Trevor Bayne and his No. 21 Good Sam/Camping World Ford Fusion hung onto the lead lap for the first third of Saturday’s Bank of America 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but the race’s long stretches of green-flag racing worked against them and they came away with a 22nd-place finish.
Bayne started 16th and stayed in the top 20 until just after the 100-lap mark, but the opportunities to fine-tune the car from there on out were limited, especially with so many cars running about the same speed and so few caution periods.
The race had five caution flags, but only two past the 62-mile mark.
“We ran better than we finished, but it’s all about track position,” Bayne said. “That’s pretty much it. If we could have ever gotten on the lead lap, it would have made a big difference.”
“We were running 10th-place times, and about 20 laps into a run at times they said we were running as fast as the leaders, so it’s all about track position once you get spread out everybody is the same speed.”
Bayne said that had his car been as fast at the beginning of the race as it was at the end, the outcome might have been different.
“I don’t think we would have ever lost that lap, but it just took us a little while to get it figured out,” he said. “There were no cautions tonight, so there’s not much you can do once you get behind a little bit.”
Team co-owner Eddie Wood agreed with Bayne about how the night went at Charlotte.
“The Good Sam/Camping World Ford Fusion ran OK all night,” he said. “We really didn’t have any problems. We were just a little bit off and didn’t have the opportunities we needed to adjust it.”
“The last 50 laps, the track came to us and the car was really good, but it was too late.”
Bayne and the Wood Brothers No. 21 team return to the track next week for the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.
