Watkins Glen, NY - Paul Menard came out of the gates at Watkins Glen with a great show in Saturday's Busch Series event. Qualifying 8th, Menard finished 4th, ran as high as 2nd and positioned himself as someone to watch in Sunday's Nextel Cup event.

Early on Menard's crew made a bold pit decision and brought the Q Horsepower Chevrolet in on lap 3 following an early caution in the 82-lap Zippo 200. Menard and Jeff Burton both pit to top off their cars with fuel, giving up valuable track position in the process.

The move proved wise however, as most teams were looking to pit early (just notthat early) to try and make the race on one stop. Ten laps later the leaders all pit and Menard cycled to the top-3 behind Kevin Harvick and Burton.

By lap 37, everyone pit within the fuel window and Menard was positioned in the top-5 with little doubt they would make it to the end on fuel. Everyone knew it would be close, but with cautions it was becoming more of a very calculated decision and less of a gamble.

NASCAR threw out a caution on lap 48 for debris which set up one of the more exciting restarts for Menard who was lined up second behind Harvick. Third-place Kurt Busch had arguably the best car in the field and was poised to take a run at Menard on the restart. Busch did just that, passed Menard, to which Paul radioed in, "Wow, the 39 car is fast..."

Busch mounted a challenge, but began to lose his brakes in the latter stages of the race and wasn't able to overtake eventual winner Harvick. Menard held off Brad Coleman for 4th-place and his first top-5 finish in the Busch Series this season.

"My car was really good, but it just didn't want to get going right away which hurt us," said Menard after the race. "Harvick was way out there though and Busch was really, really fast too. That was definitely one of our best Busch efforts though, I had a lot of fun. (Mike) Grechi made a good call early to give us some track position and overall we were solid. I hope we can have the same type of race tomorrow."

Menard starts 31st for Sunday's Nextel Cup event in his Q Horsepower Impala SS.