Bayne not eligible for Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year

 After many reports earlier in the off season were out that Trevor Bayne would be able to compete for the Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, it appears that he now is not eligible to compete for the award.

Reports started coming out on twitter late on Wednesday night that Bayne was not eligible.  The word is that with his 58 starts in the Sprint Cup Series that Bayne compiled at the Wood Brothers Racing organization in the Sprint Cup Series was too many races to be eligible to compete for the award.  I tweeted Claire B Lang host of Dialed In on Sirius NASCAR radio about the issue and this morning I was given this answer.

Bayne's 58 starts in the 21 equal out to 1 1/2 seasons

Claire B Lang ‏@ClaireBLang

@TBayneDiehards @TravisFuguet NASCAR has indicated that they will not make an exception for him- he's run too many races..to b ROY elegible

Bayne was asked yesterday during an interview with PRN if he knew if he was going to be able to compete and he wasn't quite sure, but said if he wasn't it was ok with him.  In his 58 starts with the Wood Brothers he only was able to accumulate two top-ten finishes, both on restrictor plate tracks at Daytona and Talladega, one of which was his unforgettable victory in the 2011 Daytona 500 in the 21 car.

Bayne made a point yesterday that even though he was able to get the experience with the famed 21 team, it was also difficult because you would run two races and then not be back on the track for sometimes two months and you were back to starting over.