Hampton, GA – Paul Menard and his No. 15 Menards Racing team battled through 800 miles of high speed racing action at Atlanta Motor Speedway, logging solid finishes in both NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series events at the 1.54-mile oval track.
 
Menard’s busy weekend began on a high note as Menard easily qualified for the race, laying down a lap of 29.207 seconds, which placed him third overall of the 15 “go or go home” cars attempting to make the field.
 
“These guys give me an awesome race car every week and this was probably one of our most productive practice sessions that we’ve had all year as far as making changes to the race car and it responding.” Menard said.  “This is the first time that we’ve run this car this year and I think it’s a good one.”
 
Following the excitement of making the race, Menard set his sights on finding a comfortable race day set up for his Cup car during the two Saturday practice sessions.  Then Menard turned his attention to a 300-mile chase to the checkered flag in the Nicorette 300.  
 
Menard qualified his No. 15 Menards/Quaker State Chevrolet in 26th place for Saturday’s 195-lap Busch Series event.  As he took the green flag, Menard radioed in that the car was “loose, but good loose”.  Through six caution flags for a total of 38 laps, Menard continued to provide feedback to crew chief Mike Greci.  The Menards Racing crew worked to improve the handling of the No. 15 car and the effort paid off.  Menard rounded out his Saturday action with a solid 18th place finish in the Nicorette 300.
 
Sunday’s race began under sunny skies with Menard’s focus set on earning a solid finish and close in on the top 35 in NASCAR Nextel Cup owners points.  Menard took the green flag in 23rd position and immediately radioed Tony Eury Sr. that he was “loose center off”.  He maintained a spot in the top-25 through the first eight laps when he made brief contact with the outside wall on the backstretch.  Again Menard radioed in, this time to report that the contact with the wall had made the car tight.    
 
The first caution flag flew on lap 35 and Menard came down pit road for four tires and fuel.  Eury Sr. also instructed the crew to pull the fender on the right front side of Menard’s Chevrolet to quickly repair the slight damage caused by the contact with the wall.  In addition, Eury Sr. called for a track bar adjustment to improve the car’s “loose off” condition.  
 
Menard returned to the track in 36th place and worked his way up to 30th by lap 83. Green flag stops followed with Menard pitting on lap 89.  Menard returned to the track in 37th place, one lap down.  On lap 100, Menard radioed in with a position report.
 
“This is by far the best it’s been.” Menard told the team.
 
Another round of green flag stops came on lap 135 and the team opted for tires and fuel only, no adjustments.  Quickly after Menard reported he was really loose, but continued to fight for position among the large group of cars one lap down.  
 
The caution flag flew for the second time on lap 142 and Menard’s pit crew picked him up one spot on pit road.  Menard restarted in 35th place on lap 147.  The changing temperature of the race track gave Menard a scare on lap 151 when Menard radioed the crew that it felt like he had four flat tires.  Once again, Menard maintained his focus on each and every lap, working his way up to 30th place by lap 237.  
 
Menard began an upward climb, spending most of the final quarter of the race in the top thirty, running as high as 28th place.  A final caution flag on lap 309 set up a fifteen lap shoot out to the checkered flag.  Despite being two laps down, Menard battled some of the top teams for position in the closing laps.  At the end of the day, Menards Racing came home in 31st place, but closer to the top-35 than they were heading into Atlanta.
 
“We were chasing all day.” Menard said. “The track’s changed a little bit but we were pretty much loose all day.  We made it tight at the end and went back and we were too loose for that last restart so we lost a few positions there.”
 
According to Menard, the team also gathered information, which will be useful at forthcoming intermediate tracks on the circuit.  
 
“We learned a couple of things with tire pressures.” Menard continued.  “I don’t know if we’re going to run this tire combination again but we’ve got a couple of ideas about where we need to be and go from there.”       
 
Heading into Bristol, Menard is within ten points of the top-35 in owner’s points, which will reset following Sunday’s race.  Team owner, Teresa Earnhardt, has 265 points; only nine points behind the 35th place team.
 
In the Raybestos Rookie battle, Menard stands third with 31 points to his credit.  He is just 16 points behind top rookie Juan Pablo Montoya.