Hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee, Trevor Bayne has over 28 years of racing experience since beginning his career at the age of five in dirt oval go karts. A born racer, by age 15 he was appearing on the radar of top NASCAR teams and signed a contract to drive for Dale Earnhardt in 2007.

He burst onto the NASCAR scene in 2011 becoming the youngest ever winner of the Daytona 500 at his first attempt, one day after his 20th birthday. In doing so, he beat Jeff Gordon’s record by five years. After driving in the Cup series for a total of eight years, Trevor and his family moved back to his hometown of Knoxville, TN. Subsequently, in 2019, he founded Mahalo Coffee Roasters in his hometown of Knoxville, which grew to three locations before an opportunity to sell the company came in 2022.

His passion for motorsports and driving remains to this day. Beyond his achievements on the track, Bayne has made his mark as a TV analyst for NASCAR on FOX and as Driver Optimisation Leader for Legacy Motor Club, mentoring championship-calibre drivers.

In 2025, he has taken on the role of Head Pro and Ambassador for Flatrock Motorclub, which sees him assume a wide variety of essential responsibilities at America’s newest premium motorsport facility, including helping members meet their driving goals on track and representing Flatrock at major motorsport events such as the 24 Hours of Daytona and the Daytona 500. Bayne resides in Knoxville with his wife, Ashton, and five children, Ellie, Levi, Luca, Jude and Jett.  

Where it all began

I started racing at five years old in Knoxville, Tennessee after my dad bought a go kart out of the newspaper. I started on dirt tracks and ovals all around Tennessee and I did that for about two to three years before we started going nationally and racing about 45 weekends a year across the country. It was a huge commitment for my family.

My Role at Flatrock in 10 words or less

The perfect storm of everything I love in motorsports!

Why what I do is important

Flatrock Motorclub is a new track and a new business model. From my experience of over 28 years in motorsports, I’ve been able to be around countless tracks, people, vehicles, racing styles, and disciplines, and through that I’ve learned so much, but safety remains the number one thing. Keeping members safe is so important to us at Flatrock – and when I joined I wanted to make sure we made a safety video for our members, set up protocols and have our EMS crews in the right places. I’d say NASCAR has some of the safest cars in the world when you look at the number of accidents and injuries, so it’s been ingrained into me.

The second thing is using my racing experience and passing on my knowledge to help others. There is a divide where some people know a lot about racing but are not able to teach it. So I am always trying to make things approachable. Sometimes I work with people who have never been on track before and I have to find a way to slowly teach them what I know, and I enjoy that. I like seeing people meet their goals. It’s very rewarding. 

From a business perspective, I love brand building. With my coffee business, I got to create a brand over three years and I learned a brand is far more than just a logo, but also what your culture is as a company. Culture is a big thing for me that I would want to continue building at Flatrock. 

My first race

I was five years old and it was me against one other driver; he was seven and had been racing for two years. My dad said to me: “Do whatever you can to keep up”. I’d only practised a few laps and Dad and I went to a parking lot before to drive around and get used to the car. About 10 laps into the race, the other boy had put a half lap on me, so I just cut through the infield of the racetrack, through the grass, bounced off the wall, and spent the whole race going through the infield trying to catch up. It was the shortest way to catch him so I went for it. There was not much of a body left on my go kart but I did get a plaque that said: ‘Best of Show’. I don’t know if that’s because my cart looked cool or because I cut through the infield the whole race. 

My most challenging moment

It was the shift from being a full-time driver into a businessman and finding my place in general. Driving was all I knew for 23 years. It’s what I did full-time and was my every pursuit. Then when I stopped racing in 2018, there were all these other options available to me and I had to think: “What do I do now?”. That was really tough for me and I had to find other passions because my pursuit had always been to be a NASCAR Cup champion. Through that time, I developed a love for seeing other people achieve their goals. So, when I coach a young driver and see them get faster and implement something we worked together, that’s super rewarding for me. It was the same with the coffee business; I was connecting people and creating a culture which was also rewarding. But it took time to find those things and was a big transition for me.

My proudest moment

Winning the Daytona 500 the day after my 20th birthday – and on my first attempt of competing in the race. I think Dale Earnhardt had 19 attempts to win his first one so I probably didn’t appreciate it as much at the time but that’s certainly my proudest moment. 

A racing memory I’ll never forget

Besides winning the Daytona 500 it would be the first time I drove in a Cup race and pulled out for the first practice session. I remember sitting on pit road waiting for practice to start at Texas Motor Speedway and I looked over to see Tony Stewart in his car beside me, Jeff Gordon behind me in my rear-view mirror, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and all these big names in NASCAR that I’d grown up watching and wanted to be when I was a boy. To go from being a huge fan to now thinking: ‘You’re my competitors and I’m racing against you’ was a dream come true for me. It was the coolest moment to see that realised. 

How I’ve worked with SMG

We all know that motorsport is built on relationships and networking and it’s especially important as Flatrock builds its membership base. SMG is really helping us get the word out about what Flatrock is – a world class motorsports facility that has a huge focus on hospitality and amenities. SMG has helped connect us to other members of the motorsports community, especially in an area of reach that I didn’t have before. Their global reach is huge for us. I’m learning every day about this new world of sports car racing and road racing and SMG is helping bridge some of those gaps. 

My advice to others wanting a career in motorsports

I always talk to my young drivers about being present in the moment and fully focused on the preparation. It’s so easy to think about the next opportunity or where you want to be in a year, but it’s hard to stay focused on the now and what it takes today to get the most out of your current opportunity. If you take care of the opportunity you have right now, then you will have another opportunity tomorrow. 

It’s also important not to allow people’s opinions to define you. If you get on social media after a bad race, it’s easy to think: “Oh man, everybody thinks I’m terrible”, but if you don’t want to let them tell you that, then you also can’t get on social media to let them tell you how great you are when you win a race. You know what you’re doing, and you know what you’re defined by. It’s about not letting people tell you who you are or who you aren’t and staying focused. 

For more information about Flatrock Motorclub please visit: https://flatrockmotorclub.com