NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Trevor Bayne had been admitted to hospital in North Carolina with symptoms of fatigue and nausea, and will miss this weekend's "Bubba Burger 250" Nationwide event at Richmond International Raceway.
It's thought that the mystery illness could be related to an insect bite on his left elbow that 20-year-old Bayne suffered earlier this month while at home. Bayne broke the news on his Twitter feed where he wrote "Not sure if its a spider bite or a tick bite.. But either way I'm in a hospital bed with a needle in my arm!" on Sunday, April 10 following the Sprint Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Doctors at Carolinas Medical Center University Hospital in Charlotte believed at the time that Bayne had suffered an adverse allergic reaction from the bite and ran a series of blood tests to find the cause. He was released from hospital on the Sunday evening and cleared to resume driving duties, although doctors were "still waiting for the test results to determine for sure what caused the reaction," according to Roush Fenway president Steve Newmark.
At the time, Bayne followed up his earlier tweet with "Thank u all for ur concern and prayers! Still not exactly sure what bit me, but I'm home from the hospital and good to go!"
But now Bayne has been hospitalised again, amid fears that the symptoms of fatigue and nausea are related to this earlier bite incident: "Trevor was not feeling well early this week and he is currently being evaluated for lingering symptoms that may be related to his previous insect bite," said Newmark today.
"Obviously Trevor wanted to be in Richmond and he's upset about not being able to compete," Newmark continued. "However, his health is our top priority and we insisted that he have these tests to get to the bottom of his symptoms.
"We will work to provide you with further updates as they become available."
This time, Bayne has not been able to provide any updates via his Twitter feed so far.
Bayne drives in the Nationwide Series for Roush Fenway, and Newmark confirmed that "unfortunately Trevor will not be available to drive the #16 Ford for us this weekend." He added that the team now planned "to use a substitute driver from the Roush Fenway family of drivers in place of Trevor at Friday night's race." Bayne is currently fifth in the Nationwide drivers' standings.
Bayne also drives in the Sprint Cup series for Wood Brothers, but is not running a full season campaign due to lack of sponsorship. and was not scheduled to appear in this weekend's Crown Royal 400 at Richmond. His next scheduled event in NASCAR's top series is the Sprint All-Star Race in Charlotte on May 21, after the team struck a one-off sponsorship deal with Good Sam Club, a sister company of Camping World. Bayne qualified for the All-Star competition with his
Daytona 500 win.