Daytona is Bayne's best shot on the schedule to win before the playoffs

After a dismal finish at Sonoma Raceway that was brought on by overheating issues with his No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion the driver will now go to one of his best tracks on the circuit and try and do what his teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr., did in May at Talladega. 

Bayne finished 10th in February at Daytona

Daytona International Speedway has been one of Trevor Bayne's strongest points in his career.  He won the 500 in his first try and he's been very strong in the past at plate racing when he hasn't been taken out in the huge multi-car incidents.  Last July, Bayne drove the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford to a 3rd place finish in the Coke Zero 400 at the track and was right in contention for the victory the last few laps of the race.

Bayne has scored 2 top-fives and 4 top-ten finishes in his career at the track, and if the team is going to push to make it into the Playoffs off of a victory this will be the place that they have their best chance at doing so.  Bayne finished 10th in the Daytona 500 earlier this season after being involved in several incidents and still kept his car up in the race for a solid finish. 

With Stenhouse, Ryan Blaney and Austin Dillon now winning this season it pretty much has made it a situation where the No. 6 team has to win to get in now.  They are 18th in the standings, Dillon is 22nd but with a win.  Bayne is now 86 points behind Matt Kenseth who is 12th in the standings and the first driver without a victory.  So to make up those points is pretty much going to be out of question. 

The strengths of the Roush Fenway Racing restrictor plate program is where the fastest cars at.  Former crew chief Jimmy Fennig has been the head of the program since stepping down as the crew chief in 2015 and he's kept the Roush plate cars up to par with everyone else.  Stenhouse's win at Talladega in the May event was proof of that.  Now it's time Bayne gets that win at Daytona.

Danica Patrick needs to take a lesson from the past on how to treat fans

The King started the trend in the 70s

I heard about the incident that happened last Friday at Pocono with Danica Patrick before most fans on social media did because a facebook friend posted her video and it wasn't even everything that was said.  Danica did get booed by a couple of fans, and had she just keep on walking I wouldn't have even thought about writing this article today.

Reading comments from fans the past I seen some think that getting an autograph is not in the driver's job description, however, I want to go back about 45 years to when Richard Petty really began this trend in this sport where drivers sign for fans and don't even think a second about it.  The King's autograph is probably the least rare of any driver in the sport but it is because he took the time and energy throughout the years to spend time and give fans the respect to sign a shirt, maybe a diecast, or a piece of paper from the local news where he won the week before.

This is the man that led NASCAR from being a moonshine stream to being mainstream.  There is a story of Richard Petty that has been told where he sat in the heat in the 1970s and signed for every race fan until everyone left.  He was who changed the sports fan cultural around and made it different than Major League Baseball and the NFL where most athletes charge you for their John Hancock.

So here is where we are with Danica Patrick.  I think that every driver in the garage area has been booed at one time or another and they just keep on walking and ignore the fans that did it.  She came back to the group of fans that had one or two men that did the booing and gave them all a lecture, as I said the friend of mine was part of this group and she had nothing in this.  Instead of signing a few autographs to people that didn't make the gesture she goes and gives everyone a lecture on her feelings being hurt.

"Since I'm old, instead of taking the booing, I want to tell you guys...I do the best I can.  I mean, if you're a real fan you know that I'm not just -- my job is not to sign autographs right?  My job is to drive a car and to tell the crew chief what's going on."

"I don't appreciate the booing.  It hurts my feelings I'm a f'n person, you know what I mean?  I'm a person too.  I have feelings."

To me she should have just walked away if she didn't want to sign autographs for the group of fans that was standing there instead of lecturing fans about her poor feelings.  I seen several people tweet over the weekend about meeting Trevor Bayne and what kind of a great person he was to meet.  There are some fans that think you aren't a true fan if you don't agree with what Danica did on Friday afternoon, however, I can tell you; as a fan and a former crew member fans shouldn't have to listen to a driver cuss them.  It's one listen to hear it on TV or on the radio, however, she stepped over the line when she did it in their face.

You can defend Danica Patrick but her actions this past week was not a solid representation of what drivers in this sport should be like.  What makes it worse for her is that she is fighting for sponsorship and if I were a sponsor I certainly wouldn't want a driver that makes that kind of a statement to fans at the race track.

Richard Petty set the prime example.  If you look at the man's signature today, I still don't think it has changed at all in the last 50 years.  It's why he is the most respected man in this sport.  Maybe Danica Patrick should take a lesson from the KING!

Wallace not the first to have a door closed due to sponsorship dollars

If you are a Trevor Bayne fan and been following him for quite sometime, you definitely remember 2012; don't you?  Yeah Trevor Bayne started off that 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series season, as it was called back then, now the Xfinity Series with five top-15 finishes and was sitting in the same place Darrell Wallace Jr., is currently in right now in the standings 4th.

Roush Fenway Racing had to pull the plug on it's No. 60 program that season because of a lack of  sponsorship funding after the fifth race of the season at Auto Club Speedway when Bayne finished 14th.  Luckily for Bayne he had a part-time gig with the Wood Brothers team at the time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series to run the No. 21 Ford that season in 16 races.

Bayne had to compete part-time in 2012
In the Wood Brothers No. 21

Roush Fenway Racing's going through this once again with Wallace.  They were able to stretch the amount of races a little further than they were with Bayne and make it to the 12th race of the season, but it is still something that has fans wondering about the posture of the marketing crew at RFR right now.  I have read numerous remarks from fans about Roush asking too much money for a sponsorship, however, I believe that was back in the day when Geoff Smith was the president of the organization.  I believe that the company has since learned to take what they are able to get for sponsors to go on their cars.

Just like with Bayne, Wallace lucked up and there was an open seat in the upper ranks of the NASCAR world.  Richard Petty Motorsports decided that they would give him a chance to go forth and debut this coming weekend at Pocono Raceway.  This season Globe Life and Leidos stepped up to sponsor Wallace in several races but it just wasn't enough to keep the train going on the right track.

Back in 2012, Roush was in a similar situation as they are in this year.  Their MENCS teams were not fully funded and the could not fund two competitive NASCAR Xfinity programs.  Steve Newmark, at the time knew that it was not a reflection on the driver, but how the team was that season.  In 2013, Matt Kenseth moved on to Joe Gibbs racing allowing Ricky Stenhouse to go full-time in the No. 17 Cup car, which put Trevor Bayne in a car that had major funding by Cargill.  Eventually he would pick up a major deal with AdvoCare that would become his leading sponsor in Cup.

This year, you are seeing the samething.  So far in 2017 on the Cup level, Trevor Bayne has had three races with cars that were unsponsored, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., has had one event so far.  Whenever you see Roush Performance or Ford EcoBoost on one of these cars, it is what we considered back in the day to be a 401K sponsorship, meaning the money was coming from the company and it's employees.



You might question the move by Roush but the importance is to get their Cup program back into full speed.  So the funding that they were putting into the 6 Xfinity program will likely go into the MENCS for the rest of the year.