Trevor Bayne 2015 Season Preview
By Richard Tix
For the first time in Trevor Bayne's racing career he will try to run a full time NASCAR Cup schedule. With Carl Edwards leaving RFR in 2015 a spot quickly opened for Roush development driver Trevor Bayne. With the addition of Bayne it looks like RFR will be making a youth movement in the upcoming season.
Sure, Greg Biffle is still around, but the next guy in line is third year driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Trevor has mainly been in a ride with historic Wood Brothers Racing for his Cup career, including his first win which was the 2011 Daytona 500.
2011 also marked the season he made his most Cup starts so far in his career (17). But, in 2015 he will finally get to prove if he is ready for a full time ride. He now moves to a team that is well funded and should give him a chance to run more consistent. RFR wasn't its normal self in 2014, but that should just mean the whole team is ready and motivated to make a comeback.
In his career Trevor has shown he can win from time to time, but has yet to notch more than one win in a season at the NASCAR National level. In the Nationwide series (XFINITY now) he had 2 wins in 151 career starts. He finished 6th in point the past two years while running full time in the series.
Just looking at lower level results it looks like Bayne could have a decent season at the Cup level, but I wouldn't expect amazing things to start out with. He has always been a decent finisher, but never top of the class which is how you can explain never having a season with more than one win. However, as I stated before he will at least get a decent shot in 2015 since he is with RFR.
Bold Predictions/2015 Season Expectations:
- 2015 will technically be Baynes rookie season in NASCAR. He already has 58 races under his belt and a win at Daytona, yet it seems like he needs some more grooming at the Cup level. He will get exactly that with RFR in 2015. I don't think he will find a win, but think he could put up. 1-3 top 5's and 3-5 top 10's. However, I wouldn't be surprised if he notched numbers under that in his first season with RFR.
I think he could win a plate race. He's best at that kind of race, but has something at other types of races, too. At least if he has a half-decent car, he does. He was 17th in his Cup debut at Texas and has a 9th place finish in a Vegas Cup race. I'm a Bayneiac. Think what you like and I'll think what I like. Agree to disagree, you could say.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I don't think Bayne can do well at the Cup level, its just that on a consistent level I haven't seen it yet. It's also hard to see because Roush had such a bad 2014, so I don't know if his car will be that good either.
ReplyDeleteBut that's what's great about opinions, we all have one! It will be nice to see him get a shot this season with a full ride.