Who thought at the beginning of the season we'd be disappointed with 10th?

I made a statement back in 2014 when Carl Edwards left to go to Joe Gibbs Racing, that Roush Fenway Racing was going to find it's way back to success with Trevor Bayne.  There have been a lot of struggling moments along the way, the hard times, wrecked race cars and dealing with fans bashing Trevor Bayne have gotten old over the past year and a half.  But who would have thought when this season started that we fans would be disappointed in Trevor Bayne finishing 10th at Talladega?

Trevor Bayne leads the field at Talladega Credit: Getty Images

I have seen fans come and go and run their jaws that this young man just wasn't good enough to compete in the Sprint Cup Series.  On Sunday, Bayne did everything right.  He followed every instruction from spotter Roman Pemberton and crew chief Matt Puccia and he stayed in the bottom line of the field to try and get a run to the front.  Bayne's No. 6 AdvoCare Ford just couldn't get a push from anyone to get around the front two cars and slipped back in the draft from the lack of help.

By far the race at Talladega was Trevor Bayne and his team's strongest performance to date from the start to finish.  Had they had the right drafting help at the end, who knows where they might have ended up finishing at.  So that leaves me with the disappointment.  Like I stated before, who would have thought back in February when everyone was debating about how Roush Fenway Racing was going to perform this season that we as fans would have had such disappointment from a 10th place finish.  Yet the reason why is, Trevor Bayne deserved a better result and his car was much better than a 10th place car.

"We had a really good race car when we had help but everybody left the bottom on that last restart

Trevor Bayne talks with Tony Stewart on pit road Sunday

and when they all went to the top I might as well just be driving out the rear view mirror trying to get run over," Bayne stated.  "We pushed the 41 to a really good start, I think he might have cleared the 2 and I had help from the 21 but I think the damage on the 21 deterred some help."

"They all went to to the top, and we ended up 10th.  I thought we had a great race car.  I'm really proud of what my guys brought to the track this weekend but we finished 10th.

Bayne during an interview talked about the key issue that has helped turn things around as of late at Roush Fenway Racing.  The cars are better.

"It is so refreshing to come to the race track and have a change.  I feel really good about the pieces they are giving me.  It is all about the race cars.  You can't drive any harder, they just are giving me better race cars.  I am proud of my guys.  We had a pretty event free day other than the pit road penalty but we recovered from that for the most part."

After his 10th place finish, Trevor Bayne moved to 16th in the Chase Grid for the series standings.