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."
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