Bayne quietly leading Roush Fenway Racing through the first half of 2016

Before this season started you heard a few things like 'Trevor Bayne can't race at the top level, he doesn't have the talent, he doesn't have what it takes to be a contender for the Chase,' but we are half way through the year and we're seeing something much different this season out of the driver from Knoxville, TN.

Many felt that Ricky Stenhouse Jr., would be the leader for Roush Fenway this season with more experience and more time with crew chief Nick Sandler but quietly and patiently, it has been Trevor Bayne and Matt Puccia leading the way for Roush's team with the best average finish of anyone there (17.3) and they are only 10 points out of being in the Chase going into this weekend's race at New Hampshire.  Bayne probably has shown the most improvement of any driver this season in the first half of the season as he has been able to improve on every number except for adding a victory to the win column. 

Bayne has scored more top-five finishes (2), more top-tens (4) and his average finish has improved by 8.5 positions this seasons.  Bayne also has led more laps this season with 34 than he did all his years combined before this season.  As of right now he is the only driver at Roush Fenway Racing with a legitimate shot at making it into the Chase on points going into New Hampshire after his teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished in 40th last weekend in Kentucky. 

Matt Puccia has helped give Bayne better cars and confidence

The key for the remainder of the season is to be able to have speed in their cars so fuel mileage won't have to be a factor in getting a good finish.  When this season began there was also a lot of questions put on a decision RFR made putting Matt Puccia with Bayne.  Puccia had very little success with veteran Greg Biffle in their term together; only winning three events together.  However, Bayne and Puccia have found a lot that they are in common together and have formed a core bond that has helped them work together on and off the track. 

There is more a more confident Trevor Bayne this season as many people have caught on.  Trevor Bayne told Claire B Lang on her show a couple weeks ago it is all about the opportunity and being confident in his crew chief and spotter.  There's a big difference in the cars that this team had year ago compared to this season and in my opinion, I hear a difference in spotter Roman Pemberton compared to last year with Freddie Kraft who is now on the 16 team.  Bayne needed a spotter he could feel confident that if he tells him the leaders are running this line, he can move up there and it work.  I just didn't hear that last year, and it worked the same way with the crew chief as well when he had Bob Osborne.

I've talked to many people that have been around Trevor Bayne for a good amount of his career.  He hasn't change, he's still the same driver he was when he competed in Michael Waltrip's cars and sat on poles and looked like a stellar young star.  The difference is Roush Fenway's cars took a fall off for several years and they're finally beginning to show a sign of performance turn around this season and you are seeing that confidence come back to Trevor this season.  When he made that move in the Sprint All Star Show Down back in May, it showed he had a lot of what people have not seen over the last several years while he raced for the Wood Brothers and his first season with RFR. 

Those that want to think Bayne doesn't have talent need to go back and look at a few races where he did have decent cars through the years and see solid finishes.  Bayne won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa a few years back in a fierce battle with Austin Dillon and he did the bump and run on Dillon.  A year later he gave Kyle Busch all he wanted at Dover in the Xfinity Series race there, and this year he has slowly began to show he isn't afraid to race against the Sprint Cup Series biggest stars. 

When you give him good race cars Trevor Bayne will perform.  Plain and simple. That is why he is leading Roush Fenway this season!

Bayne continues to eat away at Chase deficit

It may not have been the prettiest way to plug away at a margin in the points standings but with an 11th place finish at Kentucky Speedway last night, Trevor Bayne is now only 10 points away from being 16th in the Chase Grid Standings.  Bayne continues to show improvement with crew chief Matt Puccia and spotter Roman Pemberton through the first half of the season and lead the Roush Fenway organization this season when many people doubted their talents.

Trevor Bayne passes Kyle Busch early on at Kentucky Speedway

Last night, the No. 6 AdvoCare team stretched their fuel mileage and was able to make it the final 71 laps on the tank of fuel his team put in the car on their final stop and was able to finish 11th in the Quaker State 400 but it didn't come without a few challenges through the night.  Bayne first avoided the huge accident earlier in the night on lap 94 that took many cars out of the field, and then had a little bit of a run in with the No. 38 of Landon Cassill that put some damage on Bayne's left rear quarter panel before Cassill eventually went for a spin on lap 195 that was the final caution of the night.

Now the team goes on the long summer stretch that will be the tall order to see if they can make it into the Chase.  The series will travel to New Hampshire this coming weekend then Indianapolis, and then they return back to Pocono for the second time this season to end the month of July.  Then they will go to Watkins Glen for the final road course race of the season and finally catch a weekend off before going to Bristol where Bayne finished fifth earlier in the season.

Bayne made a statement to his crew chief Matt Puccia at the end of the race on Saturday night, "I don't care how pretty it is, as long as we keep getting these good finishes."  The one key thing is the 6 team has yet to have a race this season where they've failed to finish.  A big improvement from the 2015 season a year ago.

New Hampshire has not been one of Trevor Bayne's best tracks in either division that he's competed in, however, in the NASCAR Xfinity Series he did have a fifth place finish early on in his career, along with two more top-ten finishes; while leading 58 laps.  With the Roush Fenway team finding some momentum lately this might be a good chance for them to eat away even more of McMurray's margin in the standings and get themselves into Chase contention.

New Aero Package in place at Michigan for FireKeepers Casino 400

This weekend the Sprint Cup Series goes to Michigan for its 15th race on the schedule and once again they'll be racing with a new aero package this weekend at the two-mile speedway.  Last season fans didn't care for the high drag package that NASCAR implanted on teams at the track, but this season many drivers and crew chiefs feel that the racing will be better with the lower down force package.

NASCAR will make changes to the rear spoiler, front splitter and rear deck fin for two upcoming races to see how it plays out with the first being at Michigan this weekend.  It is a proposal to continue to lower the aerodynamic downforce and the sideforce in an effort to make the competition closer the intermediate race tracks.  The changes are similar to what the teams ran at Charlotte in the Sprint All-Star race. 

Michigan has had some snoozefest races in the past few years and NASCAR is hoping that this weekend the package will make the racing much more competitive.  Last season, Trevor Bayne finished 9th in the rain shortened event at the track.   The race only had 17 lead changes throughout the event in 2015.

The changes for this weekend's race consist of of a reduction in spoiler height from 3.5 inches to 2.5 inches, a splitter reduction of two inches and a re-sizing of the rear deck fin to complement the spoiler change.

There's 14 down and there's big signs of improvement with Team AdvoCare

There's still the occasional fan from another driver that has something negative to say about Trevor Bayne but the proof is in the pudding this season that he and his No. 6 AdvoCare crew have made huge strides to improve this season.

Matt Puccia been a big part of the improvement in 2016

Daytona wasn't much improvement, they jumped two positions to 28th from a 30th.  In Atlanta they took a drop off of last season's 19th place finish and took home 22nd, but had some adversity with tire issues after starting 3rd that afternoon.  Las Vegas was a big improvement, jumping up to 17th from 28th a year before on the 1.5 mile track.  At Phoenix, Bayne finished 23rd, an improvement off the 28th place finish place in 2015.  Also Trevor Bayne had made a jump up in the series points standings to 21st from 26th.

The No. 6 AdvoCare team really began to show some stride at Fontana and had a tire not gone down on the car, Bayne might have gotten a top-ten finish.  He still rallied back to finish 20th which was much better than 2015's 29th place finish.  The team struggled at Martinsville and didn't improve as they finished 27th compared to 18th a year before.  At Texas, crew chief Matt Puccia was going for the win with fuel mileage and a late caution backfired on them, but they were still able to get back on the lead lap and finish 15th, 3 positions better than 2015.

The season's best race so far came at Bristol.  Bayne's home track where he took home a fifth place finish and improved his finishing position by 23 positions from 2015 (28th).  It was the start of some momentum for Bayne and his crew.  They finished 17th at Richmond, a seven position improvement from the year before on the 3/4 mile.  Bayne was in contention throughout the entire race at Talladega Superpseedway, he was pushed out of the lead draft lead and still finished 10th, 31 positions better than 2015.  At Kansas another tire issue gave them trouble and they finished 25th, still an improvement from last season's 31st place finish.

Another top-10 finish came at Dover, when Bayne finished 10th, 33 positions better than last season.  In Charlotte, Bayne and the team just struggled throughout the night with the setup on their car and finished 25th, two position improvement from the year before.  Last weekend at Pocono, Bayne was able to use a little bit of fuel mileage strategy from his crew chief Matt Puccia to get a 13th place finish which helped him improve last season's finish by 11 positions.  Also at this point last season, Bayne was sitting 30th in the series standings and now sits 20th, a 10 position jump.

Their average finish last season for the entire season was a dismal 25.8, this season it has improved up to a 18.4. The other big number to look at is there is also a big Easter Egg in the DNF column this season with Trevor Bayne's numbers.  He's been able to keep the car out of trouble and survive.

This weekend the series goes to Michigan and will run a similar package to what the teams ran at Charlotte in the NASCAR All Star race and Trevor Bayne ran very well with it at Charlotte.  So we'll see if the improvements keep coming.

Roush Fenway puts three cars in the top-12 in Charlotte Qualifying

Trevor Bayne's patriotic paint scheme for Sunday
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

For the first time since August 2014 at Michigan Roush Fenway Racing put all three of it's Ford Fusions inside the top-12 in Sprint Cup Series qualifying.  The last time RFR put all three cars in the final round of qualifying was at Michigan Speedway on August 17, 2014 when Carl Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse and Greg Biffle all three made the final round but did not all make the top-10 in the session.

In recent weeks, Trevor Bayne has enjoyed the most success of the Roush Fenway drivers scoring three top-ten finishes in the last five races and making the Sprint All Star race last weekend.  Bayne seemed to take it easy on his tires through the first round of knockout qualifying and was 22nd at the end of the session, but came back in the second round and put his AdvoCare Ford solidly inside the top-12 to make it into the final round of the session. 

Bayne then turned in the 10th fastest lap of the session in the final round in a special AdvoCare paint scheme.  Teammates Ricky Stenhouse and Greg Biffle qualified 3rd and 6th. 

"We're 10th again and like I said a couple of weeks ago we're kind of disappointed with 10th," said Trevor Bayne after his run.  "That's a refreshing thing to be disappointed with and all our teammates - third, sixth, and 10th - that's a pretty good day for Roush Fenway Racing.  That's kind of back to where we were in 2011, '12 when things were looking up for us.  We're glad to be heading the right direction.  We just missed the balance a little bit in my car.  It has speed in it and it definitely had enough to be a pole car today if we just hit the balance right.  We maybe over-adjusted a little bit and expected too much out of the race track with cool temps.  We were just overall too tight and didn't have enough adjustment in the car.  We got it too free trying, but it's a really good day for our AdvoCare Ford.  We can see the front from there and hopefully we can work our way to it."

Newmark: I think Matt Puccia and Trevor (Bayne) Are Clicking

With no testing permitted by NASCAR anymore, the Sprint All-Star race was a good chance for the No. 6 AdvoCare team to try things out to use in the Coca-Cola 600 to find more speed for this weekend's race.  Trevor Bayne finished 7th in the event but during Roush Fenway's Fan Day Q&A mentioned that he felt really good about last weekend and could really build on it.

Trevor Bayne signs autographs during Roush Fan Day 

Roush Fenway's cars have been getting faster on the mile and half tracks, as Trevor Bayne led laps at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this season and might have had a chance to win the event on fuel mileage had the cards been played right.  Right now after five events on the 1.5 mile tracks, Bayne's average finish on the tracks are at 15.8, which is much better compared to last season's total average at the mile and half venues at 23.72.

The 600 is an endurance race for the driver and the equipment this weekend, Trevor Bayne mentioned during the Q&A he was prepared for it. 

"It's a long race, this year I've been working on my fitness and endurance and things like that," stated Bayne.  "I think 600 mile race people can get really tired so uh, I look forward to that and the challenge of it. I think our cars have been fast at the mile and halves like I said so if we can build on what we did last weekend we can have a really solid race; 600 miles is a lot of time to make a mistake pit road or on in the car so you have to eliminate mistakes to get a good finish.  So I think if we have a solid top-10 day we will keep moving up in points and that's what we need to be doing right now."

During an interview with Sirius NASCAR Radio, Roush Fenway President Steve Newmark was asked by Chocolate Meyers "what he had been feeding Trevor Bayne lately?"  Newmark responded "Well I think you guys recognize recognize it but I'm not sure fans always appreciate how much confidence matters for an entire team.  That's not just in racing but in all sports, but very prominent in racing as well and that whole team is humming right now."

"I think Matt Puccia and Trevor are clicking, we're building faster race cars and Trevor stuck right in there and took it three wide and was able to get the victory.  I love how aggressive he is in driving saw him a little fun racing at the end of the All Star Race with Kurt Busch and I think that's what everyone in this sport wants to see.

"When you give these guys cars that have the ability to win and to run up front and have the speed they recognize it and appreciate it, they can be more aggressive and they can take a different approach.  We know our drivers have the talent, just need to continue to give them the equipment that allows them to showcase it."

It is something that many fans are starting to take notice in Trevor Bayne this season.  He's gotten a lot more confidence in his crew and he's able to make the moves to get to the front that he wasn't able to do so last season.  Newmark hit on something that many of us have been discussing for the last couple of seasons, give these guys good cars and they will perform.

Mark Martin finally get's his Crown Jewel

I was a little kid when a first heard about this new guy from Arkansas coming into racing with a new car owner.  My dad worked at Winn Dixie in the same small-town his in-laws were from and I quickly became a fan of Mark Martin in 1988.

I didn't go for Mark Martin for the winning, the moving people out of the way, I went for Mark because he was a true class act on and off the race track from the first time I met him until now and that is why he truly deserves to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  You can look at Mark Martin's statistics, he's got 40 wins in the premier division of NASCAR, 56 poles, finished second in the points standings 5 times, won 49 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, and 7 Camping World Truck Series, and 4 ASA championships.

Yet it's not those numbers that I think make this guy a Hall of Famer.  I met Mark at Winn Dixie in a autograph signing in 1991 and he told me I've got one word for you if you want to make it in racing "Commitment." I seen all of Mark's ups, and all of his downs throughout his entire racing career, from winning his first race at Rockingham in 1989 with the Strohs Light Thunderbird, losing two very close championship battles with Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart due to points being taken away by NASCAR. 

Who knows, had Mark Martin raced like Dale Earnhardt he might have had a couple of

championships but it just wasn't his style of racing.  However it is what made me a fan from the first time I seen him.  I always put a strong believe it isn't the size of the man but his character that makes him who he is, and Mark Martin is a giant of a man when it comes to that.  It makes this year's Darlington throwback car with Trevor Bayne even more special considering the tribute it will be making to a Hall of Fame driver this season.  Mark Martin won 3 times with that paint scheme in 1997. 

Back to that commitment.  He told me it was a promise to yourself to do the very best at what you are good at to get you where you want to be.  I'll never forget being a kid and meeting this man, back then he was my hero I always looked up to because of things just like today when he was interviewed by NBC NASCAR America.  Mark felt many other guys should have gone in the Hall Of Fame before he did, but he was well deserving of it.  It's not just the W's in the column that make get you that jacket, it's respect, dignity and commitment.