NASCAR: Why Trevor Bayne deserves to drive for Stewart-Haas Racing

Trevor Bayne likely won’t compete in the NASCAR Cup Series in the 2019 season. However, he deserves to replace Kurt Busch at Stewart-Haas Racing more than anybody.

As speculated in August, Kurt Busch has officially left Stewart-Haas Racing while Jamie McMurray has officially left Chip Ganassi Racing.

As also speculated in August, Busch is set to replace McMurray behind the wheel of the #1 Chevrolet in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, making the seat of the #41 Ford currently open for next year.

Daniel Suarez, the driver who has been tipped to replace Busch behind the wheel of the #41 Ford next season, has spent the last two seasons driving for a top-tier team in Joe Gibbs Racing.

Suarez finished in 20th place in the championship standings in his rookie season and 21st in the standings this past season. He failed to win a race and he failed to qualify for the playoffs in both seasons.

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With this in mind, is he really the best candidate to replace Busch?

He probably isn’t, but the best candidate may actually be a rather surprising one who many fans (and perhaps teams) already seem to have written off: Trevor Bayne.

Bayne competed part-time in the Cup Series this past season as one of the two drivers of the #6 Ford, as Matt Kenseth was signed by the team several races into the season before the two drivers began to share the driving duties of the car.

Bayne’s most recent two seasons as a full-time driver, which were his second and third seasons as a full-time driver, were the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In these two seasons, he drove for Roush Fenway Racing.

The 2011 Daytona 500 champion finished in 22nd place in the championship standings in both seasons, which is right around where Suarez finished in the 2017 and 2018 seasons despite the fact that Roush Fenway Racing are nowhere near as competitive as Joe Gibbs Racing from an overall standpoint.

When Kenseth was signed to split time with Bayne behind the wheel of the #6 Ford in the 2018 season, it was expected that he would blow Bayne’s results away and thus prove that the issue with the #6 Ford was Bayne, not Roush Fenway Racing themselves. However, the 2003 Cup Series champion only barely outperformed Bayne, proving that Bayne was not actually the issue with the car.

All of this alone should make Bayne a better candidate than Suarez to drive the #41 Ford, and that is not even bringing in the fact that he could bring sponsorship along with him from AdvoCare.

But why should the 27-year-old Knoxville, Tennessee native be signed by Stewart-Haas Racing over not only Suarez but everybody else?

Just take a look at Aric Almirola’s career.

Almirola entered the 2018 season having competed in the Cup Series since the 2007 season in every season except for the 2011 season, but he did not land a full-time ride until the 2012 season when he began driving for Richard Petty Motorsports. Entering the 2018 season, the 34-year-old Fort Walton Beach, Florida native had never had the opportunity to drive for anything close to a top-tier team.

As a result, Almirola entered the 2018 season with just one career Cup Series victory to his name, as he won the July race at Daytona International Speedway in the 2014 season behind the wheel of the #43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford. His career-high finish in the championship standings was his 16th place finish in the 2014 season, a finish he only earned because of the fact that his victory locked him into the 16-driver playoffs.

In other words, Almirola’s career entering the 2018 season looked a lot like Bayne’s does now, both from a results standpoint and the standpoint regarding the teams that these two drivers, in Almirola’s case, had driven for, and, in Bayne’s case, have driven for.

In the 2018 season, Almirola doubled his career win total by winning the round of 12 playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. He recorded a career-high four top five finishes and a career-high 17 top 10 finishes as a well as a career-high 181 laps led, a career-high 15.6 average starting position and a career-high 12.8 average finishing position. He finished in a career-high fifth place finish in the championship standings after advancing to the round of 8.

Would Bayne, who is several years younger than Almirola and has arguably showcased more talent and potential in his Cup Series career than Almriola did before the 2018 season, be a good addition for Stewart-Haas Racing? Probably. Stewart-Haas Racing took a chance by signing Almirola, and that chance paid off. They should take the same chance by signing Bayne.

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Do you believe that Trevor Bayne deserves to drive the #41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season? Regardless, do you believe he will end up driving this car as Kurt Busch’s replacement next year? If not, do you believe he will compete in the Cup Series at all next year? If so, for which team do you believe he will drive?

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