Yes, Trevor Bayne has a permanent comma after his name. Long as he races, long as he lives, he’ll be hailed as a Daytona 500 winner.

He’s also a 21-year-old from Tennessee whose formative years in the sport took place in what might as well be a world away from Oxford Plains Speedway.

So it’s hard to imagine anyone else in Sunday’s TD Bank 250 field having a career that intersects with the journey of the part-time NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series driver.

At least two hopefuls have significant experience competing against Bayne, however.

No less a 250 personality than two-time champion Eddie MacDonald raced with Bayne for two seasons in Camping World East (now K&N Pro Series East).

And Dave Farrington Jr. of Jay went wheel-to-wheel with Bayne in pursuit of the World Karting Association championship in their age bracket for many years.

MacDonald’s lasting memory with Bayne was one of the best finishes to a full-bodied stock car race in the history of New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“We had a great race up at Loudon. We were door-to-door coming across the line for the win and we got to beat him,” MacDonald said. “It was our first win over there, so that made it special.”

Someone mentioned to MacDonald that Bayne’s shocking win at Daytona made his own victory tale a better one to spin for future generations.

“I’d still trade with him,” MacDonald said with a smile. “It’ll be good to race with Trevor again. He’s a good guy.”

Although Farrington, 20, also beat Bayne a few times in head-to-head competition, his closest encounter didn’t have a happy ending.

Then preteens, the drivers were lined up bumper-to-bumper for the feature in their division at the WKA Daytona Nationals in December 2002. The event took place at a dirt track about a mile down the highway from the site of Bayne’s future date with destiny.

“I have a huge scrapbook at home and there’s a picture of me qualifying ahead of him,” Farrington said. “I started ninth and he started 11th.”

The field took the green flag, only reaching turn one before Farrington recalls that a zealous Bayne made contact with him and turned his kart sideways, facing two-thirds of the field.

“When you get spun around after starting ninth in a field of 30 go-karts, there’s going to be problems,” he said.

Jake Crum, now a driver in the Camping World Truck Series, couldn’t slow down as he reached the accident scene. His kart vaulted over Farrington’s head. Others failed to avoid a glancing blow with Farrington’s disabled ride.

His kart heavily damaged, Farrington finished the race but was not a factor.

“It was a long drive, Christmastime, all the way down there to get wrecked on the first lap,” Farrington said. “I wasn‘t too much of a Trevor Bayne fan at the time.”

Planes and automobiles

For the second straight year, MacDonald will fly to Oxford early Sunday morning after competing in a K&N race in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday night.

The busy itinerary likely hampered MacDonald’s bid for a third straight 250 victory in 2011. He missed a full day of practice and failed to qualify for the feature until winning his consolation race, putting him 26th on the starting grid.

“We had to do a little pit strategy and that didn’t play out the way we wanted,” MacDonald said. “We did get back up to fourth.”

NASCAR’s Kyle Busch won the race, as did Kevin Harvick in 2008 after MacDonald dominated the first half of the event.

MacDonald (2009, 2010) and Roger Brown (2007) are the only New England drivers to win the 250 since it switched to a late model format five years ago. The Masschusetts driver and crew chief Rollie LaChance of New Gloucester are on the short list of favorites once again,

“We haven’t had (the late model) out as much as we would have liked to. Both Rollie and I have been really busy with the K&N stuff,” MacDonald said. “We’re just going to do the best we can. I still think we have a really fast car. If we go back and look at the last five years, the car’s been really fast all five of those years. We‘ve run very similar setups.”

MacDonald noted that missing Saturday’s practice again will put his team at a disadvantage.

But he tends to shine as an underdog. In K&N East, MacDonald and Grimm Racing compete as regional independents against Sprint Cup developmental drivers and high-dollar operations. He’s seventh in points. Thirteen drivers have attempted all eight races.

“That definitely makes it tough,” he said, “but it’s still a lot of fun.”

Sharing the stage

The pro stock/late model debate — one that caught fire when OPS owner Bill Ryan announced the TD Bank 250 format change in August 2006 — rages on for a few fans and drivers who felt disenfranchised.

For the second straight summer, the throaty roar of the “super” late models is back, and it will be a significant part of the big race weekend.

Saturday’s Dunkin Donuts 150 for the Pro All Stars Series will feature a pack full of drivers who have been a factor in past 250s and even some who will try to match Busch’s 2011 sweep of the weekend twin bill.

Ben Rowe, Brian Hoar, Patrick Laperle and Joey Polewarczyk Jr. lead the group expected to compete in both the super late model 150 and late model 250. Rowe won back-to-back 250s in 2003 and ’04.

PASS stars Johnny Clark, Cassius Clark, Travis Benjamin, Joey Doiron, Lonnie Sommerville, Gary Smith, Derek Ramstrom and Scott Dragon all are 250 veterans. And Mike Rowe stands with Ralph Nason and Dave Dion as the only three-time champions.

Qualifying races begin at 6:30 p.m. tonight.

Sign here

Bayne will meet and greet fans in a first-come, first-served autograph session from 6:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Saturday at the track.

He will be signing at a picnic table located adjacent to the Turn 1 concession, popularly known as the “beer garden.”

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