CONCORD, North Carolina – After putting all three of their Roush Fenway Racing cars inside the top-10 during qualifying Thursday night at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, Greg Biffle led the team during NASCAR’s longest race with an 11th place finish in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600.
In a season where improvements are noticeable, the performances by Biffle, Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. left the reality that there is still more to be desired and accomplished as the organization attempts to put themselves in Victory Lane for the first time since 2014.
After finishing second last May, Biffle didn’t have just quite enough to contend for another top-10 finish, but instead had to settle for his season-best run eclipsing two 12th place finishes earned at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway respectively.
“That’s all the speed we had,” said Biffle. “It was a hard-fought battle and I think we’re gaining on it. It’s frustrating that we didn’t get up to the top-five, but at times we could run top-five lap times.”
Stenhouse who qualified third struggled with the handling of his No. 17 Fastenal Ford Fusion and despite some contact with the wall, he salvaged a 15th place finish.
Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner lost sight of the leaders early in the race and fell outside the top-20 early and thanks to a speeding penalty under green flag conditions and contact with another competitor, the team was never able to recover. The No. 6 AdvoCare Ford Fusion finished 25th.
“We had a lot thrown at us tonight,” said Bayne after the race. “We fought a tight-handling car throughout the night but were beginning to make gains on it before our penalty and before we got that damage to the nose of our AdvoCare Ford. I’m confident that we will recover from this and go get them next weekend in Pocono.”
Two top-15 finishes for RFR in the sport’s most grueling race is without question a step in the right direction and they didn’t have to use race strategy to get there. But, it’s still not where they want to be.
Patience.
Things are looking up and we’ll just have to wait a little longer hopefully before RFR returns to their form
Biffle agrees.
“It’s a huge amount of progress from where we’ve been, but we clearly have a little ways to go,” he added. “Everybody is working hard and hopefully we’ll get there soon.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
