Martinsville, VA -  Paul Menard survived a very long day at the races in Martinsville to post a 24th-place finish in his Menards-Pittsburgh Paints Chevrolet.

Menard, who qualified 35th, was racing in his first Nextel Cup event at the short half-mile oval which certainly favors a patient approach for success.  In the early going, Menard was struggling to find a setup that would help him in and out of the corners.  As he said on the radio during lap 20, "we're rolling the middle well, but I'm so loose off the corner."

Getting in the corner proved to be the biggest challenge all day with Menard repeatedly wondering if they had gone with too aggressive of a rear brake pad package.

Regardless of the early struggles, which seemed to linger on through the race's first 300 laps, Menard stayed the course and kept his car clean, hovering either on the lead lap or just off it.

During the last 200 laps, Menard's Impala was suddenly impressive at times, running laps as good or better than the leaders.  But make no mistake, this race was about the aforementioned survival.  Crew Chief Dave Charpentier pointed that out prior to the race in his team meeting.  And for a rookie driver in his first event, survival was another word for 500 laps of experience.  

Menard managed 505 laps, finishing as the first car one lap down and right behind teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"I grew up short track racing on these types of tracks so I always expect to do well when I come to a place like this," Menard said after the race.  "But the competition at this level is so tough that every part of the game has to be on to run at the front of this field.

"We missed a little bit somewhere - I think on our brake package, I was having a really hard time getting into the corner all day no matter what changes we made, but we did learn a lot of things here.  Not super happy to finish 24th, obviously would have liked something better, but at the same time we came close to finishing on the lead lap which if you had told me that at any time during the first 30 laps I would have laughed."

Menard and his crew head to Atlanta next weekend, site of Menard's best career Nextel Cup finish, 7th, in 2006.