Sunday was a day of records falling at the 2011 Daytona 500, in which there were tons of lead changes and cautions.

But when the smoke cleared (pun semi-intended), Trevor Bayne led the final two laps of the race which were decided by a green-white-checkered-flag finish, outlasting Carl Edwards, David Gilliland, Bobby Labonte and Kurt Busch, rounding out the top five.

Typically, the Daytona 500 is a 200-lap affair; but because of numerous crashes and a pair of green-white-checkered-flag finishes, eight additional laps were needed; with the win, Bayne becomes the youngest winner of the Daytona 500.

Some of the top drivers from 2010 were eliminated early, including last year’s champion Jimmie Johnson, who was knocked out of the race, due to a 17-car pileup early in the race.

In a pack of cars at Lap 29, Michael Waltrip tapped David Reutimann – ironically a car Waltrip owns – which started a 17-car melee that damaged the cars of a dozen drivers. The cars of Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Busch, Marcos Ambrose, Brian Vickers and rookie Brian Keselowski, along with Waltrip and Reutimann.

As it would turn out, three Fords occupied the Top 5. Click here to view the race results from the 2011 Daytona 500

Trevor Bayne may have won the Daytona 500 in 2011, making him the youngest champ ever in the world renowned race. But with such an older-skewing sport being championed by such a young racer, this is the perfect opportunity to encourage kids to follow the sport as well. Kids often have a difficult time connecting on deeper levels to sports in which they can participate as children, so unlike football, baseball, and the like, automotive racing remains distant to them. By using remote controlled racing cars, however, you can help a kid connect with the sport in a more intimate way that’s fun for him/her and helps your kid follow your racecar loving dreams.

One of the reasons the use of RC cars is often overlooked in attempting to encourage children to follow automotive racings is because there seems to be some disconnect between the actual sport and playing with a toy. But just as playing ‘cops and robbers’ can make a child want to train to be an actual police officer one day, a child playing with an RC car can become passionate about the arena and want to be a racecar driver someday (or at the very least, and enthusiastic NASCAR or Indy fan). Toys are great transitional pieces, leveraging the fun of playing and imagination with the fruitfulness of pursuing an interest. Plus, what kid doesn’t love playing with expensive electronics?

If you decide to go down this path, try to pick out RC cars that are themed as NASCAR racecars or something of the sort, versus just getting a generic toy car that doesn’t have a theme one way or the other. That way, the connection between the actual racing world and the toy world seems more definitive rather than presumptive. If you can get an RC car that has a quick charge capability, do so, as one of the things that often turns kids off from using RC cars is the astronomically long waiting period between the start and end of the charging cycle on so many of these toy cars. The shorter the wait time for charging, the less of a chance that a kid’s patience will be tested (which will only lead to your own patience being tested in the long run).

If you’ve been tripped up about how to get a child to follow in your footsteps as a racing fan, give an RC car a try and see how it works for you.