Bayne, Roush Fenway show improvement at Atlanta

There were a lot of questions going into Sunday's Fold's of Honor 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway where Roush Fenway Racing was concerned.  It was the first race on a mile and a half venue this season where the organization has struggled for the last few seasons.

Trevor Bayne and teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr., were competitive for much of the 500 mile event and ended up finishing in 12th and Stenhouse ended up finishing 13th.  The No. 6 Liberty National Life Ford Fusion started from the 15th position and the driver and crew chief had a plan from the start of the race to conserve their tires for the start of the race.

The No. 6 Liberty National Life crew complete a stop

Spotter Roman Pemberton reminded Bayne not to really go forward until he got about 15-20 laps into the run where the tires on his no. 6 LNL Ford Fusion would last through the first run.  The first 85 lap segment was ran on Friday's qualifying tires, so the team remained content to settle into the top-20 early on as Pemberton reminded Bayne to stick to their plan.

Bayne began to pass cars about 20 laps into as Pemberton told Bayne "Keep that rhythm going," and crew chief Matt Puccia came over the radio "Don't get anymore than that out of it."

Bayne was up into the top-ten when the first round of pit stops began under the long green flag run on Sunday.  His No. 6 Liberty National Ford needed a slight adjustment made to help tighten his car up.  After the stop, Bayne was running inside the top-10 once again with a strong car through the long run.  He finished the first stage in 13th after falling back late in the run on the older tires, trying to get his car to the finish of the stage without having a tire go.

The Liberty National Life crew was able to get Trevor Bayne out in the top-10 for the second stage of the 500-mile event, as Puccia did an air pressure adjustment and wedge to help during the long run and forward drive.  Bayne remained steady through the second stage of the race and very competitive as he battled to get a top-ten in the second stage of the event.

Crew chief Matt Puccia came over the radio and asked Roman Pemberton how they looked on the track, as Pemberton replied "Really, Really good.  We just have to get ourselves in a hole where we can place ourselves with the leaders."

Bayne would finish tenth in the second segment of the event that setup the final stage, the green flag dropped at lap 178 would be a run of  147 laps on the 1.54 mile track.  Bayne and his crew worked to conserve tires through the run but several caution flags late in the event hurt their finish at the end of the event as they settled for 12th after being a strong contender for a top-10 before the No. 3 of Austin Dillon had battery issues and brought the yellow flag on lap lap 311.

"Today was a solid day overall," said Bayne after the Folds of Honor 500.  "We had some good speed right off the truck with our Liberty National Ford and were able to make good adjustments throughout the day today that kept us in the game.  I can't thank these guy's enough of this team for their hard work on this team for their hard work.  Today was a good step in the right direction and we're ready to build off of this next week in Vegas."