Five Years Too Long: Bayne looks to break the streak in 2016

It seems like it was only a couple of years ago when I heard him scream through the radio at Donnie Wingo "Am I dreaming?"  However it has been five years since Trevor Bayne took the checkered flag in the 2011 Daytona 500 and became the youngest winner of the Great American Race.

Trevor Bayne's looking to end the five year drought in 2016

"The crazy thing is when I'm talking about it, I feel like it was a couple years ago," Bayne said during Media Day at Charlotte.  "Then someone says five years and it kind of blows your mind a little bit.  Makes us all feel old, a little bit.  I still reminder it and think about how great it was."

Bayne's on track success since then has not been the best.  He struggled to get sponsorship on his NASCAR Xfinity Series car in 2012, and only found victory lane twice in the lower division of NASCAR.  It took almost 3 years for Roush Fenway to find the right sponsorship deal for Trevor Bayne to make the big move to the Sprint Cup Series last year.  AdvoCare joined them in 2014 in the Xfinity Series and in May of 2014 announced that they would be making the

move to the Sprint Cup Series with Bayne in 2015.

Bayne feels he and and his team can still perform with the changes that were made in the off-season.

"Like I said [winning the Daytona 500] was great," he stated.  "We want to be great still and go get another one."

This season he will be get another shot with a new crew chief on his box.  Matt Puccia will take over for Bob Osborne who has made a move to Front Row Motorsports to work with Chris Buescher.

"I look forward to going and proving that we can still do it," Bayne said.  "I think I have a lot to prove.  I think our team has a lot to prove.  And we go at it with that mindset."

Bayne was asked about the crew chief changes that were made so late into the season and felt that new crew chief Matt Puccia was right for him.

"A crew chief change can make a difference for you that is for sure," Bayne said.  "But it's going to take more than one person to make it work, it's the whole organization of having cars and take and make better.  But I think where the crew chief change makes a big difference is being on the same page as one another; understanding how to read each other, communicate, whether it's changes in the race or practice; you can only do so much, but there's a lot of options on things to change.  I think Matt and I are already communicate well already.

Bayne was asked what went into making the crew chief change this late into the off-season before the season started.

"There's a lot of parts and pieces," said Bayne.  "But a big portion of it was Scott Graves departure to Gibbs, they had to find a crew chief for Chris Buescher.  Roush is big on keeping people in house and promoting within and Bob was doing my deal and Chris needed a crew chief and they felt like their personalities really lined up well and Matt and I really lined up well and as we know in this sport that is the most key part is communication.  Anyone can go buy the right parts and pieces if they know what they're going to buy and then you have to talk to one another to figure that out and so Matt and I really line up on that well.

During the 2015 one of the key problems I noticed was the chemistry between Bayne and Osborne just didn't hit off.  Bayne would ask for a change in the race car and Osborne would tell him to just deal with it.  I have not heard how Matt Puccia handles making changes to the cars during a race but I would hope that the way Trevor Bayne is talking their chemistry is already better than what Bayne and Osborne had in 2015.

Bayne upbeat about new changes at Roush

With the NASCAR Media Day taking place on Wednesday for Ford Performance teams Trevor Bayne was interviewed several times on the changes that took place at Roush Fenway including having veteran crew chief Matt Puccia coming on board and replacing Bob Osborne.

Trevor Bayne answers questions during Media Day

Bayne said he felt the new people from two years ago Kevin Kidd and Mark McArdle have finally settled in and taken their place in their company and made the right changes.  The one name that keeps coming up with every driver when they are interviewed is Kevin Kidd.  Kidd made the statement at the beginning of 2015 that "Rome wasn't built in a day, and they were rebuilding Rome."
While being interviewed by PRN this morning, Bayne brought up one of the main things he and new crew chief Puccia have discussed that was a big issue between him and Bob Osborne in 2015.

Bayne said the two had already had a lot of discussions and the main thing they discussed was communication.  During the 2015 season there were a lot of issues between Bayne and former crew chief Bob Osborne.  "I am very excited for this," stated Bayne on Sirius XM.

Kevin Kidd seems to the one making the right
changes at Roush Fenway for 2016

"Last year going into the, I really didn't know what to expect, and I said 'maybe, halfway, three-quarters of the way through the season we should see some progress.  We have some new people in and I think those new people Kevin Kidd, Mark McArdle have finally settled into their roles.  We were seeing a changing at Roush as we said last year this is a process and progress is being made, step after step and it's not going to be one big leap that puts us to the front again."

"I'm seeing a lot of good stuff happening at Roush.  Part of that is if you walk into our shop right now
you wouldn't recognize it from what it used to look like.  Used to we had it sectioned off into groups and you'd see all the 6 cars together, then all the 16, then all the 17.  Now we're all kinda inner mixed together where there is a lot of information being shared.

"The crew chief offices are side by side.  I am very excited to have Matt Puccia come on board on my team.  I feel like we've known each other for a very long time, since I got to Roush; and we talked about race cars and we have a lot in common.  He just had a baby girl a few weeks before I did, and its cool to be able to talk to him about that kinda stuff but also about race cars.  I feel like we have a lot of the same goals and there is a lot of great people, you will about it all day long as drivers come in; all the new people we have at Roush that bring a lot to the table.  And I am excited about it, I am ready to get started, I really am."

Bayne will also have a new spotter this season that I have yet to get the name of.  Also the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion will have a new paint scheme on board as well.

New Ford Fusion Design Is Different - Here is the Differences from 2015

Ford unveiled it's new design for the 2017 Ford Fusion today and even if you aren't seeing the differences in the car they are there.  On the right is a picture where there are colored arrows that are pinpointing the differences in the 2017 Ford Fusion to last year's model that the Ford Performance race teams ran on the track in the Sprint Cup Series last season.  Ford has won a total of 71 races the last seven years with the Fusion, including 4 of the last 7 Daytona 500s.

• White Arrow on the Bottom:  Honeycomb area of the nose replaces the bumpy lines that have been seen on the Ford Fusion since the Gen-6 Ford Fusion debuted in 2013.  And it is a decal instead of an insert.
• Yellow Arrow:  The Fog Lights on the Ford Fusion have more of a cove than last years model
• White Arrow At the Top:  The Greenhouse Area of the Ford Fusion has become bigger 
• Blue Arrow:  The cove above the side skirts from last years model are gone.  
• Green Arrow:  It appears that there is less of a cove in the rear fenders 

"There's no mistaking we're here to win races and championships," said Dave Pericak global director for Ford Performance.  "And we believe the new NASCAR Fusion will be a powerful tool in the hands of our teams and drivers."

"Aerodynamics are more important than ever at speeds these cars run," he stated.  "So we used some of the best wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics technology available to create this new Fusion.  Fortunately, the Ford design team gave us a great car with which to start."

Puccia, Bayne both have something to prove in 2016

Remember just like a lot of fans I listen to the NASCAR scanner every weekend and my main scan last season was with Trevor Bayne and Bob Osborne.  I think you have to go back to several races when Bayne was really struggling with the handling in his car and notice that Osborne wasn't making correct calls for him.

There are already a lot of skeptic fans on this move since Biffle and Puccia did not generate a lot of success together, however, there are times where the pairings with a different driver can result in better results.  Jimmy Fennig and Mark Martin parted ways in 2003 and a year later Fennig went onto win a championship with Kurt Busch.  Both the driver and the crew chief have a lot of hard critics going into this season as many in the media have already written down this is Bayne's do it or go season.

Puccia was set to be crew chief for Bubba Wallace in the NASCAR Xfinity Series until the departure of Scott Graves to Joe Gibbs Racing.  There were only a few options open for who would replace Graves with Chris Buescher and in my opinion the organization felt that Osborne would be a better fit with Buescher since Graves worked under Osborne before becoming a crew chief.

My insight in this move also comes from things I gathered during the 2015 season listening to Trevor Bayne and Bob Osborne on the scanner during the entire season.  I would listen to the scanner and hear Bayne make a statement on how the race car was handling loose in and tight off, and Osborne would come back "You've got what you got, deal with it."  It was not just a one time occurrence was this recurred several times throughout the year as the handling issue on Bayne's cars were a steady issue of the same ingredients throughout the year.

To me, as a crew chief you don't make that statement over the radio to your driver and expect great results.  While I don't know the whole problem that went on with Biffle and Puccia in 2015, I heard it was just time for a new guy for Biffle.

It leaves something for both Bayne and Puccia to feed off.  Something to prove that they can win if the cars are better in 2016!

Matt Puccia will become crew chief for Trevor Bayne in 2016

A few weeks ago it seemed Roush Fenway's crew chief lineup was set for 2016 but reports have came in that Matt Puccia will now be the crew chief for Trevor Bayne on the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford in 2016.

Matt Puccia will now be the crew chief for Trevor Bayne in 16'

Puccia served as crew chief for Greg Biffle from 2011 until last year, only scoring 3 wins with the veteran driver.  The shakeup puts Bayne's former crew chief Bob Osborne with Front Row Motorsports and Roush Fenway affiliated driver Chris Buescher who was poised to work with Scott Graves once again until a last minute move by Scott Graves to Joe Gibbs Racing changed that.

Puccia from Watertown, New York came on board during the 2006 season working with Roush Fenway's Truck Series program as a crew chief.  He then moved to the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2009 working with Paul Menard and Ricky Stenhouse Jr, and then ran a full season with Menard in 2010.  The following year he came on board to be the crew chief for Biffle in the Sprint Cup Series where he had been since, but moves in the off-season had him working with Bubba Wallace in the Xfinity Series until this season was made.