Trevor Bayne 2017 Season Preview

Liberty National Life joins the 6 team in 2017

The 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season will mark his third full-time season in the premier series of NASCAR for Roush Fenway Racing.  After his first two seasons behind the wheel of a completely backed No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion, there will be a change on the horizon for Trevor Bayne and his team this season with new sponsors on board for the 6 car.  November 30th, Liberty National Life joined the team, and just a couple of weeks ago it was announced that  Performance Plus Motor Oil will be a sponsor on Bayne's car.

The one thing staying the same this season is for the first time in Bayne's career he'll be able to have a familiary voice over the radio with crew chief Matt Puccia and spotter Roman Pemberton will be returning to work with Bayne this season on the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing team.  Last season both helped Bayne make big improvements on his first season in the premier division in NASCAR by having more top-fives, top-tens, laps led, better averages in start and finish, and a huge jump in his final position in the standings.

Matt Puccia returns as Bayne's crew cheif in 2017

This will be car owner Jack Roush's 30th season in the big leagues of the sport.  Dating back to when it first began when he signed newly inducted Hall of Fame driver Mark Martin in 1988, however, the team went through many changes in the off-season to try and help improve the team after another winless season went on the table in 2016.  Earlier this week, Ford's Global Director Pericak said that he was encouraged by the changes that Roush Fenway has made this off-season.

Kevin Kidd takes over as the competition director for the organization and Tommy Wheeler will now be the organizations operation director.  It was announced last week that Mark McArdle had parted ways with the team and went to Chip Ganassi Racing.  The other major change many fans probably have already heard went down, Roush Fenway Racing will go back to a two car team for the first time since 1995 when they were running Martin and Ted Musgrave in the 6 and 16.

The one thing that helps is Bayne and his teammate Ricky Stenhouse have worked together in the Xfinity Series as a two-car operation from 2011-2012.  They had great success as teammates in the series and the chemistry was well spread.

Bayne's strongest points last season was the two restrictor plate tracks and the concrete at Bristol and Dover.  If Roush Fenway can improve on its aerodynamic program and get the cars better on the intermediate tracks the competition line should be better at the organization. With Stewart Haas Racing joining Ford Performance this season it could be key for RFR to get back up front.  Ford has primarily relied on Roush and Team Penske for the last several years, now with a major four car operation moving in it could bring back a little bit of light to what Ford had in the late 90s with Roush, Robert Yates and Penske.