Bayne, Puccia finding speed after five races

Many people questioned the move Jack Roush made in early January when he moved Matt Puccia to the AdvoCare Team of Trevor Bayne and moved Bob Osborne to Front Row Motorsports after Chris Buescher was moved in there.  Bayne and Osborne seemed to struggle last season getting their chemistry down and there were a lot of marks I put against Osborne last season in how he handled some situations with Trevor Bayne and making changes.

So I was one of the people that really, really welcomed Matt Puccia's arrival as the new crew chief of Bayne this season and for the most part I've seen a lot good things so far in the first five races this season.  Puccia has handled things much differently than Osborne did, he and Bayne have more of a working chemistry together.  After five races this season you can see a difference.

Trevor Bayne showed a lot of speed this past weekend in Fontana.  Bayne was running very competitive before a tire blew out on his No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion on lap 109.  This was after the No. 43 of Aric Almirola made contact with Bayne.  The team fixed the problems on the car and the one big mark I give them is they did something I didn't see all of last season.  They came back from being down a lap to get a top-20 finish.

Those that don't think there is an improvement need to take a lot at the numbers compared to the first five races last season.  Last season, Bayne had an average start of 34.6 and an average finish of 26.8; this season Bayne has an average start of 17.0, and an average finish of 22.0.   The numbers are going to improve once Roush gets the cars completely understood and he and Puccia have more time together.