Bayne gets top-20 in Atlanta

With the first race with NASCAR's new intermediate rules package Trevor Bayne and crew chief Bob Osborne were able to bring home a very hard fought 19th place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Bayne took the green flag from his 29th starting position and was able to find a few positions early in the race.  Fighting a problem early on in the race when the hose on his cool box came unattached he made his way up to 24th.  Bayne said he was losing the nose really bad in traffic, as crew chief Bob Osborne told him to use the in car track bar adjuster for the first time and take 1/4 round out.  The adjustment only made the car worse, as Osborne decided on the competition yellow that they would do a wedge adjustment, tape on the grille and right front tire pressure adjustment. 

After the pit stop Bayne came back out in 24th.  Osborne reported to Bayne that his tires looked the same as the 20 lap run in the practice session on Saturday afternoon so the team had no concern for tire wear.  Bayne would fight a loose off condition until a caution flag fell on lap 93, Osborne called Bayne down pit road for four tires, and a chassis adjustment on his No. 6 Advocare Ford Fusion. 

Bayne returned to the track in 21st.  He would work himself into the top-20 for the first time on lap 101, however, once the race progressed through and rubber began to lay down, Bayne's handling began to turn to a loose condition.  He would fall one lap down to the leaders soon thereafter. 

Osborne continued to adjust on the car throughout the race, and the team ended up falling another lap down to the leaders as the race continued to go green.  Then Bayne missed the big accident of the afternoon with less than 30 laps remaining in the race.  Bayne was called back to pit road for four tires, he returned to the track in 23rd, he would move up to 19th and hold off Justin Allgaier for the position. 

“The beginning of the race we were decent,” said Bayne after the race.  “It was just track position and all the cautions, and that was the biggest thing was track position at the beginning of the race, and in the middle of the race we freed up the car a lot and then about that time we had a long green flag run and the track took rubber and it loosened up even more, so we were just way too loose for the middle 100 laps – and then we got it tightened back up at the end and we could start making ground.  Overall, I thought we executed pretty well for this being our first time working together at a real race track.”