Bayne has second go at Pocono

Trevor Bayne's first visit to Pocono in June included a trip to ARCA victory lane and a 24th place finish in the Sprint Cup Series in his first starts at Pocono Raceway.  Bayne had never been able to turn a lap at the 2.5 mile tricky triangle because of the schedule that was laid out by Ford Motorcraft and the Wood Brothers and the NASCAR Xfinity Series never racing at the track.

Bayne celebrates his ARCA win in June

"I learned a lot," said Bayne.  "Obviously, I was at ground zero.  I had never been here before, never seen the place before.  I had to start at the bottom and learn everything there is know about the place.

"Since Pocono, I feel like our cars have come to life.  I think we're making progress, so coming back here we've got something to look forward to."

This is only the second track on the schedule that the series will be at for the second time this season, technically if you take Daytona off, it will be the first non-restrictor plate track to run its second event.  There is an 8 week split between the two Pocono events, which is much less than most other tracks on the schedule.

"It's not like Phoenix, where it's the second or third and then it's the second to last race," Bayne stated.  "It's almost like a new season by the time you go back."

After last weekend's struggle at Indianaplis, the team needs to get back on track to the pattern they were on before New Hampshire.  Bayne had knocked off a pair of ninth place finishes, and a 13th at Kentucky before struggling the past two weeks.

Bayne, Osborne starting to click

Trevor Bayne and Bob Osborne began this season with a lot of unknowns with each other as the two were paired together in the off season of 2014.  Up until a few weeks ago at Michigan, there were many people questioning whether or not Jack Roush had put the right crew chief with Trevor Bayne for his first full season in the Sprint Cup season.

After last weekend's race at Kentucky Speedway the questions are being answered.  Bayne and Osborne have began to click and it is showing in their results on the track.  The 13th place finish that the team ended up with didn't reflect how well they actually ran throughout the whole night.  Bayne fell behind early on and lost a lap to the leaders but was the lucky dog on lap 99 and from that point on, the No. 6 Advocare Ford moved towards the front of the field.  Bayne made it into the top-20 by lap 141 and only needed six more laps to make into the top-15.  By lap 156, he was into the sixth position and he would maintain his track position inside the top-10 through the late race run.

Bayne & Osborne talk during practice at Kentucky Speedway

The showed on Saturday night that they are finally understanding one another on the radio, as Osborne was able to make adjustments to the car to better fit Bayne.  It wasn't until the late race run when Bayne's car began to become loose that the car lost track position and he fell to 13th.

"We're making gains with this Advocare Ford Fusion and we've got to keep rolling with it," said Bayne after the race.  "  The 17 finished 11th, so that's good for our organization.  We're getting better and showing that it wasn't just a fluke to finish in the top-10 just once.  We're proving that we can be there every week and that's what we have to do."

As I look back over the last month and a half, I think winning the ARCA race at Pocono was a confidence booster for Bayne and getting the track position helped him.  Also this was Bayne and Osborne's 18th race together and the chemistry is finally beginning to click between the two of them.
It takes time to build team chemistry, however, as it has been shown in the last few weeks these two are clicking on all cylinders.  Also spotter Freddie Kraft deserves credit for keeping Trevor Bayne out of trouble and keeping him paced.  The pit crew has been on top of their game as of late, as they showed on Saturday by not losing any track position during the entire race.

This weekend the series will be going to Loudon where Trevor Bayne has never turned a lap in a Sprint Cup car.  Bayne, however, has four career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with 1 top-five and 3 top-tens, leading 58 laps in the 2011 race at the track.

Bayne scores second top-10 of 2015 in Wild Daytona finish

Trevor Bayne had been inside the top-3 for much of the closing stages of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.  Bayne earned his second top-ten finish in the last three events in a wild finish at the speedway.

Bayne's 9th place finish ties his season best at Michigan 

Bayne looked was fifth fastest in the first practice session until the first huge wreck of the weekend that sent the No. 6 Advocare team to a backup car.  Rain cancelled qualifying and with Bayne being fifth in practice would start the race where he ran in practice.  Bayne and crew chief Bob Osborne made the decision early on in the race to go to the back to avoid being involved in any wrecks.  Following the competition caution flag at lap 25, Bayne found himself in 27th.

He would quickly move back into the top-20 and maintained his track position until the caution on lap 54 for Carl Edwards single car accident.  During the caution period, Osborne would bring Bayne in for four tires and fuel and putting him in 31st as several stayed on the track.  Bayne would waste little time during the next run as he was able to get to as high as ninth place before making a little contact with the outside wall as he barely avoided a multi-car crash involving several in turn 2.

The damage was not enough to hinder Bayne's performance as he returned to the track in 15th.  He would move toward the front, as he would only need five laps to get inside the top-five.  Bayne continued to move forward as he was in third place by lap 127, and the Knoxville native would maintain his position through the closing laps of the race, even moving himself into second place at lap 143; before being shuffled back to fifth place before the caution fell at lap 149.

Bayne was shuffled back on the final restart and in the last lap crash that seen Austin Dillion fly into the catch fence, the No. 3 of Dillion went over the top of Bayne's No. 6 Advocare Ford before Bayne was turned after the finish of the race.

“It stinks to tear a race car up at the checkers but that is the first time I have gone to the infield care center and not been broken hearted from a bad run,” Bayne said standing outside the DIS infield care facility at nearly three a.m. Monday. “I feel we had a top-five run going there. It was pretty wild. There at the end off of four everybody was trying to go everywhere. We got rooted out by the 41 car and ended up ninth. We will take it.“

TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion (Finished 9th) -- “I am good to go. It stinks to tear a race car up at the checkers but that is the first time I have gone to the infield care center and not been broken hearted from a bad run. We finished 9th I guess or wherever they line us up at after they look at all of it. I feel we had a top-five run going there. It was pretty wild. My car was kind of sluggish at the beginning and we got into the wall when Kenseth wrecked off four and it narrowed it up just enough and toed it in just enough that it started handling really good and got really fast. We drove up to the top four but it was really tough battling those Hendrick cars when you have three of them lined up together. We were able to hold our own and Denny (Hamlin) and I worked well and Paul Menard gave me some good pushes. There at the end off of four everybody was trying to go everywhere. We got rooted out by the 41 car and ended up ninth. We will take it. I feel we had a solid race today. That AdvoCare spark, you need it at three in the morning to keep you sharp. I never got tired in the race and I am sure everybody else was dragging a little after a long day at the race track. I was impressed by the fans staying in the stands and hopefully everyone is alright from that crash.”  

TALK ABOUT THIS CRAZY DAY, STARTING THIS RACE AT NEARLY MIDNIGHT AND ENDING AT THREE IN THE MORNING. “It is kind of back to your roots of short track racing or whatever where you don’t know what time you will get out of there. I remember as a kid leaving the track at four in the morning sometimes. It is kind of back to that. Like I said, we have some of the best fans in the world that will sit in the stands through the rain and lightning and whatever until three a.m. and I really appreciate that.”  

DID YOU SEE ANY OF THAT LAST WRECK? “I didn’t. I was almost through it I think when the 11 slid back up and then I had nowhere to go. I don’t know what happened yet, I just heard about it. I hope everyone is alright.”