BRISTOL, Tenn. — While he doesn’t believe he’s where he wants to be, Trevor Bayne says that being in contention for a Chase spot on points this late into the season “says a lot about what my team has done this year.”
Speaking to the press during his media availability at Bristol Motor Speedway, the driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford was asked how he felt about the progress he’s made since last year and if he feels like Roush is getting back to where he wants it to be.
“Yeah, I mean we’re definitely not where we want to be because we’re not winning races yet, but where we are in contention, the fact that we’re contending and we’re in the discussion for a Chase spot on points, says a lot about what my team has done this year,” Bayne said.
The 2011 Daytona 500 champion is currently having a career-best season in his second full-time year with Roush Fenway Racing. Although he’s yet to return to victory lane since his Daytona 500 victory in 2011, he earned his first top-five finish since that 500 victory with a fifth at Bristol in April and a third at Daytona in July. He’s amassed five top-10 finishes, up from two last season, including a fifth at Bristol, a 10th at Talladega and Dover, third at Daytona and ninth at Watkins Glen with a career-best 17.8 finishing average. He’s also completed 99.7 percent of the laps run this season.
He gave credit to crew chief Matt Puccia, whom he was paired up with at the start of this season, and the rest of his crew for putting him in this position.
“Matt Puccia has been a great fit for me,” he said. “He’s a guy that has helped me keep my head and worked really hard together. He’s a guy that will put in the hours and I’m in that same boat, so I feel like we mesh really well together at the race shop. We discuss things. We have a lot of conversation leading into the race weekend. How we expect it to go and typically it goes that way.
“Our guys have done a great job of making sure the details are done, and that’s why we’re in this situation.”
Despite all the progress, Bayne says the team is not as fast as some of the other’s he’s racing for a Chase spot.
“We probably aren’t as fast as some of the guys we’re racing around for this spot in the Chase, but we’ve been consistent. We’ve made progress in that area. Other than Indy, I don’t feel like I’ve made too many mistakes on the race track that has cost me points. Maybe there have been days where if I really had just nailed everything I could have gained two spots or three spots early in this season when we first started working together, so I feel like we’ve maximized every race and that’s why we’re here. So I’m really excited about that.”
He added that he wants more speed out of the car and to qualify better.
“I’d love to see more raw speed in our race cars and in myself when I unload for practice and get back to how we were early in this season when we were qualifying really well,” he said. “We were making the final round almost every week and the last few weeks we’ve kind of fallen into that second round area and that makes racing a lot harder. I want to get back to that raw speed from early in the season and continue to execute like we’ve been doing.”
He ended his point by noting how he likes what Roush has done and that it’s tough to turn a team around in NASCAR.
“I’m really impressed with what Roush Fenway has done,” he said. “It’s very tough in this sport to turn things around when you’re chasing a moving target, so they’ve done a great job. All of the gains we’ve made are showing results and that’s what we want to see.”
