Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion, recorded a 28th-place finish on Sunday afternoon in the 58th running of the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway after sustaining damage in an incident on Lap 56.
“I tried my butt off,” said Bayne after the race. “It was everything I could do to try to make a run, but we had a little damage early when the (No.)14 spun out. That hurt us, but we just couldn’t get any speed rolling. Nobody really went with us and they got all gaggled up there at the end. It’s tough when you can’t really do much with it after the damage. But I want to thank all of my guys for their hard work on this AdvoCare Ford this week. We’ll move on and get ready for Atlanta.”
Bayne took the green flag from the 23rd position after finishing 12th in Thursday evenings Can-Am Duel 150 event. In the early stages, Bayne battled a loose handling AdvoCare Ford and decided to patiently ride single-file toward the back of the pack.
After riding around for much of the first quarter of the race, the Knoxville, Tenn. native began to make progress toward the front, racing into the top 20 before getting collected in a multi-car incident coming off of Turn 4 on Lap 56. While under caution, crew chief Matt Puccia called Bayne to pit road to survey the damage and make repairs.
Upon returning to the track following the repairs, Bayne again decided to ride toward the back of the pack throughout the middle portion of the 200-Lap race. Then, a strategy call by crew chief Puccia during a round of green flag pit stops on Lap 158 for two-tires gave Bayne the track position he needed and moved him into the top 12 on the leaderboard.
The Roush Fenway Racing driver continued to march forward following the stop, drafting into the top 10 by Lap 165. However, a caution five laps later on Lap 170 shuffled up the running order as Bayne was forced three-wide and back to the 23rd position.
In the closing stages, Bayne would try to make as many moves as he could but the damage to the nose of the AdvoCare Fusion proved problematic and made it difficult to find drafting partners. In the end, Bayne took the checkered flag in the 28th position.
RFR PR
