MOTORSPORT: NASCAR miracle - 20-year-old wins Daytona 500

A driver who was a teenager a day ago and NASCAR's oldest team combine for a fairytale start to this year's Sprint Cup, while Mark Webber voices concerns about F1's scheduled start in Bahrain

Ambrose's original American team leads Ford sweep of podium
NASCAR has proven again today to be the most exciting four-wheel motor racing, with a 20-year-old rookie giving the sport's oldest team a thrilling victory in the season-opening Daytona 500.

Trevor Bayne [pictured] was a teenager until the eve of the race and didn't know his way to Victory Lane after his historic win.

He's the youngest winner of the Great American Race and has given NASCAR the spark it needed 10 years after the death of Dale Earnhardt and falling TV and track audiences in recent years.

In a new-look Daytona 500, with drivers working in pairs on the repaved 2.5-mile (400km) high-banked oval, Bayne took the chequered flag ahead of Carl Edwards and David Gilliland -- giving Ford its 600th Cup victory and a shock 1,2,3 finish in the classic.

It was only Bayne's second Sprint Cup start -- he was 17th in his first in Texas late last season -- and he's driving for Wood Brothers, with whom Australia's Marcos Ambrose began his NASCAR career.

Ambrose raced for Wood Brothers in 2006 and '07, with backing from Jodi and Tad Geschickter, before that pair split from the Woods and created JTG Daugherty Racing with former basketballer Brad Daugherty -- with which Ambrose remained until the end of last season.

The Tasmanian's return to the Ford fold and first Sprint Cup race with Richard Petty Motorsports today ended in disappointment as he was caught up in a huge pile-up before 30 of the eventual 208 laps -- five more than scheduled -- were completed.

Michael Waltrip, whose team had supplied Toyota cars to JTG Daugherty for Ambrose the past years, accidentally turned his teammate David Reutimann on lap 29, triggering the wreck that took out drivers including the champion of the past five years Jimmie Johnson, four-time champion Jeff Gordon and Ambrose.

Comeback Cup racer Bobby Labonte finished fourth today for JTG Daugherty in a Toyota, ahead of Kurt Busch in a Dodge, Juan Pablo Montoya in a Chevrolet, Regan Smith (Chevrolet), Kyle Busch (Toyota), with Paul Menard and Mark Martin rounding out the top 10 in Chevrolets.

But all the attention ended up on Bayne, who is four years and 115 days younger than Jeff Gordon was when he became the previous youngest Daytona 500 winner in 1997.

Gordon has been Bayne's mentor at Daytona this month and said of his fairytale success: "It's great for the sport. To have a young talent like that - he's got that spark."

From Knoxville, Tennessee, the heart of dirt-oval racing, Bayne is not even scheduled to race full-time in the Sprint Cup this year.

Instead he was signed for 17 races, sharing the Wood Brothers car with veteran Bill Elliott, while contesting the full Nationwide second-tier series.

The Daytona 500 went to "double overtime" after a record 74 lead changes among 22 drivers and 16 caution periods -- another record.

David Ragan, winless in 147 career starts, led near the finish but was black-flagged for changing lanes before a restart.

Then Ryan Newman, a former Daytona 500 winner, spun and collected Martin Truex and Dale Earnhardt Junior in that first overtime -- when the field is given the green to restart with the intention of a white flag next time around to signify the last lap.

Amid the mayhem and drafting, Bayne found himself at the head of the field but one of the commentators described him as "a sitting duck".

However, he amazingly held on to take victory, then screamed into his radio: "Are you kidding me?"

In an interview immediately after the race he said: "I keep thinking I'm dreaming. This is just incredible."

Wood Brothers must have felt the same, not having won a Cup race since 2001 -- despite having almost 100 victories to its name.

It has fielded only Fords since 1950 - the longest association of any team with a single manufacturer.

Many of NASCAR's greatest drivers have driven for Wood Brothers - Dale Jarrett, A.J. Foyt, Buddy Baker, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett, Fred Lorenzen, David Pearson, Neil Bonnett, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin and Bill Elliott.

Founded by Glen Wood of Virginia, his youngest brother Leonard was with the team from inception, built the engines and engineered its lightning quick pit stops.

Glen retired in the late 1980s but retained a partner as the team was taken over by his sons Eddie and Len and daughter Kim.

While the Woods celebrated an almost unthinkable victory, Marcos Ambrose lamented the disaster of being caught up in the multiple pile-up.

Asked what he saw of the crash ahead of him, he said: "Not a lot. I saw the 00 (David Reutimann) spun out and I just checked out.

"I was going pretty straight and they all started running over the top of me. I thought I had it saved and then I got spun down on the bottom, and then Jeff Gordon finished me off.

"It's ruined our day. It's just a terrible way to do it. It's just a shame it ended this way.

"Everybody was trying to find (drafting) partners to work with and pull away.

"I think everyone was just trying to work out how to do it.

"I was just trying to make sure I didn't drop off the back without finding a good partner and got caught up in a mess too.

"I was trying to play it safe and it didn't work out too well for me."

The Sprint Cup moves on immediately to the 1-mile (1.6km) oval at Phoenix, Arizona, for its second round next weekend.

Webber wary of F1 starting in Bahrain
Australia's Mark Webber is the first Formula One driver to speak out about the civil unrest in Bahrain that threatens the cancellation of the year's first grand prix, scheduled there in less than three weeks.

Webber admitted he would have reservations about heading to the Middle East island state if the event proceeds.

"When you hear of people losing their lives, this is a tragedy," Webber said.

"It's probably not the best time to go there for a sporting event.

"They have bigger things, bigger priorities and that is what they want to work on over there - generations of issues.

"That's the most important thing for them to sort out - and not to worry about F1.

"In the end the right decisions will be made.

"Maybe it is still the first race, maybe Melbourne is the first race, we don't know.

It's not a big deal to be honest because there are more things than F1 in Bahrain."

A decision is expected by mid-week, perhaps even as early as tonight.

Meanwhile, Webber did the equivalent of more than two GP distances when he took over testing of Red Bull's new RB7 car from world champion teammate in Barcelona overnight.

The day began wet but cleared in the afternoon, with Webber's fellow Australian, 21-year-old Perth rising star Daniel Ricciardo impressive in the late morning in Toro Rosso's STR6 while Nico Rosberg ended the day fastest for Mercedes..

McLaren continued to have difficulties with its new car, although Lewis Hamilton ended up third fastest -- behind Renault's Vitaly Petrov.

Red Bull Racing's head of race engineering Ian Morgan said: "We had a lot of rain overnight and it upset our plans for Mark.

"The conditions in the morning meant we couldn't do a practice three or qualifying simulation, but it did allow Mark to get some running on the intermediate tyres, which was useful as he hasn't had that opportunity before.

"In the afternoon, with the track dry, we got down to the race simulation and we got through that with absolutely no problems, which is always encouraging.

"It was a shame Mark didn't get to do a qualifying simulation but it was a pretty productive day otherwise, with some time on ‘inters' and the full race in the afternoon, so we're happy enough."

Webber said it had "gone well, with nearly 140 laps completed, and you can't complain about that".

"Obviously, we now have a lot of data to digest and we're learning a huge amount about this car and how to get the best from it," he said.

"It was damp all morning and that meant we had a pretty condensed program in the afternoon, but we got through it well and, I have to say, the car ran really, really well.

"A good day and we'll come back tomorrow to learn some more."

Autosport described Ricciardo as "a star of the morning, setting a very impressive pace on slicks during the changeover in conditions".

"He was only narrowly beaten by Hamilton as the lunchbreak began," it reported.

Ricciardo did not get to run in the fully dry conditions later in the day, leaving him 13th on the timesheet from his 42 laps, while Webber was fifth after his mammoth 139 laps.

"It was an interesting morning in changing conditions, especially as I was one of the first to switch to slick tyres as the track dried," Ricciardo said.

"I was pleased to be able to test a few different (tyre) compounds so the day was more productive than we expected, especially in terms of learning more about the crossover point from wet to intermediate to dry tyres.

"I am not due to drive at any further test sessions, so my next time in the car should be during the opening free practice at the first GP" -- which increasingly now looks like being in Melbourne on March 23-27.