Watkins Glen, NY – Paul Menard capped his double-duty weekend at Watkins Glen with a 19th-place finish in Sunday’s Nextel Cup Series race.  Starting from the 31st position, it would appear as a good result, but there was more there, including a possible top-10.

As it was Saturday in the Busch event, “fuel strategy” was a key component to everyone’s race plan.  The 15 team was no different, planning to come in twice only on the day, but subject to change that theory should the race present a curveball.  There was a slight curveball on lap 23 when Brian Vickers brought out a caution that was about four or five laps ahead of most everyone’s fuel window.  With some of the leaders pitting, Menard pit and took tires and fuel.

It was still looking like a two-stop race, but there needed to be caution.  Regardless, Menard had moved up to the top-15 by lap 39.  Crew Chief Dave Charpentier radioed to Paul some encouragement on the fuel mileage front, saying, “our mileage is good, better than we expected, I think we’re going to be fine.”

By lap 47, Menard had moved into 12th and on lap 52 Reed Sorenson pulled a caution.  Menard radioed back that his car was “sputtering” but not from a lack of gas.  This added a little drama and panic to the mix, but the sputter would never rear it’s ugly head again.

During the caution Menard stopped for what he hoped was the last time and it was not the best stop of the day.  Entering 11th, Menard left the pits 21st, but a lot of that was attributed to teams staying out on different strategies.  Once those teams pit around lap 60, Menard moved up to 10th and was in a great position to stay there or improve for the last 30 laps.

Everyone was worried about mileage, but Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick were on the same strategy as Menard and they’ve won the last 347 road course races it seems, so it was a good horse to ride.

But just as the fun was starting, it ended.  Spotter David Keith radioed that Menard had spun in the esses.  Shortly after, Paul came on the radio and said something about Robby Gordon checking up while he was beside him and that he got loose and there was damage, etc.

After coming in to pit for new tires and repair the car Menard returned to the action 39th and he was not happy about it.  Over the final 20 laps, however, Menard drove like crazy and managed to pull a top-20 out of the hat.  It was little consolation for what might have been.

“It was a good race, we were better than this finish,”said Menard.”  “It could have been a lot better.  I kind of screwed up and spun out going up through the esses, and that cost us a top ten finish.  But it was a really good points day anyway and we’ll have to take it.

“After practice Friday I was really looking forward to qualifying and maybe getting this car in the top-10 or 15 which would have been huge.  You can pass here, but it takes awhile to get through and it makes it harder to predict the right strategy.  We were where we wanted to be though before the spin.”

Watkins Glen Busch Series recap - click here