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.