Trevor Bayne left Martinsville Speedway on Sunday with his fourth top-15 finish of the season. Bayne, driving the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford for Roush Fenway Racing, started the 500-lap event in the 16th starting spot. When the STP 500 concluded – the Tennessee native sat 13th on the leaderboard.
Bayne stayed inside the top 20 once the green flag waved. On lap 69, a caution involving teammate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Paul Menard in turn three, Bayne and the No. 6 crew elected to hit pit road. That’s when they would be popped for speeding and sent to the rear of the field for the restart.
With eight laps remaining in stage one of the STP 500, Bayne sat 23rd on the leaderboard when a caution came out involving Ryan Blaney and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in turn two. With stage two vastly approaching, the team elected to hit pit road for a strategy call that would later put them back upfront for stage two.
The call by crew chief Matt Puccia would give Bayne a 19th-place finish in stage one. They would elect to stay out between stages to earn much needed track position for stage two.
The call worked according to plan as Bayne started sixth in stage two. On lap 260, marking the end of stage two, Bayne sat ninth on the leaderboard – earning two additional driver points. The young driver stayed inside the top 10 all throughout this second stage.
Bayne and the team pitted for four tires, fuel, and adjustments between stage two and three. They later started the final stage sitting seventh on the scoring monitor for the final 229 laps.
Things went smooth for the team as they continued to battle inside the top 10. Then, on lap 391, things would go the wrong way as they were popped for speeding once again while the field circled under yellow. That placed Bayne at the tail of the field for the restart on lap 399.
From there, Bayne picked up six positions on a restart with 86 laps left in the STP 500 to move up into the 13th spot. He would remain in that position over the course of the event until the checkered flag.
“This was a good day for us here in Martinsville,” said Bayne after the race. “I’m really happy that we were able to come out of here with another top-15 finish and that we were able to keep our Ford clean for the most part. We’ve had a pretty good start to our season and I’m looking forward to getting to Texas next week and keeping that momentum going.”
At Texas, a 1.5-mile oval, Bayne hasn’t had the best of luck there. His best finish at the track in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series came last season in April when he took his No. 6 Ford to a 15th-place finish. Last November, Bayne started 26th and finished 30th at the Texas oval.
About Me: Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. He has written for racingonfuel.com and theracingwheel.com. Currently, Brett writes for motorsportsnat.com and TracksideChatter.com. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett.
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