Bayne not eligible for Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year

 After many reports earlier in the off season were out that Trevor Bayne would be able to compete for the Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors, it appears that he now is not eligible to compete for the award.

Reports started coming out on twitter late on Wednesday night that Bayne was not eligible.  The word is that with his 58 starts in the Sprint Cup Series that Bayne compiled at the Wood Brothers Racing organization in the Sprint Cup Series was too many races to be eligible to compete for the award.  I tweeted Claire B Lang host of Dialed In on Sirius NASCAR radio about the issue and this morning I was given this answer.

Bayne's 58 starts in the 21 equal out to 1 1/2 seasons

Claire B Lang ‏@ClaireBLang

@TBayneDiehards @TravisFuguet NASCAR has indicated that they will not make an exception for him- he's run too many races..to b ROY elegible

Bayne was asked yesterday during an interview with PRN if he knew if he was going to be able to compete and he wasn't quite sure, but said if he wasn't it was ok with him.  In his 58 starts with the Wood Brothers he only was able to accumulate two top-ten finishes, both on restrictor plate tracks at Daytona and Talladega, one of which was his unforgettable victory in the 2011 Daytona 500 in the 21 car.

Bayne made a point yesterday that even though he was able to get the experience with the famed 21 team, it was also difficult because you would run two races and then not be back on the track for sometimes two months and you were back to starting over.  

Bayne "pumped up" to be driving Roush's famous 6 car

It was September of 2010 that Trevor Bayne first joined the Roush Fenway organization after he was let loose by Diamond-Waltrip Racing when no sponsorship could be secured for the No. 99 team.  It didn't take long for news to start spreading that Jack Roush was going to put the young kid behind the wheel of one of his Xfinity Series cars, even if it meant sponsoring him on his own.

After five years of waiting it out, through the good and the bad, Trevor Bayne is finally able to make a full-time start with Roush Fenway's No. 6 team.  Bayne was asked how excited he was for this upcoming season and replied "Yeah we are, I can't thank Jack Roush and Ford enough for the last five years, that they've stood behind me to get to this point." said Bayne.  "It's been a little bit of wait but it's been a great time driving the No. 21 car but now I get the opportunity to drive for the man I signed up to drive for 6 years ago"

"Pressure, I don't feel any pressure I feel like I have my own expectations, but I don't feel any pressure from it.  I feel like I've had enough experience over the last few years to go out there and give everything I got every lap.  I think when you start feeling pressure that's when you make mistakes.  I just have to know I'm going to give it my all."

Bayne has a few tracks on the schedule that he has yet to make a visit to in his career.  Of those are Pocono, Martinsville, and Sonoma and it sounds like plans are in the works to possibly run the ARCA race at Pocono and to make a run in the K&N West Series race at Sonoma if possible.  He will have veteran crew chief Bob Osborne on board this season so it will be an extra step in finding his grip in the series.

People look at the last few years of Bayne running the No. 21 car and question his statistics but he made a point that while running the part-time schedule with the famed Wood Brothers organization.  That even though they ran the races, the split where they would run two-three races and then the major break would throw them off in the summer time to start all over again. 

Later on PRN he was asked about pressure with the car number and responded "A little but I've had that with the 21 car as well," stated Bayne.  "The two cars I've gotten to drive there are a lot of shoes to fill.  I can't thank Jack enough for letting me pull out his 6 car."

"I think just being part of this group with Ricky and Greg, I'm hopefully going to catch the upswing a little bit with Roush Fenway Racing.  "I feel like the last couple of years has been a little tough on them."

"Competition wise, I have Bob Osborne on my box.  He's very talented and a lot of experience crew chief and won a lot of races and gives me confidence moving forward."

There is still no clear answer on whether or not Bayne will be able to compete for Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year with the new rules that NASCAR put in place a few years back, however, it appears that he will be illegible to run for the award.

"It's hard to believe Daytona was [four] years ago and I feel really thankful for the opportunities I've had over the past few years to develop as a driver and a person," Bayne said. "I'm probably more appreciative for this opportunity than had I gone Sprint Cup racing full time in 2011. Jack has stood behind me and been a man of his word and I appreciate that."

Bayne-Osborne could help revive Roush's No. 6

Trevor Bayne and his newly assigned crew chief Bob Osborne might have a lot more in common than many really know.  Osborne was put on the back burner midway through 2012 when he was replaced by Chad Norris on Carl Edwards' team.  Bayne has had setbacks of his own, dealing with MS, having to wait the last few years for a sponsor to finally come along that would fit in with his style.

Advocare has stepped up to the plate and sponsored the team.  After just half a season together last May, Advocare and Roush Fenway Racing announced with Mark Martin away from the track that the No. 6 was returning to the track in the Sprint Cup Series full-time in 2015.  Bayne has worked mostly with Chad Norris through his career at Roush Fenway and Donnie Wingo with the Wood Brothers organization, neither are quite the style crew chief that Bob Osborne is.  He is an engineer turned crew chief, one of Roush's long-time employees, as he was once the head engineer on Mark Martin's No. 6 Fords with crew chief Jimmy Fennig.

Osborne has a lot of experience on top of the pit box, as he won 18 races with Carl Edwards from 2004-20012.  He made a comment with Claire B Lang a couple of weeks ago that his intent was always to return to the top of the box and accomplish somethings he wasn't able to do so before, like winning a championship.  Bayne was interviewed a week later and said "it was great to have a veteran guy around that has worked with young drivers before."

Bayne said before he was used to his teams thrashing to get the car, and Osborne's approach was different to run things like a test.  Bayne said he hoped it worked, and felt that Osborne brought great calling to the box, and compared Osborne to Brad Keselowski's crew chief Paul Wolfe.  Bayne felt that his experience in the NASCAR Xfinity Series cars would pay off with all the changes that the officials made to the cars to slow them down.  He has combined experience in both the series with Roush and the Wood Brothers, and as Osborne stated he is very technically experienced with the cars and what they need. 

The two have a lot to prove together, as many naysayers are already counting on failure between the two. 

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Osborne ready for success with Bayne

On Wednesday, Claire B Lang interviewed crew chief Bob Osborne on his return to the top of the pit box for Roush Fenway Racing with Trevor Bayne.  He said he always had the intention to return to the track from the time he stepped down in 2012.

"His technical skill is very high, uh the experience level isn't, um, isn't there yet." stated Osborne on Wednesday night.  "He has some cup experience, and of course some Nationwide experience and shown potential at both levels.  Just think that the skill level that he has and the potential that skill level has to grow yet is impressive to me."

Then Osborne said the one thing that comes to mind when you really think of Trevor Bayne outside of the race car.  "On top of that his attitude is phenomenal to me, you won't find a happier fellow in the garage area." 

Bayne always has a smile on his face, through the good and the bad.  Lang even mentioned, every time he is interviewed he has that smile on his face. Osborne worked with Carl Edwards when he first came into the series and there was a lot of success with the two paired together.  Osborne feels that that Bayne will have to adapt to the changes of the length of races, both mentally and physically.   
There are some fans that question the pairing, as Edwards success faded away with Osborne in their final year together but this will be a fresh start, with another "Bright eyed, bushy tail" driver as Lang called Bayne. 

There are several people from the media saying that Jack Roush will not give Bayne time to pull in the success that he has with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., however, with Bayne's experience already running for the Wood Brothers team the last few years, he knows some of the techniques needed to perform in the Sprint Cup Series cars.  Also with the engine and aero package being changed in Sprint Cup, it might favor someone like Bayne who has been racing full-time in the Xfinity Series (then Nationwide) over the past few seasons. 

Osborne to crew chief Bayne in 2015

Trevor Bayne will have a one of Roush Fenway's veteran crew chief's atop of his pit box in the 2015 season.  Roush Fenway Racing announced this morning that Bob Osborne will be making his return to the pit box after a two-year hiatus from crew chiefing in the sport.  Osborne was the crew chief at Charlotte when Bayne failed to make the field in the October event, the team likely will be falling back on the No. 99 team's points from 2014 in 2015 to start off the season.

Osborne stepped down in mid-2012 because of medical issues, until stepping down he served as crew chief for Carl Edwards from 2004-2012, all but 27 races in his career.  This will be Bayne's first full-time season in the Sprint Cup Series after serving part-time with Wood Brothers Racing team for the past four seasons and becoming the youngest ever winner of the Daytona 500.

Bayne has worked with Mike Kelley and Chad Norris in the NASCAR Xfinity Series most of his career, so Osborne will be a different mix on top of the pit box.  Osborne has nine years of experience as a crew chief with 297 starts, 18 wins, 86 top-fives, and 142 top-tens, along with 11 poles, mainly coming from Carl Edwards' performance.  After New Hampshire in July of 2012, Osborne stepped down because of his illness and Chad Norris took over his position. 

Bayne's former Sprint Cup crew chief Donnie Wingo at the Wood Brothers organization has moved on to work with David Gilliland at Front Row Motorsports.