Late-Race Incident Leads to 38th-Place Finish for Bayne in New Hampshire

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion, was involved in a late-race incident with under 20 laps to go in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon, relegating the Roush Fenway Racing driver to a 38th-place finish.

“I’m not sure what happened there,” said Bayne after the race. “It felt like we had a tire go down, especially since we hadn’t been loose going into the third turn all race long. I just hate it for all of my guys on this AdvoCare team. We’ll rebound from this and go for a solid run next week in Dover.”

Bayne took the green flag for the 300-Lap event from the 27th position and immediately reported to crew chief Matt Puccia that the AdvoCare Ford was very tight through the corner. Despite the handling condition Bayne drove his way into the top 25 and maintained that track position until after the first round of green flag pit stops on Lap 74.

The Knoxville, Tenn. native continued to fight for position inside the top 25 throughout much of the middle portion of the afternoon, running as high as 22nd before the tight-handling condition returned. In a race that saw several long green flag runs, crew chief Puccia decided to bring the driver of the AdvoCare Ford to pit road a little early during a round of green flag pit stops on Lap 215 in the hopes of making up track position. Unfortunately, an inopportune caution just 16 laps later trapped Bayne off of the lead lap.

In the closing stages, Bayne battled for the free pass position before an incident heading into Turn 3 on Lap 284 damaged the rear of the AdvoCare Ford.

The damaged was deemed too severe to repair, ending Bayne’s afternoon just shy of the finish. In the end Bayne was scored with a 38th-place finish.

RFR PR