Darlington offers that throwback appeal with Trevor Bayne in a Mark Martin scheme

Mark Martin ran the paint scheme that Trevor Bayne will have on his No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion this weekend at Darlington Raceway from 1996-1997 and was able to win four races at Sonoma, Talladega, Michigan and Dover in 1997.  This is the second season that Bayne has been able to honor Roush Fenway's long-time driver, last season Bayne ran Martin's 1998-1999 scheme with the Flying A paint scheme. 

What makes this car even more special was in 1996, Martin went on a long losing streak and ended it in this paint scheme with back to back wins at Sonoma and then set the record for the fastest ever race at Talladega Superspeedway in a caution free event. 

"It's an honor anytime you are mentioned alongside Mark Martin, " Bayne said back in April when the paint scheme was released.  "He obviously contributed a lot to Roush Fenway and this organization, so to carry a paint scheme that he ran for the second year in a row is really cool.  Our team has been working really hard and running well this season, so I'm hopeful that we can make Mark proud."

Mark Martin will be one of the Hall of Fame drivers on hand for the event, which for the second year is back for Labor Day weekend.  Earlier this year Martin was voted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame by members of the committee and fans. 

"It's going to be really cool to see that car on the track again at Darlington,"  Martin said.  "It's always been one of my favorite paint schemes and we had a lot of good times taking that car to victory lane and leading a lot of laps during that time.  I look at it as a tribute to all the guys that put the hard work in on those cars and gave us the opportunity to go out and compete each week."

Here is the original car that Martin drove to victory lane 4 times.

How do you not consider Trevor Bayne's 2016 not to be a success

Last weekend at Watkins Glen International, Trevor Bayne scored his fifth top-ten finish of the season in the Sprint Cup Series and his first career top-ten on a road course venue.  Bayne's five top-tens already have amassed the equal amount of top-ten finishes that he did his first few years with the Wood Brothers and Roush Fenway last season.  So how would you go and say Bayne's season is not a success?

Sure there is a chance that Bayne may miss out on making the Chase this season but who can say at the beginning of the year that they even had Trevor Bayne in the picture to be a contender to one of the top-16 finishers?  All I heard at the beginning of the season was that Jack Roush needed to find someone else to be in this car and replace Trevor Bayne.  Yet there was this mixture of chemistry that happened this season between driver and crew chief.

Trevor Bayne meets with fans at Watkins Glen during
the weekend

Trevor Bayne and Matt Puccia clicked this season. Even though they've not won a race this season I've seen a huge difference in Trevor Bayne this season, a lot of things many people said was missing inside of him.  One was a major boost in his confidence this season, the cars have gotten better and the team has not made the same mistakes that were made last season.  With four races remaining at Bristol, Michigan, Darlington and Richmond, Bayne still has a small chance to make it into the Chase this season but with Chris Buescher winning at Pocono it was a hit on them if Buescher is to make it into the top-30 in the points standings.

While there are a lot of fans suffering with disappointment I understand that Trevor Bayne's season has been a true mark of success compared to year's past.  Bayne has more top-five finishes (2), more top-tens (5), more laps led (34), however where Trevor Bayne's numbers truly made a huge increase were in average start and finish.  Last season Bayne's average start was 27.0, this season it is down to 19.1, his average finish last season was 25.8; this season it is 17.8 in the first 22 events of the season.  Throw in the fact that Bayne only had 13 lead lap finishes last season and he's finished on the lead lap 16 of the 22 events this season that is truly a huge improvement on himself and his race team.

Bayne also gained an experienced spotter with Roman Pemberton this season that who in my opinion has kept Bayne out of a lot of trouble on the track this season that his spotter last season did not.  Roman combines a lot of spark and confidence on the radio during the races, something I believe was really lacking last season. When someone gets into Bayne, he's told them several times not to take their bullying and go get them.

Through it all Bayne has been leading his Roush Fenway organization in most numbers this season and looks to be the only one from Roush with a justified chance to make it in on points without winning a race, unless you count Chris Buescher who races for Front Row Motorsports.  Bayne has some good tracks coming up that he ran well in the spring, Bristol in the Spring he finished, Michigan has been one of his strongest tracks overall, Darlington is still a big question mark and Richmond Bayne finished 17th in the Spring.

Bayne surges from 32nd to finish 9th at the Glen

Trevor Bayne used some experience he gained racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday afternoon at Watkins Glen International to help him out in the Sprint Cup Series Cheez It 355 At The Glen on Sunday. 

Sporting two similar paint schemes for the two events to announce AdvoCare's new Blue Raspberry flavor of Spark, Bayne finished fifth on Saturday in the Zippo 200 in the No. 60 AdvoCare Ford Mustang after being spun early in the event by Brad Keselowski.  Bayne qualified his No. 6 in 32nd on Saturday just before the Xfinity Series race began, so it would seem the Sprint Cup team was well off what the Xfinity team ran.

Bayne patiently worked his way up on Sunday afternoon.  He quickly reported to crew chief Matt Puccia that his No. 6 AdvoCare Spark Ford Fusion was very loose, especially through the Esses.  Bayne maneuvered himself up to 23rd before the first round of green flag pit stops began on lap 23, as he was up to 21st before the caution flag fell on lap 48.  In the past several weeks, Bayne had issues with the 47 of AJ Allmendinger on the track, when the 47 went to make a pass midway through the race, Bayne gave him a nudge as spotter Roman Pemberton quickly came over the radio "I saw what you did with your buddy with that free shot there Trevor."

Puccia decided to bring Bayne in for four tires and fuel.  Four laps later a caution flag gave Matt Puccia the chance to make a call and keep Bayne out on the course as many of the race leaders were making their stops. 

The decision had Bayne up in fourth position before a caution flag shuffled Bayne back on a restart as he was continuing to battle for position inside the top-10.  Caution flags kept coming as Bayne maintained his position inside the top-15 on the track and on the final restart he lined up 11th.  He was able to get around Matt Kenseth for 10th and with a late race wreck by Kyle Larson, Bayne was able to move into 9th. 

After the finish Bayne is now 8 points outside of the top-16 in the points standings with four races remaining at Bristol, Michigan, Darlington and Richmond.  If Bayne's Roush Fenway teammate on loan to Front Row Motorsports Chris Buescher is able to get into the top-30 in the points, he would be 38 points behind Jamie McMurray.

"This is a good weekend.  A fifth and a ninth," said Bayne after the race. "That is a good road course weekend for me considering I am not a road course ace.  The thought was to try to get better and I think we did that this weekend.  We made progress and that is really good.  We are excited.  Hopefully we can keep getting better at these and contend for a win one day."