Stenhouse playoff run maybe good for RFR but has another effect on Bayne

While it is good for Roush Fenway to get into the playoffs, their moves to make sure Ricky Stenhouse moves forward has a totally different effect on Trevor Bayne and his season. 

Trevor Bayne and his team are struggling through the run of
playoffs as the focus is on teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr

You can argue that it is the Ford issue, the crew chief issue but fact is, right now Bayne and his No. 6 team are pretty much lab mice for the 17 team until they fall out.  The money is flowing into the 17 team and here is the major down fall that is having on Bayne and his team.  The sponsorship dollars that are suppose to be going into Bayne's car probably are going to Stenhouse to try and make it further and fans can clearly see it. 

As a former crew member I would have took it as a slap in the face if I was the 17  crew that got Stenhouse into the playoffs and then told I was being swapped to the 6 team because they were faster.  They got Stenhouse there, they should have had the chance to get him to the finish line.  I heard at the beginning of this year that the cars would be built equally and there would be only several differences in case one car was faster than the other, yet I just don't see that right now. 

Performance is an issue, plain and simple and you need both cars performing at their maximum and with the organization flushing it to the 17 team to try and move forward it is truly a bitter time.  I never seen this happen when Mark Martin and Jeff Burton were teammates, the two worked together to make sure each other performed as well as the other.  It was a partnership in the garage when these two were teammates.  Since then Roush Fenway Racing has turned into more of a competition between its teammates than a working partnership.

These finishes are not good on attracting sponsors that the 6 team needs for next season either.  It still remains to be seen how many races that they have left this season where the car will carry that dreaded 401k sponsorship from Ford and Roush Performance.  The fact of the matter is Bayne carried the team with full sponsorship for two seasons and AdvoCare backed off after last year to a part-time sponsorship but remained the major sponsor on the car.   Liberty National Life stepped up as well this season, along with Performance Plus Motor Oil, however,  you've still got to put money into a car that the sponsorship provides and make sure they perform to its fullest and right now its clear RFR isn't with the 6 team. 

This season seven races have gone with those 401K sponsors as we used to call them at the shop when I worked.  So that's a lot of money that needs to be found and RFR is hurting the 6 team by hindering their performance during the 17 team's Playoff run.

Now it's time for NASCAR to take it all away for cheating race teams

It is clear that NASCAR isn't getting the attention of teams like Joe Gibbs Racing who like to twist the rules quite often in the sport with the penalties that they are handing out right now.  So in my opinion it is time to do something even harsher to the teams that break the rules. 

I was a crew member in both local and NASCAR competition so I know that teams like to bend the rule book to get every little inch that they can.  However, when I look at the result of this past weekend when Denny Hamlin's two teams were penalized for the same exact issue in the two NASCAR divisions it is time to go with a heftier penalty than encumbering the finish, suspending the crew chief and taking points away as NASCAR did. 

NASCAR needs to think now about suspending the entire team for a race or two.  That meaning if you have a penalty such as this you can't race for an entire weekend, driver, crew chief, everyone, the entire team is suspended along with the car and the win needs to be completely stripped away and given to the next car in line that passes inspection.  Also fans need to understand that NASCAR can't do a complete inspection at the race track and find what they did on Hamlin's car at the track, a lot of it has to be done in the R&D Center at North Carolina. 

It is time that if you illegal to disqualify people and take the wins away and give the victory to the guy that truly deserved to win the win race.  I think there doesn't need to be any of this stuff about  "encumbering a finish," just truly take the finish away and send the guy back to dead last in the running order of the race like many of short track divisions would do in an event.  Also I think it is time NASCAR takes the top-5 cars from each divisions to R&D each week because who is to say one of the top-5 cars isn't illegal either?  It is just time for much harsher penalties.

I believe this past weekend Hamlin tried to hide something when he backed the car into the wall and did his burnout.  So it is time NASCAR looks at a different penalty system.

Bayne, Roush salute Mark Martin with first win paint scheme

For the third year in a row Trevor Bayne will be honoring NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Mark Martin with one of its throwback paint schemes at Darlington Raceway next weekend.  This time it is a paint scheme with a lot of significance to the organization and driver as it was the same one Martin drove to Roush Fenway's first victory in 1989.

The race was the AC Delco 500 on October 22, 1989 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham when Martin finally broke the barrier in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series after 57 races together.  Martin would carry the paint scheme to that single win, 602 laps led and 28 top-ten finishes. 

Back to Back Top-tens gives Trevor Bayne confidence going to Darlington

Trevor Bayne's 7th place finish at Bristol was his second consecutive top-10

After a rough start in 2017, Trevor Bayne has taken the past two weekends and scored back to back top-ten finishes at Michigan and Bristol; two different styles of tracks on the circuit.  The top-ten finishes in consecutive weekends are the first time in Bayne's career that he has scored top-ten finishes in two straight events since joining the Monster Energy Cup Series in 2010. 

While there are only two races remaining in the regular season before the playoffs begin, Bayne pretty much knows that he has to win at either Darlington or Richmond to get in.  His team has began to carry more momentum over the past few weeks after getting a little bit of luck on their side, even after blowing a tire at Bristol and hitting the wall at Bristol.  Bayne was able to rally back in the latter part of the event and get up to seventh before the checkered flag fell. 

"Obviously, we need to win.  That's what our goal is,"Trevor Bayne stated.  "Seventh is great but we have to get (to victory lane).  I'm really proud of these guys and the gains we're making.

"It's been a rough time through the summer but we're coming back now."

Bayne feels that the teams execution all around has been the difference in their performance the past few weeks.

"Just execution," Bayne said when asked what he thought was the key to the last two finishes.  "I feel like the last month we had strategy, things went our way and we've gotten results from it.  Here at Bristol, Roush Fenway always gives us good cars and we've had really good runs the last four or five races."

"Our Ford was fast at the end when it mattered.  At one point we blew a tire, hit the fence.  I thought we were going to get lucky and get back back on the lead lap.  Got on the lead lap, got a caution, and put new tires on it and started passing cars.

"It's great to get back-to-back top-10s and it really gives us some momentum going forward toward these last two races before the playoffs begin."

Darlington itself has been pretty rough on Bayne the last two years.  While running paint schemes in honor of Mark Martin, he's had two races with issues.  In 2015 he had a tire issue that regulated him to a 35th place finish, and last year the engine let go in his No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion that resulted in a 40th place finish.  If Bayne can continue his improvement going to Darlington, the results should improve there as well.

Trevor Bayne scores first top-five since July of 2016 at Michigan

Bayne challenged late for a top-3 finish in the Pure Michigan 400

Trevor Bayne gave Kyle Larson a little help on the final restart of the Pure Michigan 400 on Sunday to help him him win his third straight race at Michigan Speedway but it also propelled Bayne to his first top-five finish of the 2017 season in the Roush Performance Ford.

With the race restarting in over-time, Bayne would restart behind Larson on the outside line in the fifth position and gave the driver of the 42 car enough of a push to get around two Furniture Row Toyota's in the end.  Bayne also made a daring move to get around Erik Jones and Matt for third and fourth before hitting a patch of oil dry in the turn 3 section of the track that sent him up the track but he would rally back around Austin Dillon for fifth place. 

It was his only top-five finish of the season, in what has been a season filled with tough finishes for Trevor Bayne and his team.  After the finish, Bayne moved up to 19th in the points standings but with just three races to go before the playoffs begin, it will take a victory for Bayne to get in. 

Even if Trevor Bayne does not make it in, he's out to make a statement the remainder of the season with his team.

"We're still not in the Chase yet and we have to keep pushing and making our cars faster and for Ricky's sake, who's in the Chase," said Bayne after the race.   "We have 13 races left with or without the Chase to go make a statement, win races and run well.  It feels good to be in contention.  We still aren't the fastest race car.  We can't beat them on raw speed, but we can put ourselves close with fuel strategy, tire strategy and trying to be in the mix at the end.  And that feels really good from what we're used to."

Bayne had a fast car in the first stage of the event as he was turning laps as quick as the race leaders and making gains on the top-10 pack of cars.  After the end of the first stage the team made adjustments that didn't sit well with the car and Bayne began to fall back in the field.  It would take until the final run of the final stage for Bayne to show up when crew chief Matt Puccia made the call to go to the end on fuel.

Once again it seemed like Indianapolis all over again when the caution flag came out on lap 185.  Bayne's team took the chance with two tires and came out first in the pits, however, four cars remained on the track.  With nine laps remaining in the race, Bayne seen himself back in the same position he was in at Indy, he was in fifth place and on older tires.  Another caution fell on lap 195 that would red flag the event and Bayne would restart in 6th place behind Kyle Larson. 

He would eventually give Larson the push to win the race and make the move through to get into the top-five. 

"That's what we needed," said Bayne after the Michigan event.  "Man, if it stayed green we had another shot like Indy to hold off that 78, but we had a caution at the wrong time.  I got a great restart and pushed the 42 to the lead.  I went for it in turn three and it didn't stick.  It got massive loose and ended up fifth.  Third and fifth, that's not a big difference.  If I went home thinking I should have gone for it in three, I would be kicking my butt.  But it's a great day for our team.  We needed this to recover a little bit."

After being wrecked on the restart at Indianapolis, Bayne took the chance at Michigan and came home fifth.

"It's refreshing.  We've had a tough couple of months not getting the results we thought that we deserved.  Today, to get a result feels really good.  We had fast car early on.  We had fuel strategy at the end.  Probably gonna have a shot to beat the 78 if it stayed green.  Got a caution and I was like 'Oh man, here goes Indy again.'  We had a good first restart.  The second restart was even better.  We were able to push the 42 up to the lead and getting into (turn 3) I tried to go for it from the top and hit the Speedy Dry, and got loose, and came home fifth.  Cost us a couple spots.  Man, when you're in that position you have to go for it.  I wouldn't have slept good at night if I didn't stuff it in there and try something.  It just didn't stick.  It feels really good for our team."

Times have changed and fans are tired of cup drivers in lower divisions

I look at the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule this season and the race winners and I only see six wins from drivers that are not full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers on the win column and three came from William Byron.

You can be one of those fans that think that the sport is making one of its judgment calls, however, I think the officials needed to set even stiffer limitations to the regulars because the sport needs a change.  Yeah I am one of those fans that think Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Larson have had enough play time in the two lower divisions and if you look at the drivers that have spoken up about this topic the most it has been Busch, Keselowski, Harvick and Larson.  Why?  It is because they are the ones that have ran the most races the past 4-5 seasons as a MENCS regular.

Mark Martin was a regular in the winners circle in the 90s

Fans keep bringing up how we didn't hear fans gripe about Mark Martin winning races in the 1990s, well I am going to take you back in time a little bit to Martin's winningest season that came in 1993.  He ran a total of 14 races that season in the No. 60 Winn Dixie Ford for Roush,   That season there was a 28 race schedule, and there was only 12 races won by cup regulars, 7 by Martin, 2 by Dale Earnhardt, 2 by Micheal Waltrip and 1 by Bill Elliott.  Also the schedule had a bit of a different phase as well, as NASCAR raced at many more venues away from cup tracks like Hickory, Rougemont, Nazareth, Myrtle Beach, Milwaukee, and  Indianapolis Raceway Park.

If the series went back to the direction it had years ago I don't believe you would see as many cup regulars in the races to begin with.  However, the major venues took the course and took over the schedule and you no longer have races at these small venues anymore like we used to have on the schedule.  Even Mark Martin himself sees that times are changing and that the need for a cup regulars in the series are not as serious as before.

"I don't really know where I stand on that," said Martin when asked about cup drivers competiting in the Xfinity Series. 

"I was able to participate; I didn't run that many races," the Hall of Fame driver stated while unveiling a paint scheme that Clint Bowyer will driver at Darlington next month.  "I ran 14 to 16 races a year for a number of years.  But at the time it was important, I think, for the series to have Cup drivers do the series for a lot different reasons."

"It's a different day and age today," Martin stated.  I like what's going on nowadays, I like the rule today and where they go with it from there I'm sure will work...The racing, the world, the hardware, everything has changed since the '90s.  I'm ok with what they're doing and OK with where they're looking at heading to limit it even more."

Next season NASCAR will begin with heavier limits.  Drivers will more than five years of experience in the Monster Energy Cup Series will now be limited to seven races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series down from a maximum of 10 races this year.  Drivers with the same experience will also be restricted to a limit of 5 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events, down from seven events this year.

The rules will also make it so the finales for both series are off limits to Cup regulars earning championship points in the Monster Energy Cup Series regardless of experience in the series.   Additionally the Xfinity Series' Dash 4 Cash program four race stretch with bonus money will be off limits to any Monster Energy Series driver.

Many people are saying fans are sour about cup drivers, however, it hurts ratings when these guy's constantly wins races and he's winning events by 3-plus seconds over other drivers.  So it became time for NASCAR to change these rules.  

Last season, Trevor Bayne only ran one event that came at this weekend's weekend Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen.  With the Roush Fenway program not running their Cup drivers like most teams, I don't see this effecting their program much. 

The one thing I do believe that this could have helped possibly in the past.  Had Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Trevor Bayne won races without cup drivers in the field, possibly sponsors would have taken notice to them and they would still have rides with RFR with the exception of Bayne.  I believe that not winning hurt Wallace finding sponsorship and on several occasions he might have had the field not been filled with cup veterans.

Why Roush needs to remain two-car team in 2018

Yesterday I wrote about Steve Newmark's comments on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio about the Roush Fenway Racing organization remaining a two-car operation in 2018.  Today is my day to put it all in my perspective on why it is the best thing for this organization at the moment.

Trevor Bayne talks with car owner Jack Roush at Michigan

The starting point here is, Roush Fenway is still searching for more speed on intermediate tracks after a lot of changes that were made to the team.  While Ricky Stenhouse Jr., has been able to win on restrictor plate tracks this season, the team is still looking for the speed with both drivers at other places.  So to add a third car one year after dropping down to two just isn't a smart move when the organization has not completely gotten the speed back into their race cars.

To justify staying this way just look at what Team Penske did back in the late 2000s.  They ran three race cars and struggled with them.  They switched back to two cars in 2011 and a year later were about to win a championship with Brad Keselowski in 2012.  Penske has remained a two-car team since and helped back the Wood Brothers to keep their third driver on the track in the 21.  I believe that Roush has taken this same road to bringing themselves back up the ladder.

Sponsorship is also a major effect on the organization.  Where the two years prior, AdvoCare completely backed Trevor Bayne they are not this season.  Once again this weekend Roush Performance Parts is on Bayne's Ford Fusion at Kentucky Speedway.  So here is that little issue that fans of Bubba Wallace keep wanting to gripe about when he got dropped after Pocono.  Wallace has not won a race since he first arrived at Roush and the sponsorship didn't come with him.  So with issues going on to keep the two primary cars in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series going forward they had no choice but to drop the 6 Xfinity program out.

Years ago unsponsored cars were white and black on the track but around Roush's 25th anniversary in the sport, they started to change that.  Bayne ran several events in a 25th Anniversary Roush Fenway car in 2013, a Roush CleanTech car and other Roush related products but here is the problem with that; when those companies are on the car it was what we used to call a 401K sponsorship on the car.

That meaning that the money is coming straight from the organization and not from a corporate organization like AdvoCare or Liberty National Life.  The same goes for when Ford Performance is on the cars as well, instead of running a blank car it is a way for the team to advertise for the manufacturer or the car owners main company.  Sponsorship is the driving point of this sport, and the company needs more of it to fill some of the holes for 2018.  Fans want to have this little debate about the organization asking too much for sponsorship, however, since Newmark came in, I have heard all that changed when Geoff Smith parted ways as the Team President. 

Smith in my opinion was responsible for the big split between Mark Martin and Valvoline back in the early 1990s because he wanted too much from the sponsor.  I believe now Newmark is smarter about getting sponsorship for the cars and takes what they can get for the cars. 

The one thing that RFR did not downsize was its engineering department last fall.  While going from 3 cars to 2, the team kept it's engineering core the same and added to it.  Roush still has work to do in getting their chassis's better but they're finding speed as the season goes on. The goal is to get back to a three car organization but not until they have speed back in the main two cars for the organization.