Atlanta Pre-Race Notes

Trevor Bayne looks to make vast improvement on his 28th place finish in the Daytona 500 last weekend when the Sprint Cup Series goes to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.  This will be Bayne's third visit to the 1.54 mile quad-oval track in the Sprint Cup Series.  Bayne's best finish came in September of 2012 at the track, a 16th.
Notes of Interest for Atlanta

• Trevor Bayne has recorded five Xfinity Series starts at AMS.  He recorded one top-ten finish, a seven place finish in August of 2013.
• Bayne's two previous Sprint Cup efforts at the track have been 16th and 19th place finishes.
• This will be the first non-restrictor plate race for the new Ford Fusion and the NASCAR rules package.

Bayne's Thought's on Atlanta

"Atlanta is a ton of fun to race on.  You can race right against the wall or right on the white line.  It has a lot of charactor to it and really wears out tires.  I love racing there and hopefully (crew chief) Matt (Puccia) will get this AdvoCare Ford dialed in and we will have a great run on Sunday."

Daytona 500 Pre-Race Notes

Trevor Bayne will entering his sixth Daytona 500 this season when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series arrives at Daytona.  Bayne enters his second full season behind the wheel of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing with new crew chief Matt Puccia.  Bayne scored his last top-ten finish in the Sprint Cup Series last July at the World Center of Racing.
Notes of Interest

• Trevor Bayne remains the youngest winner of the Daytona 500 at 20 years and 1 day when he won with the Wood Brothers Racing team on February 20, 2011.
• Trevor Bayne has started 10 events at Daytona, he has 1 win, 1 top-five and 2 top-ten finishes, while completing 1480 of 1777 laps and leading 8 of them.  Bayne has an average start of 22.3 and an average finish of 26.1 at the 2.5 mile super speedway.
• Bayne's new crew chief Matt Puccia has 8 starts as a crew chief at Daytona with 1 top-five and four top-ten finishes, all coming with Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle.  Puccia has an average start of 11.1 and and average finish of 14.2 at the track.
• With the new NASCAR Charter System Trevor Bayne is guaranteed a start in each event this season.
• Trevor Bayne will start his sixth Duel 150 from the 17th position after qualifying 33rd in Sunday's Daytona 500 qualifying session.

Quoting Trevor Bayne on Daytona
"Daytona will forever be special place for me.  Winning here in 2011 is something that I will cherish for the rest of my life.  It means the world to me knowing that my name is part of this track's history.  I love racing here.  Restrictor-plate racing is a type that definitely keeps you on your toes the whole day and onedge.  Hopefully (crew chief) Matt (Pucca) and I can get this AdvoCare Ford handling great and get that second Daytona 500 victory on Sunday."

Let's Charter the Track

NASCAR and several of the members from the Race Team Alliance announced their new deal for the future on Tuesday afternoon in a press conference.  Roush Fenway Racing president Steve Newmark was on hand as the announcement was made, along with Richard Petty, Tommy Baldwin, Brian France, Rob Kauffman, and several others.

There will be thirty-six teams granted with Charters and they are guaranteed entry into each of the 36 events.  Standards for obtaining one of the Charters were based on participation during the last three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series seasons (from 2013 through July of 2015).

NASCAR will cut its field from 43 cars down to 40 each week, and there will be four additional positions available for entry through ordinary qualifying procedures as outlined in the 2016 Sprint Cup Series Rule Book.

The Charter system is something that owners have been fighting for in an attempt to achieve more value for their racing organizations for the future.  It will help arrange more stability by guaranteeing sponsors and other partners continued partnership for an extended amount of time.

As of now the organizations that have been awarded Charters are:
Roush Fenway Racing (3), Richard Petty Motorsports (2), Team Penske (2), Front Row Motorsports (2), Hendrick Motorsports (4), Richard Childress Racing (3), Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (2), Stewart Haas Racing (3), Furniture Row Racing (1), JGT Daughtery Racing (1), Tommy Baldwin Racing (1) Germain Racing (1), Go Fas Racing (1), BK Racing (2) Premium Motorsports (1), Circle Sport Racing (1) and HScott Racing (1).  Also there are two Charters from the now dissolved Michael Waltrip Racing.

The one team that seemed to be left out of everything was the Wood Brothers.  The longest running organization is without a Charter going into their first full-time season in almost 9 years.  Running part time the last 8 years was the the reasoning for the Wood Brothers team not being handed a Charter.  Eventually they could purchase one if another team falls out.

• Charters will be granted to 36 Sprint Cup teams.  A charter will guarantee a team a spot in every points race.
• Teams can sell their charter.  They can also lease their charter for one year.  NASCAR must approve the new purchaser of the Charter.
• The agreement is for nine years (five years and a four-year option).  Teams will be able to remain part of the agreement as long as they are in "Good Standing."
• The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field will be cut down to 40 cars.  Teams without charters can compete for the remaining four positions in the field.
• A Team Owner Council will be setup and have formal input into major decisions, such as rule packages that are put into place.  The council is expected to be involved in how the sport is governed.  NASCAR will still oversee the sport.
• The Four Car Maximum will remain in effect with the Charters.  As each organization will only be allowed to have four Charters.

New Paint, New Crew Chief Highlight changes for Bayne in 2016

It's been a while since Trevor Bayne had a regular paint scheme that was different than the red, white and blue AdvoCare scheme that has been a part of his color configuration since the start of the 2014 season when AdvoCare first joined him in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

AdvoCare will have a have a different look on Bayne's No. 6 Ford Fusion for Roush Fenway Racing this upcoming season.  The car will have a checkered flag pattern down the side of its doors, with a blue stripe on the bottom of the car.  The lettering will be AdvoCare blue with the number being the same red as last season.

Bayne looks to have a new helmet and firesuit to go along with his paint scheme this season.  That isn't the only change going on with Trevor Bayne for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season as Matt Puccia will take over the ranks as the crew chief for Trevor Bayne this year.  Puccia brings six years of experience as a crew chief in the Sprint Cup Series, mainly working with Bayne's teammate Greg Biffle who he won three events with during their tenure together.

The season will get kicked off in a couple of weeks when the Sprint Cup teams arrive at Daytona for front row qualifying for the Daytona 500.  It will be the first time that Bayne and Puccia will have the chance to work with one another in the Sprint Cup Series on the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford.

"Getting to work with Matt this year will be great," said Trevor Bayne.  "We've known each other for years and I feel like we will be able to communicate very well together.  He has had a lot of success in the past and hopefully we can continue that success this year."

Puccia echoed Bayne's thoughts.

"I'm excited for what 2016 has in store," said Puccia.  "It will be great to work with Trevor this year and to work with the folks at AdvoCare.  We made a lot of changes this off season at Roush Fenway and I think that they all will greatly help once this season gets underway."

Five Years Too Long: Bayne looks to break the streak in 2016

It seems like it was only a couple of years ago when I heard him scream through the radio at Donnie Wingo "Am I dreaming?"  However it has been five years since Trevor Bayne took the checkered flag in the 2011 Daytona 500 and became the youngest winner of the Great American Race.

Trevor Bayne's looking to end the five year drought in 2016

"The crazy thing is when I'm talking about it, I feel like it was a couple years ago," Bayne said during Media Day at Charlotte.  "Then someone says five years and it kind of blows your mind a little bit.  Makes us all feel old, a little bit.  I still reminder it and think about how great it was."

Bayne's on track success since then has not been the best.  He struggled to get sponsorship on his NASCAR Xfinity Series car in 2012, and only found victory lane twice in the lower division of NASCAR.  It took almost 3 years for Roush Fenway to find the right sponsorship deal for Trevor Bayne to make the big move to the Sprint Cup Series last year.  AdvoCare joined them in 2014 in the Xfinity Series and in May of 2014 announced that they would be making the

move to the Sprint Cup Series with Bayne in 2015.

Bayne feels he and and his team can still perform with the changes that were made in the off-season.

"Like I said [winning the Daytona 500] was great," he stated.  "We want to be great still and go get another one."

This season he will be get another shot with a new crew chief on his box.  Matt Puccia will take over for Bob Osborne who has made a move to Front Row Motorsports to work with Chris Buescher.

"I look forward to going and proving that we can still do it," Bayne said.  "I think I have a lot to prove.  I think our team has a lot to prove.  And we go at it with that mindset."

Bayne was asked about the crew chief changes that were made so late into the season and felt that new crew chief Matt Puccia was right for him.

"A crew chief change can make a difference for you that is for sure," Bayne said.  "But it's going to take more than one person to make it work, it's the whole organization of having cars and take and make better.  But I think where the crew chief change makes a big difference is being on the same page as one another; understanding how to read each other, communicate, whether it's changes in the race or practice; you can only do so much, but there's a lot of options on things to change.  I think Matt and I are already communicate well already.

Bayne was asked what went into making the crew chief change this late into the off-season before the season started.

"There's a lot of parts and pieces," said Bayne.  "But a big portion of it was Scott Graves departure to Gibbs, they had to find a crew chief for Chris Buescher.  Roush is big on keeping people in house and promoting within and Bob was doing my deal and Chris needed a crew chief and they felt like their personalities really lined up well and Matt and I really lined up well and as we know in this sport that is the most key part is communication.  Anyone can go buy the right parts and pieces if they know what they're going to buy and then you have to talk to one another to figure that out and so Matt and I really line up on that well.

During the 2015 one of the key problems I noticed was the chemistry between Bayne and Osborne just didn't hit off.  Bayne would ask for a change in the race car and Osborne would tell him to just deal with it.  I have not heard how Matt Puccia handles making changes to the cars during a race but I would hope that the way Trevor Bayne is talking their chemistry is already better than what Bayne and Osborne had in 2015.

Bayne upbeat about new changes at Roush

With the NASCAR Media Day taking place on Wednesday for Ford Performance teams Trevor Bayne was interviewed several times on the changes that took place at Roush Fenway including having veteran crew chief Matt Puccia coming on board and replacing Bob Osborne.

Trevor Bayne answers questions during Media Day

Bayne said he felt the new people from two years ago Kevin Kidd and Mark McArdle have finally settled in and taken their place in their company and made the right changes.  The one name that keeps coming up with every driver when they are interviewed is Kevin Kidd.  Kidd made the statement at the beginning of 2015 that "Rome wasn't built in a day, and they were rebuilding Rome."
While being interviewed by PRN this morning, Bayne brought up one of the main things he and new crew chief Puccia have discussed that was a big issue between him and Bob Osborne in 2015.

Bayne said the two had already had a lot of discussions and the main thing they discussed was communication.  During the 2015 season there were a lot of issues between Bayne and former crew chief Bob Osborne.  "I am very excited for this," stated Bayne on Sirius XM.

Kevin Kidd seems to the one making the right
changes at Roush Fenway for 2016

"Last year going into the, I really didn't know what to expect, and I said 'maybe, halfway, three-quarters of the way through the season we should see some progress.  We have some new people in and I think those new people Kevin Kidd, Mark McArdle have finally settled into their roles.  We were seeing a changing at Roush as we said last year this is a process and progress is being made, step after step and it's not going to be one big leap that puts us to the front again."

"I'm seeing a lot of good stuff happening at Roush.  Part of that is if you walk into our shop right now
you wouldn't recognize it from what it used to look like.  Used to we had it sectioned off into groups and you'd see all the 6 cars together, then all the 16, then all the 17.  Now we're all kinda inner mixed together where there is a lot of information being shared.

"The crew chief offices are side by side.  I am very excited to have Matt Puccia come on board on my team.  I feel like we've known each other for a very long time, since I got to Roush; and we talked about race cars and we have a lot in common.  He just had a baby girl a few weeks before I did, and its cool to be able to talk to him about that kinda stuff but also about race cars.  I feel like we have a lot of the same goals and there is a lot of great people, you will about it all day long as drivers come in; all the new people we have at Roush that bring a lot to the table.  And I am excited about it, I am ready to get started, I really am."

Bayne will also have a new spotter this season that I have yet to get the name of.  Also the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion will have a new paint scheme on board as well.

New Ford Fusion Design Is Different - Here is the Differences from 2015

Ford unveiled it's new design for the 2017 Ford Fusion today and even if you aren't seeing the differences in the car they are there.  On the right is a picture where there are colored arrows that are pinpointing the differences in the 2017 Ford Fusion to last year's model that the Ford Performance race teams ran on the track in the Sprint Cup Series last season.  Ford has won a total of 71 races the last seven years with the Fusion, including 4 of the last 7 Daytona 500s.

• White Arrow on the Bottom:  Honeycomb area of the nose replaces the bumpy lines that have been seen on the Ford Fusion since the Gen-6 Ford Fusion debuted in 2013.  And it is a decal instead of an insert.
• Yellow Arrow:  The Fog Lights on the Ford Fusion have more of a cove than last years model
• White Arrow At the Top:  The Greenhouse Area of the Ford Fusion has become bigger 
• Blue Arrow:  The cove above the side skirts from last years model are gone.  
• Green Arrow:  It appears that there is less of a cove in the rear fenders 

"There's no mistaking we're here to win races and championships," said Dave Pericak global director for Ford Performance.  "And we believe the new NASCAR Fusion will be a powerful tool in the hands of our teams and drivers."

"Aerodynamics are more important than ever at speeds these cars run," he stated.  "So we used some of the best wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics technology available to create this new Fusion.  Fortunately, the Ford design team gave us a great car with which to start."