After being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis late last
season, Trevor Bayne returns to the site of his 2011 Daytona 500 victory focused
on his health, his faith, his race team and another win in “The Great American
Race.”
The Knoxville, Tenn. native was diagnosed with MS in November of last year
after undergoing testing at the Mayo Clinic to determine the cause of the double
vision, fatigue and nausea that first plagued him in 2011. After an initial
diagnosis of Lyme Disease, doctors
finally settled on MS, a central nervous system disorder that disrupts nerve
function and can result in numbness, tingling, or even paralysis.
“At first, you don’t want to hear something like that,”
said Bayne of his diagnosis. “You always want to be invincible, (but) when
I got that diagnosis, it became reality. It was tough at first, but I
knew that God wasn’t just doing that to do it. He’s seen me through
everything, good things or bad. I knew he was going to stand by my side
through all of it, and to me, it’s just another platform to reach people.”
Bayne said he has received an outpouring of support and
encouragement from both NASCAR fans and MS sufferers in the last few months.
“It’s been really cool getting their feedback,” he said. “They
send magazines with articles about ways to get better – all kinds of stuff –
and it’s all because they care. Fortunately for me, I haven’t had
symptoms, so it’s been nice. But there are fans that do and I want to be as
supportive for them as they’ve been for me. It’s been a huge
encouragement with all the people that have reached out.”
Bayne stressed that he is currently symptom-free, and hopes
to remain that way. “At this point, it does not (affect me) and hopefully, it
never will. But none of us can be 100-percent sure of anything, and that’s for
sure with this.
“To me, it’s just taking it day by day. I’ve been great
so far, and hopefully it will stay that way. I want to be a Sprint Cup champion
one day… then hopefully you can do it more than once. It might take a few
years after (I) get the first one, but I see (racing) as being the only thing
I’ve ever done and the only thing I’ll hopefully do. I’ll stay in it as
long as I can be competitive.
“I’ve been working really hard this off-season to get
more fit,” revealed Bayne. “With my diagnosis last year, I wanted to turn
everybody away from that by showing them I can do everything that I did
before. So this off-season, I’ve been working out about three hours every
day – from 8 o’clock to 11 o’clock – and that’s kind of been my routine. We’re
doing the triathlon style training and that’s been fun for me because it mixes things
up with the swim, the bike and the run.
“I’ve really enjoyed it so far.”
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