Roush Fenway puts three cars in the top-12 in Charlotte Qualifying

Trevor Bayne's patriotic paint scheme for Sunday
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

For the first time since August 2014 at Michigan Roush Fenway Racing put all three of it's Ford Fusions inside the top-12 in Sprint Cup Series qualifying.  The last time RFR put all three cars in the final round of qualifying was at Michigan Speedway on August 17, 2014 when Carl Edwards, Ricky Stenhouse and Greg Biffle all three made the final round but did not all make the top-10 in the session.

In recent weeks, Trevor Bayne has enjoyed the most success of the Roush Fenway drivers scoring three top-ten finishes in the last five races and making the Sprint All Star race last weekend.  Bayne seemed to take it easy on his tires through the first round of knockout qualifying and was 22nd at the end of the session, but came back in the second round and put his AdvoCare Ford solidly inside the top-12 to make it into the final round of the session. 

Bayne then turned in the 10th fastest lap of the session in the final round in a special AdvoCare paint scheme.  Teammates Ricky Stenhouse and Greg Biffle qualified 3rd and 6th. 

"We're 10th again and like I said a couple of weeks ago we're kind of disappointed with 10th," said Trevor Bayne after his run.  "That's a refreshing thing to be disappointed with and all our teammates - third, sixth, and 10th - that's a pretty good day for Roush Fenway Racing.  That's kind of back to where we were in 2011, '12 when things were looking up for us.  We're glad to be heading the right direction.  We just missed the balance a little bit in my car.  It has speed in it and it definitely had enough to be a pole car today if we just hit the balance right.  We maybe over-adjusted a little bit and expected too much out of the race track with cool temps.  We were just overall too tight and didn't have enough adjustment in the car.  We got it too free trying, but it's a really good day for our AdvoCare Ford.  We can see the front from there and hopefully we can work our way to it."

Newmark: I think Matt Puccia and Trevor (Bayne) Are Clicking

With no testing permitted by NASCAR anymore, the Sprint All-Star race was a good chance for the No. 6 AdvoCare team to try things out to use in the Coca-Cola 600 to find more speed for this weekend's race.  Trevor Bayne finished 7th in the event but during Roush Fenway's Fan Day Q&A mentioned that he felt really good about last weekend and could really build on it.

Trevor Bayne signs autographs during Roush Fan Day 

Roush Fenway's cars have been getting faster on the mile and half tracks, as Trevor Bayne led laps at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this season and might have had a chance to win the event on fuel mileage had the cards been played right.  Right now after five events on the 1.5 mile tracks, Bayne's average finish on the tracks are at 15.8, which is much better compared to last season's total average at the mile and half venues at 23.72.

The 600 is an endurance race for the driver and the equipment this weekend, Trevor Bayne mentioned during the Q&A he was prepared for it. 

"It's a long race, this year I've been working on my fitness and endurance and things like that," stated Bayne.  "I think 600 mile race people can get really tired so uh, I look forward to that and the challenge of it. I think our cars have been fast at the mile and halves like I said so if we can build on what we did last weekend we can have a really solid race; 600 miles is a lot of time to make a mistake pit road or on in the car so you have to eliminate mistakes to get a good finish.  So I think if we have a solid top-10 day we will keep moving up in points and that's what we need to be doing right now."

During an interview with Sirius NASCAR Radio, Roush Fenway President Steve Newmark was asked by Chocolate Meyers "what he had been feeding Trevor Bayne lately?"  Newmark responded "Well I think you guys recognize recognize it but I'm not sure fans always appreciate how much confidence matters for an entire team.  That's not just in racing but in all sports, but very prominent in racing as well and that whole team is humming right now."

"I think Matt Puccia and Trevor are clicking, we're building faster race cars and Trevor stuck right in there and took it three wide and was able to get the victory.  I love how aggressive he is in driving saw him a little fun racing at the end of the All Star Race with Kurt Busch and I think that's what everyone in this sport wants to see.

"When you give these guys cars that have the ability to win and to run up front and have the speed they recognize it and appreciate it, they can be more aggressive and they can take a different approach.  We know our drivers have the talent, just need to continue to give them the equipment that allows them to showcase it."

It is something that many fans are starting to take notice in Trevor Bayne this season.  He's gotten a lot more confidence in his crew and he's able to make the moves to get to the front that he wasn't able to do so last season.  Newmark hit on something that many of us have been discussing for the last couple of seasons, give these guys good cars and they will perform.

Mark Martin finally get's his Crown Jewel

I was a little kid when a first heard about this new guy from Arkansas coming into racing with a new car owner.  My dad worked at Winn Dixie in the same small-town his in-laws were from and I quickly became a fan of Mark Martin in 1988.

I didn't go for Mark Martin for the winning, the moving people out of the way, I went for Mark because he was a true class act on and off the race track from the first time I met him until now and that is why he truly deserves to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  You can look at Mark Martin's statistics, he's got 40 wins in the premier division of NASCAR, 56 poles, finished second in the points standings 5 times, won 49 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, and 7 Camping World Truck Series, and 4 ASA championships.

Yet it's not those numbers that I think make this guy a Hall of Famer.  I met Mark at Winn Dixie in a autograph signing in 1991 and he told me I've got one word for you if you want to make it in racing "Commitment." I seen all of Mark's ups, and all of his downs throughout his entire racing career, from winning his first race at Rockingham in 1989 with the Strohs Light Thunderbird, losing two very close championship battles with Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart due to points being taken away by NASCAR. 

Who knows, had Mark Martin raced like Dale Earnhardt he might have had a couple of

championships but it just wasn't his style of racing.  However it is what made me a fan from the first time I seen him.  I always put a strong believe it isn't the size of the man but his character that makes him who he is, and Mark Martin is a giant of a man when it comes to that.  It makes this year's Darlington throwback car with Trevor Bayne even more special considering the tribute it will be making to a Hall of Fame driver this season.  Mark Martin won 3 times with that paint scheme in 1997. 

Back to that commitment.  He told me it was a promise to yourself to do the very best at what you are good at to get you where you want to be.  I'll never forget being a kid and meeting this man, back then he was my hero I always looked up to because of things just like today when he was interviewed by NBC NASCAR America.  Mark felt many other guys should have gone in the Hall Of Fame before he did, but he was well deserving of it.  It's not just the W's in the column that make get you that jacket, it's respect, dignity and commitment.

All-Star weekend shows the cars are finally catching up to the drivers at RFR

One of the hottest topics after last night's race in Charlotte was how Trevor Bayne raced more aggressively in the Sprint All-Star race.  Bayne battled with veterans Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski late in the event and had a rough few laps with Busch that everyone seemed to be talking about.

Bayne won the Show Down and Finished 7th in the All-Star

While there are still a lot of naysayers out there Bayne seemed to make an impression on a lot of people with his aggressive driving in both the All-Star Show Down and in the All-Star race.  What people need to realize is that in the last few years, even while Bayne was racing in the XFINITY Series for Roush Fenway Racing that the cars just were not up to par with the drivers talent within the organization.  This season the cars have finally caught up it seems with the drivers driving ability and it showed during this weekend.

It is hard for a driver to make an aggressive move when a race car is hard to drive and the trend is the same every weekend you are faced with two dilemma's.  One drive a car much slower and try not wreck it or race aggressively and wreck every weekend.  I do believe that that there were races last season where Trevor Bayne tried to race harder than the car would go, and it cost him.  This season there have been a lot of key changes that were made within RFR that has made that has made their team better.

-  There were 3 key hires in the off-season with Kurt Romberg (Aerodynamic Specialist), Kent Day (Manager of Simulation) and Vojin Jaksic (Strategic Panning).
-  Roush Fenway Racing paired Matt Puccia and Roman Pemberton with Trevor Bayne after Chris Buescher's XFINITY Series crew Chief Scott Graves parted ways and went to Joe Gibbs, and RFR moved Bob Osborne over to Front Row Motorsports with Buescher.
- Roush Fenway Racing made a change to the way that their organization and environment in the team is worked. The teams all share one shop now and the cars are all built the same, except for a few minor things that can be easily changed out during a race weekend.

So if you really think this is the first time that Bayne has been aggressive, it's not.  In his earlier years with RFR he had a lot of aggressive times.  Winning his first race at Texas in 2011 he made a similar move in the XFINITY Series race to get the lead as he did on Saturday in the Show Down and racing Austin Dillon for the race win at Iowa in 2013 he beat and banged with the 3 car until he took the top spot for good.

Bayne has not had great cars in the Sprint Cup Series probably since his first year in the series when he won the Daytona 500.  Now he is getting much better race cars and you are starting to see him able to race the same way he raced a few years back and it is that same competitive aggressive style that people have been saying he has been missing.

Bayne powers his way passed Elliott on final lap to make Sprint All Star Race

Trevor Bayne took a little open hole on a restart and made it into a wide open entrance into the Sprint All-Star Race on Saturday morning in the NASCAR Sprint Show Down in Charlotte. 

Bayne started the race fifth by rule book standards due to the rain cancelling qualifying for the Sprint Show Down.  He told crew chief Matt Puccia and Spotter Roman Pemberton "Alright guys. Today is about fun and winning -- which is more fun. Let's go get it.".  It didn't look as if he'd have a chance early in the first segment to advance into the main event until a caution flag came out when the No. 95 of Michael McDowell spun on the track. 

Bayne's crew chief Matt Puccia decided to keep him on the track and restart in fourth position on the outside lane behind fellow Ford Performance driver Ryan Blaney.  Blaney was called for jumping the restart but that didn't stop Trevor Bayne from having one of his best restarts ever and making it three-wide through the middle and getting around Chase Elliott for the lead.  He and Elliott ran side by side to the stripe where Bayne beat Elliott by 0.005 thousands of a second. 

"That was pretty cool," said Bayne afterwards.  "That takes me back to Texas in 2011 in the XFINITY race when I restarted fourth and pushed Carl out before winning the race.  I was thinking about what I could do and I timed the restart really good there.  In clear air I was alright.  I was a little concerned with dirty air, but I got a run and I went down through the middle.  It was a little sketchy squeezing through that hole but it worked."

Time is running out to #VoteTrevor into the All-Star Race

Only a couple days remain until the voting closes to get Trevor Bayne into the Sprint Cup Series All-Star race!  Trevor is coming off a 10th place finish at Dover and has a lot of support on twitter, so keep putting in your vote for the driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion.

The Sprint Fan Vote closes this Friday, May 20, and fans can once a day until then, votes shared via Facebook or Twitter will count double toward a drivers total.  Click here to make your vote:  http://www.nascar.com/sprintfanvote

Bayne quietly leading Roush Fenway in 2016

Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse seem to have found some
of the chemistry they had back in the Nationwide Series

Going into the Charlotte's All Star break this weekend, Trevor Bayne has been the highest finishing Roush Fenway Racing driver in 4 of the last 6 races this year, scored two top-ten finishes in the last three events and led 34 laps so far this season.  He is the most improved driver at Roush Fenway so far during the 2016 season coming into the break.

Last weekend's 10th place finish was his third top-ten finish which already has broken last season's mark of 2 top-ten finishes.  But here is where the big improvement's are showing up.

When you look at the two big averages on Bayne's record this season they've made a huge turn around this season.

His average start is 16.75 compared to a dismal 27.91 last season, while his average finish is 18.25 compared to 25.80 in 2015 throughout the entire season.  Also there is a big Easter Egg on the DNF statistics for Trevor Bayne this season compared to last season when he had 3 last season,   Also Bayne has finished on the lead lap 8 times so far this season,  while all of last season the 6 team had 13 lead lap finishes.

Bayne could have very easily been
caught up in Sunday's wreck

The one major change is the team's intense persuasive attitude to not give up when they are down in the dirt and to get the car better.  A good example was this past weekend while racing at Dover, Bayne could have very easily been caught up in the huge wreck and finished back in the 20s and 30s, instead they dodged a huge mess and got a top-10 finish but that was not before they got back on the lead lap after losing it early on and getting the car better late in the race.

The team has a different will to succeed this season than they did in 2015 and maybe it has given Trevor Bayne a little more confidence that he needed to race more competitively this season.  On Sunday, Jeff Gordon made a statement for that last few years that he felt that the talent of the Roush Fenway drivers were better than the cars that they were provided and the cars are finally catching up to the drivers.

A lot of fans put the bad finishes the past few years on Bayne and Stenhouse, but when you have cars that are handling terribly each week it is hard to throw hail mary after hail mary at it to get the car right and expect the driver to finish well.  The big problem is, even when Bayne was with the Wood Brothers, many people don't realize this he was racing the same equipment as the Roush Fenway drivers, and its much different than what Ryan Blaney has at WBR now.  So since 2012 probably, Bayne has been dealt a bad deck, and this year he's finally getting a few good cards out of it.

When you aren't fast and unload slow constantly it makes it very hard for the driver and it puts him a predicament.  I feel Trevor now has a lot of the right combinations this season working in his favor, the crew chief, the spotter, the engineers on the team, his crew that makes the pit stop, and the atmosphere within Roush Fenway Racing has changed altogether.  For many years, RFR had a battle among its own teams; where sharing just didn't seem like an option and one team had to better than the other.  Now it seems that team has made it where all the teams are equal and the drivers are on equal equipment and they share information if one is better than the other.

That in itself will go a long way in making the team better.  Bayne is just quietly leading the surge back.