Kansas City, KS – Paul Menard and the Dale Earnhardt Inc. back Menards Racing team turned in two solid performances at Kansas Speedway this weekend. Unfortunately, only Menard’s NASCSAR Busch Series race results were rewarded with the deserved top-10 finish. On the NASCAR Nextel Cup side, the results of the rain delayed race were marred by a late race incident, involved the No. 15 Johns Manville/Menards Chevrolet. The wreck occurred while Menard was running in 10th place and looking poised to record a season best finish.
“It’s disappointing, obviously.” Menard said following the 27th place finish in the Lifelock 400.
The weekend started out with a lot of promise after Menard turned in a 23rd place qualifying effort for Sunday’s race. The lap time was solid, considering Menard’s early draw.
“It’s decent.” Menard said following his lap of 31.444 seconds around the 1.5-mile D-shaped oval. “Track position is big, especially a big, fast track like this where aero comes into play.”
With Cup qualifying behind him, Menard turned his attention to his NASCAR Busch Series entry.
“I think there’s good and bad to pulling double duty,” Menard reasoned. “It kind of distracts you a little bit from your number one objective which is the Cup car but at the same time you learn a little bit. You can’t translate setups but you can translate what the right rear spring does or what air pressure does pretty thoroughly.”
“It seems like tires drop off quite a bit.” Menard continued. “So we’ll be able to see just how bad they’ll fall off during the Busch race and use that for Sunday’s race.”
Menard turned his 15th place qualifying into a seventh place run in the No. 15 SuperClean/Menards Chevrolet. Running as high as third place, Menard put on a great show for fans as he battled with several very strong cars and managed to preserve a spot in the top ten throughout the second half of the race.
“It was a good day.” Menard said. “The guys worked really hard in the pits and I did my best to keep the fenders on it even though the 20 car was racing me pretty hard.”
Menard was hoping for a similar result in Sunday’s scheduled 267-lap event, but the rain forced officials to red flag the event twice for more than 2 hours of rain delays. After taking the Green Flag, Menard ran in the top-25 for most of the opening 100 laps. Despite several pit stops, impaired by the No. 42 car blocking Menard’s No. 15 Chevrolet into his pit, Menard was running in 18th place when the red flag flew on lap 148. After the race was restarted on lap 149, Menard quickly advanced towards the front thanks to crew chief Dave Charpentier’s pit strategy. Unfortunately, the lap 185 incident involving the cars of Denny Hamlin and Jamie McMurray, left Menard with nowhere to go and damage to the front fenders of his Chevrolet. The team pit for repairs, but the 29th place restart with only 20 laps to go, made it difficult for Menard to advance.
“I would have liked to come out of here with a top-10,” Menard said. “We’re really working on getting up into the top-15 in points and a 27th place finish isn’t going to help us get there.”
With only seven races remaining in the 2007 season, the team heads to Talladega Superspeedway, with sights set on a top-10 finish.
