Hampton, GA – Paul Menard’s hopes for his weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway were met with more troubles than triumphs as the driver of the No. 15 Johns Manville/Menards Chevrolet.
 
After qualifying 36th for the Pep Boys Auto 500, Menard was still unsure how his Chevrolet would race.
 
“The car drove better than it did in practice.” Menard said of his two lap qualifying effort.  “We picked up three tenths, but it’s still not good enough.  I was a little bit loose back to the throttle.  There’s some speed out there somewhere, I just didn’t know how to get it.”
 
Menard took the Green Flag for the scheduled 325-lap race under sunny skies with high expectations.  
 
By lap 10, Menard was up to the 27th position and reporting that the car was better on the top of the track but rolling tight through the center.
 
The first caution flag allowed the team to pit for four tires and fuel.  The Menards Racing over the wall crew raised the track bar and made an air pressure adjustment.  
 
By the time the fourth caution flag flew on lap 65, Menard was up to 21st place but dangerously close to going a lap down.  While Menard managed to maintain his lead lap status for the come 60 laps, the No. 15 car went a lap down on lap 136.   
 
Trouble continued when Menard reported a bad vibration on lap 147.  He came onto pit road for four fresh tires, but his situation went from bad to worse when the caution flag flew while Menard was on pit road – leaving Menard now two laps down.  
 
The team identified the problem as a camber issue and returned to pit road two additional times to repair the problem.  In the final 100 laps of the race, Menard reported that the car felt “the best it had all day”. Unfortunately, it was too late to gain any ground on the lead lap cars.
 
“It was a long day.  We came on pit road right when the caution came out, so we lost a race there.  Once you’re two laps down, you can never get it back.”
 
With a 27th place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Menard maintained his 34th place spot in NASCAR Nextel Cup driver’s points and his 29th place standing in owner’s points.