Back to Back Top-tens gives Trevor Bayne confidence going to Darlington

Trevor Bayne's 7th place finish at Bristol was his second consecutive top-10

After a rough start in 2017, Trevor Bayne has taken the past two weekends and scored back to back top-ten finishes at Michigan and Bristol; two different styles of tracks on the circuit.  The top-ten finishes in consecutive weekends are the first time in Bayne's career that he has scored top-ten finishes in two straight events since joining the Monster Energy Cup Series in 2010. 

While there are only two races remaining in the regular season before the playoffs begin, Bayne pretty much knows that he has to win at either Darlington or Richmond to get in.  His team has began to carry more momentum over the past few weeks after getting a little bit of luck on their side, even after blowing a tire at Bristol and hitting the wall at Bristol.  Bayne was able to rally back in the latter part of the event and get up to seventh before the checkered flag fell. 

"Obviously, we need to win.  That's what our goal is,"Trevor Bayne stated.  "Seventh is great but we have to get (to victory lane).  I'm really proud of these guys and the gains we're making.

"It's been a rough time through the summer but we're coming back now."

Bayne feels that the teams execution all around has been the difference in their performance the past few weeks.

"Just execution," Bayne said when asked what he thought was the key to the last two finishes.  "I feel like the last month we had strategy, things went our way and we've gotten results from it.  Here at Bristol, Roush Fenway always gives us good cars and we've had really good runs the last four or five races."

"Our Ford was fast at the end when it mattered.  At one point we blew a tire, hit the fence.  I thought we were going to get lucky and get back back on the lead lap.  Got on the lead lap, got a caution, and put new tires on it and started passing cars.

"It's great to get back-to-back top-10s and it really gives us some momentum going forward toward these last two races before the playoffs begin."

Darlington itself has been pretty rough on Bayne the last two years.  While running paint schemes in honor of Mark Martin, he's had two races with issues.  In 2015 he had a tire issue that regulated him to a 35th place finish, and last year the engine let go in his No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion that resulted in a 40th place finish.  If Bayne can continue his improvement going to Darlington, the results should improve there as well.