Bayne rallies late for top-15 at Bristol

Trevor Bayne rallied late in the Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol to grab 15th from Kasey Kahne but the late race caution flag the team hoped for never fell and the team settled for 15th at the half-mile in Bristol, TN.

Bayne started the race in 22nd position.  He quickly moved around three cars and was in 19th before the first caution of the event came out on lap 52.  Bayne came down pit road for right side tires and and fuel.  However, the No. 47 blocked Bayne on pit road and it forced Bayne back to 27th position.

He immediately reported to crew chief Bob Osborne that the car had became extremely tight.  The tight handling condition continued throughout the green flag run, and would force Bayne to drop off the lead lap.  Despite falling a lap down, Bayne kept racing his way through the top-25.  He made his way into the top-20 by the halfway point of the event.  He moved into 15th before the caution flag came out on 370.

Bayne continued to try to get back on the lead lap, racing inside the top-20 before he was penalized under yellow for speeding on pit road.  Bayne was forced to go to the tail end of pit road on lap 430.

The penalty didn't keep Bayne down.  He was able to move forward and when the checkered flag fell on lap 500 he was in 15th after battling Kasey Kahne hard during the latter points of the event.
"It wasn't too bad a day for us," Bayne said after the 500-lap event.  "I felt like this AdvoCare Ford had some good speed tonight.  But the first pit stop we got boxed in by the No. 47 and couldn't get out.  That put us a lap down early there and we were in the lucky dog spot for the majority of the day and just couldn't catch the yellow that we needed."

"But it was a good way to fight back for my guys on this AdvoCare team.  "I'm decently happy with a top-15.  That's something we've got to shoot for and get better, so it's a step in the right direction."

Trevor Bayne Bristol Preview

Trevor Bayne will go to Bristol Motor Speedway to start his third career Sprint Cup Series race at the World's Fastest Half Mile.  Trevor Bayne finished 28th earlier this season after suffering electronic issues in the engine of his No. 6 Advocare Ford Fusion.

Bayne has made 12 career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the .535 mile track, scoring a career best finish of 6th in 2013.  He has four top-ten finishes at the concrete track in NASCAR's second tier division.  Bayne made his NASCAR debut at the track in 2009 for Jimmy Mean's in the No. 52 Taco Bell Chevrolet.

Trevor Bayne Quotes:
"I love Bristol," said Bayne.  "I remember going there as a little kid watching races and just dreaming of the day I could compete there.  It's definitely an awesome feeling racing in front of my friends and family."

"We are ready to hit the track and improve on where we were in the Spring.  I'm just excited to get it going this weekend and see all the flashbulbs in the crowd.  The night race is just an electric event and I'm ready to give this Advocare Ford all it has."

Notes for Bristol

• Crew Chief Bob Osborne has 17 starts as a crew chief at Bristol Motor Speedway with 2 wins, 4 top-fives, and 6 top-ten finishes, an average start of 19.8 and an average finish of 17.4, while leading 284 laps.
• Trevor Bayne owns 81 career starts in the Sprint Cup Series.  He has 1 win, 1 top-five, and 5 top-ten finishes in his career.  
• Going into this weekend Trevor Bayne moved to 27th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with his 22nd place finish last weekend at Michigan.

Race Weekend Schedule

Friday, August 21

• 11:30 AM - 12:55 PM NSCS PRACTICE
• 1:30 - 2:25 PM NSCS FINAL PRACTICE

Saturday, August 22

• 7:30 PM NSCS RACE/NBCSN

Trevor Bayne finishes 22nd at Michigan

Trevor Bayne piloted his No. 6 Advocare Ford Fusion from 27th to 22nd in the final restart of the race on Sunday afternoon in the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan Speedway.

The No. 6 Advocare Crew complete a pit stop at Michigan

Bayne began the 400 mile, 200 lap event from the 25th position and maintained his track position early on in the event through the competition caution on lap 20.  During the caution, crew chief Bob Osborne brought Bayne in and worked on an loose handling condition the driver was facing early on.

Bayne would return to the track in 24th, and would be able to work himself as high as 21st during the first long green flag run of the event.  However, even though he moved forward, Bayne would fall one lap behind the race leaders during the first round of green flag pit stops.  Even though he was one lap behind the leaders, he would continue to work forward, moving into 20th following a lap 76 restart.  Bayne would maintain his position on the track until his car began to get tight in the center of the corner and he started to fall back.

Bayne fell to 25th before the second round of green flag pit stops occurred.  He would return to the track in 25th fought for track position with teammates Greg Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., as the handling condition of his No. 6 Advocare Ford continue to carry on through the race.  Osborne would bring Bayne in for tires on the final caution and used the restart to move from 27th to 22nd in the running order where he would finish.

"We made our car better throughout the race," Bayne said after the event.  "It was a hard fought battle and I'm thankful for all of the work the guys on this AdvoCare team put in to our car this weekend.  We'll move on from this and get ready to go to my home track of Bristol."

Bayne's finish moved him ahead of teammate Stenhouse in the Sprint Cup standings.

Bayne has second go at Pocono

Trevor Bayne's first visit to Pocono in June included a trip to ARCA victory lane and a 24th place finish in the Sprint Cup Series in his first starts at Pocono Raceway.  Bayne had never been able to turn a lap at the 2.5 mile tricky triangle because of the schedule that was laid out by Ford Motorcraft and the Wood Brothers and the NASCAR Xfinity Series never racing at the track.

Bayne celebrates his ARCA win in June

"I learned a lot," said Bayne.  "Obviously, I was at ground zero.  I had never been here before, never seen the place before.  I had to start at the bottom and learn everything there is know about the place.

"Since Pocono, I feel like our cars have come to life.  I think we're making progress, so coming back here we've got something to look forward to."

This is only the second track on the schedule that the series will be at for the second time this season, technically if you take Daytona off, it will be the first non-restrictor plate track to run its second event.  There is an 8 week split between the two Pocono events, which is much less than most other tracks on the schedule.

"It's not like Phoenix, where it's the second or third and then it's the second to last race," Bayne stated.  "It's almost like a new season by the time you go back."

After last weekend's struggle at Indianaplis, the team needs to get back on track to the pattern they were on before New Hampshire.  Bayne had knocked off a pair of ninth place finishes, and a 13th at Kentucky before struggling the past two weeks.

Bayne, Osborne starting to click

Trevor Bayne and Bob Osborne began this season with a lot of unknowns with each other as the two were paired together in the off season of 2014.  Up until a few weeks ago at Michigan, there were many people questioning whether or not Jack Roush had put the right crew chief with Trevor Bayne for his first full season in the Sprint Cup season.

After last weekend's race at Kentucky Speedway the questions are being answered.  Bayne and Osborne have began to click and it is showing in their results on the track.  The 13th place finish that the team ended up with didn't reflect how well they actually ran throughout the whole night.  Bayne fell behind early on and lost a lap to the leaders but was the lucky dog on lap 99 and from that point on, the No. 6 Advocare Ford moved towards the front of the field.  Bayne made it into the top-20 by lap 141 and only needed six more laps to make into the top-15.  By lap 156, he was into the sixth position and he would maintain his track position inside the top-10 through the late race run.

Bayne & Osborne talk during practice at Kentucky Speedway

The showed on Saturday night that they are finally understanding one another on the radio, as Osborne was able to make adjustments to the car to better fit Bayne.  It wasn't until the late race run when Bayne's car began to become loose that the car lost track position and he fell to 13th.

"We're making gains with this Advocare Ford Fusion and we've got to keep rolling with it," said Bayne after the race.  "  The 17 finished 11th, so that's good for our organization.  We're getting better and showing that it wasn't just a fluke to finish in the top-10 just once.  We're proving that we can be there every week and that's what we have to do."

As I look back over the last month and a half, I think winning the ARCA race at Pocono was a confidence booster for Bayne and getting the track position helped him.  Also this was Bayne and Osborne's 18th race together and the chemistry is finally beginning to click between the two of them.
It takes time to build team chemistry, however, as it has been shown in the last few weeks these two are clicking on all cylinders.  Also spotter Freddie Kraft deserves credit for keeping Trevor Bayne out of trouble and keeping him paced.  The pit crew has been on top of their game as of late, as they showed on Saturday by not losing any track position during the entire race.

This weekend the series will be going to Loudon where Trevor Bayne has never turned a lap in a Sprint Cup car.  Bayne, however, has four career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at New Hampshire Motor Speedway with 1 top-five and 3 top-tens, leading 58 laps in the 2011 race at the track.

Bayne scores second top-10 of 2015 in Wild Daytona finish

Trevor Bayne had been inside the top-3 for much of the closing stages of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.  Bayne earned his second top-ten finish in the last three events in a wild finish at the speedway.

Bayne's 9th place finish ties his season best at Michigan 

Bayne looked was fifth fastest in the first practice session until the first huge wreck of the weekend that sent the No. 6 Advocare team to a backup car.  Rain cancelled qualifying and with Bayne being fifth in practice would start the race where he ran in practice.  Bayne and crew chief Bob Osborne made the decision early on in the race to go to the back to avoid being involved in any wrecks.  Following the competition caution flag at lap 25, Bayne found himself in 27th.

He would quickly move back into the top-20 and maintained his track position until the caution on lap 54 for Carl Edwards single car accident.  During the caution period, Osborne would bring Bayne in for four tires and fuel and putting him in 31st as several stayed on the track.  Bayne would waste little time during the next run as he was able to get to as high as ninth place before making a little contact with the outside wall as he barely avoided a multi-car crash involving several in turn 2.

The damage was not enough to hinder Bayne's performance as he returned to the track in 15th.  He would move toward the front, as he would only need five laps to get inside the top-five.  Bayne continued to move forward as he was in third place by lap 127, and the Knoxville native would maintain his position through the closing laps of the race, even moving himself into second place at lap 143; before being shuffled back to fifth place before the caution fell at lap 149.

Bayne was shuffled back on the final restart and in the last lap crash that seen Austin Dillion fly into the catch fence, the No. 3 of Dillion went over the top of Bayne's No. 6 Advocare Ford before Bayne was turned after the finish of the race.

“It stinks to tear a race car up at the checkers but that is the first time I have gone to the infield care center and not been broken hearted from a bad run,” Bayne said standing outside the DIS infield care facility at nearly three a.m. Monday. “I feel we had a top-five run going there. It was pretty wild. There at the end off of four everybody was trying to go everywhere. We got rooted out by the 41 car and ended up ninth. We will take it.“

TREVOR BAYNE, No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion (Finished 9th) -- “I am good to go. It stinks to tear a race car up at the checkers but that is the first time I have gone to the infield care center and not been broken hearted from a bad run. We finished 9th I guess or wherever they line us up at after they look at all of it. I feel we had a top-five run going there. It was pretty wild. My car was kind of sluggish at the beginning and we got into the wall when Kenseth wrecked off four and it narrowed it up just enough and toed it in just enough that it started handling really good and got really fast. We drove up to the top four but it was really tough battling those Hendrick cars when you have three of them lined up together. We were able to hold our own and Denny (Hamlin) and I worked well and Paul Menard gave me some good pushes. There at the end off of four everybody was trying to go everywhere. We got rooted out by the 41 car and ended up ninth. We will take it. I feel we had a solid race today. That AdvoCare spark, you need it at three in the morning to keep you sharp. I never got tired in the race and I am sure everybody else was dragging a little after a long day at the race track. I was impressed by the fans staying in the stands and hopefully everyone is alright from that crash.”  

TALK ABOUT THIS CRAZY DAY, STARTING THIS RACE AT NEARLY MIDNIGHT AND ENDING AT THREE IN THE MORNING. “It is kind of back to your roots of short track racing or whatever where you don’t know what time you will get out of there. I remember as a kid leaving the track at four in the morning sometimes. It is kind of back to that. Like I said, we have some of the best fans in the world that will sit in the stands through the rain and lightning and whatever until three a.m. and I really appreciate that.”  

DID YOU SEE ANY OF THAT LAST WRECK? “I didn’t. I was almost through it I think when the 11 slid back up and then I had nowhere to go. I don’t know what happened yet, I just heard about it. I hope everyone is alright.”

Bayne scores first top-ten since 2012 at Michigan

Trevor Bayne scored a season best ninth place finish and his first top-ten since Talladega in 2012 in a rain drenched event at Michigan Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Bayne started the race in 20th position, he was able to maintain his position on the track through the first run of the race, as he improved to the 18th position just before the first red flag of the afternoon at MIS on lap 11.  The officials tried to get the race going once again at lap 19, however, rain began to come down hard again and the NASCAR team lost the track.

Bayne makes a move around teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr

When the racing resumed, Bayne maintained his position inside the top-20 until a lap 40 competition caution gave crew chief Bob Osborne a chance to make adjustments on Bayne's No. 6 Advocare Ford Fusion.  Bayne was in 26th after the caution, following another delay on lap 51.

Bayne was able to use the long green flag afterwards to move back into the top-20 during the stretch. He was able to run longer on fuel than most of the cars ahead of him, working his way inside the top-10 prior to the caution coming out on lap 124.  After pitting under caution for four tires and some adjustments, Bayne came back out for the final restart in 13th place.  Bayne made a 3 wide move on the outside of turn two to get back inside the top-10, as he raced his way up to ninth before rain came down to finish off the race at lap 138.

"I feel like this was a really solid weekend for this No. 6 Advocare team," said Bayne after the race.  "We qualified inside the top-20 and made really good gains on the car throughout practice.  We had a good car today, that had good speed all race long.  It's great to come home with a top-10 finish  (Crew Chief) Bob (Osborne) made a great pit call and we were able to catch a break with that caution.  This feels great"