Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion, earned a 14th-place finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) event at Richmond International Raceway on Saturday evening.
“We gave it everything we had tonight,” said Bayne after the race. “The cool box went out on around Lap 20 which really made the night feel even longer but we had a fast AdvoCare Ford. The race just didn’t play out strategy wise like we needed it to. I am really proud of my guys and the car they brought this weekend. It was a car that if it was put in the right situation could have won the race. We had a really good long run car tonight but it didn’t matter because there were so many short which really hurt us. But we’ll move on to these last 10 races and finish the year strong.”
Bayne began the scheduled 400-Lap event from the 18th position after advancing to the second round of knockout qualifying on Friday afternoon. Bayne maintained his top-20 track position throughout much of the early stages of the race, despite reporting to crew chief Matt Puccia that the AdvoCare Ford was really loose on entry and tight through the center of the corner.
Puccia then utilized a Lap 84 caution to bring Bayne to pit road for four tires and a chassis adjustment. The Knoxville, Tenn. native returned to the track in 14th and remained inside the top 15 through the first round of green flag pit stops which occurred on Lap 185. As the race crossed the midway point Bayne continued his climb forward, cracking the top-10 for the first time on Lap 227 and racing up to the eighth position following a Lap 250 restart.
Bayne continued to battle for position in the top 10 until a caution on Lap 290 gave crew chief Puccia an opportunity to make a strategy call to bring the AdvoCare Ford to pit road for four tires while several of the race leaders stayed out. Bayne took the ensuing restart from the 17th position as a result and immediately began to charge forward, rejoining the top-10 on Lap 320 before the caution came out once again on Lap 354.
In the closing stages Bayne fought through several restarts to work his way into the eighth position when the caution came out with two laps remaining to set up NASCAR’s version of overtime.
Bayne was trapped on the outside of a three-wide race for position coming to the white flag and was shuffled back outside of the top 10. In the end Bayne would take the checkered flag in the 14th position.
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