Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion, rebounded from an unscheduled green-flag pit stop for a loose wheel in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) event at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon to record a 22nd-place finish.
“Our AdvoCare Ford was getting quicker as the race went on,” said Bayne after the race. “We just had some bad luck that made us have to come back down pit road. I want to thank everyone on my team for not giving up today. It’s not exactly the finish we want but we’ll move on and get ready to go in Kansas.”
Bayne took the green flag at Charlotte from the 33rd position roughly 16 hours after the originally scheduled start time due to rain postponing the event from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon. In the early portion of the event, Bayne radioed in to crew chief Bob Osborne that the AdvoCare Ford was tight on the exit of the corners. Osborne then took advantage of a Lap 25 competition caution to bring the Roush Fenway Racing driver to pit road for four tires and adjustments.
Returning to the track for the Lap 30 restart in 31st, Bayne wasted little time moving forward, moving into the 27th position before the caution came out once again on Lap 60. The Knoxville, Tenn. native took the ensuing restart from the 24th position but radioed in to Osborne that he had a bad vibration in the right-front.
After riding out the issue for a handful of laps, Bayne came to pit road for an unscheduled green-flag pit stop on Lap 71 to alleviate the vibration. The pit stop ultimately trapped Bayne off of the lead lap to the race leaders.
Utilizing a “never give up” attitude, Bayne battled hard throughout the middle stages of the 334-Lap event to work his way into a position to get a lap back, should an opportune caution come out. Then, a Lap 240 caution gave Bayne that opportunity to earn a lap back from the race leaders.
In the closing stages, Bayne would improve four positions and battle for the free pass with Kyle Busch before taking the checkered flag in the 22nd position.
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