Menard Aims to Continue Top-Ten Streak at Richmond International Raceway

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Federated Auto Parts 400
September 7, 2013 – Richmond International Raceway
Paul Menard, No. 27

Paul Menard will pilot chassis No. 419 at Richmond International Raceway. This No. 27 Chevrolet SS was previously run this season at Martinsville Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Menard has 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at Richmond International Raceway. His best start of seventh came in 2010 and best finish of 13th came in both 2012 and earlier this season. The Wisconsin native has completed 5,095 of 5,216 laps attempted (97.7 percent) at the Virginia track, leading one of them. Starting 25th, Menard fought handling issues throughout last year’s 400-lap event to finish 23rd under the lights at Richmond International Raceway.

Richmond (International Raceway) is a three-quarter mile short track that is uniquely shaped. It races like a track much bigger than that, so as a driver, I’ve got to approach the track differently. It is shaped like a ‘D’ and there is a really big arch going into turn one, but you carry a lot of speed into turn one, you get hard on the brakes and then the groove opens up as you exit turn two and you can run where your car wants to run. You don’t have to stick to the bottom of the race track, you can run the middle and three-quarters of the way up the track. Turn three is almost like a Martinsville (Speedway) turn. It has a really sharp entrance and it’s not very open. On exit, it opens back up with the ‘D’ shape. We had a decent finish earlier this year at Richmond and we are hoping to build on that this weekend. We’ve had a top-10 streak going the past two weeks, and we are hoping to keep that alive on Saturday night. – Paul Menard

Radio & TV

ABC’s live coverage from Richmond International Raceway begins Saturday, Sept. 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

NASCAR Sprint Cup results at Richmond International Raceway

• Starts: 13
• Wins: 0
• Poles: 0
• Top 5: 0
• Top 10: 0
• Laps Led: 1
• Average Start: 27.5
• Average Finish: 26.00