Bayne quietly leading Roush Fenway Racing through the first half of 2016

Before this season started you heard a few things like 'Trevor Bayne can't race at the top level, he doesn't have the talent, he doesn't have what it takes to be a contender for the Chase,' but we are half way through the year and we're seeing something much different this season out of the driver from Knoxville, TN.

Many felt that Ricky Stenhouse Jr., would be the leader for Roush Fenway this season with more experience and more time with crew chief Nick Sandler but quietly and patiently, it has been Trevor Bayne and Matt Puccia leading the way for Roush's team with the best average finish of anyone there (17.3) and they are only 10 points out of being in the Chase going into this weekend's race at New Hampshire.  Bayne probably has shown the most improvement of any driver this season in the first half of the season as he has been able to improve on every number except for adding a victory to the win column. 

Bayne has scored more top-five finishes (2), more top-tens (4) and his average finish has improved by 8.5 positions this seasons.  Bayne also has led more laps this season with 34 than he did all his years combined before this season.  As of right now he is the only driver at Roush Fenway Racing with a legitimate shot at making it into the Chase on points going into New Hampshire after his teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished in 40th last weekend in Kentucky. 

Matt Puccia has helped give Bayne better cars and confidence

The key for the remainder of the season is to be able to have speed in their cars so fuel mileage won't have to be a factor in getting a good finish.  When this season began there was also a lot of questions put on a decision RFR made putting Matt Puccia with Bayne.  Puccia had very little success with veteran Greg Biffle in their term together; only winning three events together.  However, Bayne and Puccia have found a lot that they are in common together and have formed a core bond that has helped them work together on and off the track. 

There is more a more confident Trevor Bayne this season as many people have caught on.  Trevor Bayne told Claire B Lang on her show a couple weeks ago it is all about the opportunity and being confident in his crew chief and spotter.  There's a big difference in the cars that this team had year ago compared to this season and in my opinion, I hear a difference in spotter Roman Pemberton compared to last year with Freddie Kraft who is now on the 16 team.  Bayne needed a spotter he could feel confident that if he tells him the leaders are running this line, he can move up there and it work.  I just didn't hear that last year, and it worked the same way with the crew chief as well when he had Bob Osborne.

I've talked to many people that have been around Trevor Bayne for a good amount of his career.  He hasn't change, he's still the same driver he was when he competed in Michael Waltrip's cars and sat on poles and looked like a stellar young star.  The difference is Roush Fenway's cars took a fall off for several years and they're finally beginning to show a sign of performance turn around this season and you are seeing that confidence come back to Trevor this season.  When he made that move in the Sprint All Star Show Down back in May, it showed he had a lot of what people have not seen over the last several years while he raced for the Wood Brothers and his first season with RFR. 

Those that want to think Bayne doesn't have talent need to go back and look at a few races where he did have decent cars through the years and see solid finishes.  Bayne won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Iowa a few years back in a fierce battle with Austin Dillon and he did the bump and run on Dillon.  A year later he gave Kyle Busch all he wanted at Dover in the Xfinity Series race there, and this year he has slowly began to show he isn't afraid to race against the Sprint Cup Series biggest stars. 

When you give him good race cars Trevor Bayne will perform.  Plain and simple. That is why he is leading Roush Fenway this season!

Bayne continues to eat away at Chase deficit

It may not have been the prettiest way to plug away at a margin in the points standings but with an 11th place finish at Kentucky Speedway last night, Trevor Bayne is now only 10 points away from being 16th in the Chase Grid Standings.  Bayne continues to show improvement with crew chief Matt Puccia and spotter Roman Pemberton through the first half of the season and lead the Roush Fenway organization this season when many people doubted their talents.

Trevor Bayne passes Kyle Busch early on at Kentucky Speedway

Last night, the No. 6 AdvoCare team stretched their fuel mileage and was able to make it the final 71 laps on the tank of fuel his team put in the car on their final stop and was able to finish 11th in the Quaker State 400 but it didn't come without a few challenges through the night.  Bayne first avoided the huge accident earlier in the night on lap 94 that took many cars out of the field, and then had a little bit of a run in with the No. 38 of Landon Cassill that put some damage on Bayne's left rear quarter panel before Cassill eventually went for a spin on lap 195 that was the final caution of the night.

Now the team goes on the long summer stretch that will be the tall order to see if they can make it into the Chase.  The series will travel to New Hampshire this coming weekend then Indianapolis, and then they return back to Pocono for the second time this season to end the month of July.  Then they will go to Watkins Glen for the final road course race of the season and finally catch a weekend off before going to Bristol where Bayne finished fifth earlier in the season.

Bayne made a statement to his crew chief Matt Puccia at the end of the race on Saturday night, "I don't care how pretty it is, as long as we keep getting these good finishes."  The one key thing is the 6 team has yet to have a race this season where they've failed to finish.  A big improvement from the 2015 season a year ago.

New Hampshire has not been one of Trevor Bayne's best tracks in either division that he's competed in, however, in the NASCAR Xfinity Series he did have a fifth place finish early on in his career, along with two more top-ten finishes; while leading 58 laps.  With the Roush Fenway team finding some momentum lately this might be a good chance for them to eat away even more of McMurray's margin in the standings and get themselves into Chase contention.