOK LIKE NEXT YEAR? “Like you guys have seen with us before, we generally wait until the off-season to kind of finalize how everything is gonna look, but, clearly, we’ve got Trevor running full-time, Ryan running full-time and our expectation is that we’ll have a third team that will have Chris (Buescher) and potentially other drivers as a part of that. But that hasn’t been determined yet. Our objective is to have three teams out on the track next year.”
