Bayne Still Optimistic After Qualifying 27th at Auto Club Speedway

For Trevor Bayne and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion crew didn’t quite get the qualifying result they were hoping for on Friday at Auto Club Speedway, but that doesn’t mean Bayne’s worried about being able to drive toward the front in Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

In qualifying, Bayne turned a lap at 181.804 miles per hour to take the 27th starting position.

He said going back and forth between his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion on the Sprint Cup side and his Ford Mustang in the Nationwide Series during practice might have cost him a starting spot or two in Cup qualifying.

“I was a little disappointed with it, but it is tough going from Nationwide to Cup cars,” Bayne said. “We see that a lot.”

He said he just missed turning a qualifying lap that would have put him starting a little closer to the front.

“We were tight in the center, and I hit the seam [in the asphalt] wrong, and we lost some speed there,” he said. “We weren’t a pole run for sure, but we could have beaten a couple of those guys.”

Bayne went on to say that qualifying at Auto Club Speedway is far different than racing there, and that’s why he’s anxious to take on the rest of the race weekend.

“This place is so weird,” he said. “I hate practice and qualifying because you have to run the bottom, but I love the race because you love the top all day.

“I can’t wait to get to race time.”

Wood Brothers Racing PR