Bayne earns a solid second-place finish in Dover

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No.6 AdvoCare Ford Mustang recorded his best finish of the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) season on Saturday afternoon at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, coming home with a second-place finish.

“This team made some really big gains this week,” said Bayne after the race. “We were able to make some adjustments throughout the course of the race that gave us a chance to go for the win at the end. I will never complain about a second-place finish, but when you can get that close you want to keep going. There were times I would catch Kyle [Busch] and times he would pull away. The last 10 laps we got really tight and he got through lapped traffic better than we did. But I am really proud of my No.6 AdvoCare Ford team for not giving up this season. I feel like we are hitting our stride and we need to continue that.”

Bayne took the green flag from the fifth position and ran consistently at the front of the field for much of the 200-Lap NNS event. Reporting a loose condition early, Bayne slid back to eighth just prior to a Lap 17 caution for oil on the track. On the ensuing pit stop, crew chief Chad Norris utilized a two-tire strategy to catapult Bayne into the fourth position.

Bayne maintained his position inside the top five throughout much of the following run, despite battling a car that was suffering from both a tight and a loose condition. A Lap 74 caution for debris allowed the driver of the No. 6 Ford to return to pit road for four tires and adjustments, which improved the handling of the car and allowed Bayne to begin to work his way towards the front again.

When the race went back to green, Bayne was able to settle into the fourth position and keep the race leaders in his sites. In the closing stages, Bayne utilized a Lap 158 restart to move into the second position. Once in second, the No.6 Ford came to life. Bayne consistently clicked off laps faster than race leader Kyle Busch and was able to shrink the deficit from first to second to less than three tenths of a second with 15 laps remaining. However, Bayne’s march to the front was halted as the leaders began to race through lapped traffic with 10 laps-to-go. In the end, Bayne would take the checkered flag in the second position and record his best finish of the 2014 NNS season. With the result, Bayne remains fourth in the championship standings and trailers leader Regan Smith by 27 points.

Roush Fenway