Osborne gets my vote of confidence

Bob Osborne is the veteran crew chief Bayne needs

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is at its All-Star week, and even though the No. 6 Advocare Ford has yet to get a top-15 finish this season I still give Bob Osborne my vote of confidence.  I'm not a car owner, the driver, or crew member that works under the crew chief but in the first 11 races I have listened to every race he's called and I see how well he is handling what is going on with the cars and Trevor Bayne.

I have watched what has happened with Ricky Stenhouse his first few years in the Sprint Cup Series and having crew chief changes right and left.  He's worked with 3 different crew chiefs in the matter of 3 years, and I just don't feel that the crew chief is the issue with Bayne and his finishes.  Roush Fenway is struggling all the way around the board, it's not the engine program because if you look at how well Roger Penske's organization is performing with the same engine, that erases that problem.  You then have to look at the chassis, and in my opinion that is the full course problem. 

They have been building new chassis's for the future and it was ran this past week at Kansas.  Bob Osborne seemed to have Bayne heading in the right direction on Saturday night before he got had a late race mishap that damaged the nose of the Advocare Ford.  One thing I have taken from the first few races that I never did see out of Chad Norris or Donnie Wingo, Bob Osborne is telling Bayne not to take other drivers crap.  Early in the race when Kyle Larson had his entry blocked off in the pits, Bayne was told "if the 42 doesn't have common courtesy to stop short, YOU stop short and block him in the pits."

I see Osborne as a teacher, he's worked with the younger drivers before and won races with Carl Edwards, 18 to be exact.  The chemistry between Osborne and Bayne is there, the cars just need to get better for the driver and crew chief to be able to find a better pattern on race weekends.  I don't think that the fans on social media really want to pay attention to the quality of equipment that Bayne and Bob Osborne has had to work with this season, but more they pay attention to the statistics that they've put up.

The fact is, I don't think that you can grade a driver and crew chief on their finishes when the equipment just isn't up to par with the other major teams in NASCAR.  Roush is hurting, but I believe that they're working to find its problem but it has taken more time than expected.  

As I stated before I look at what Roush has done with Stenhouse, and moving a driver from crew chief to crew chief is one of the worst things for a young driver that is coming up.  Both Bayne and Stenhouse are proven winners, but their statistics fell off when RFR's equipment began to take a slide backwards.  It takes more than one season to really find that right chemistry with the crew chief and driver in my opinion, and I believe Osborne will be working with Bayne for much of the future.  He has the know how to get the cars better, and he's got that engineering background that pays off as well