Menard Finishes 15th at Texas Motor Speedway

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – AAA Texas 500
November 3, 2013 – Texas Motor Speedway

Paul Menard started the Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet from the fourth position at Texas Motor Speedway and brought home a top-15 finish after facing handling issues throughout the 500-mile race. In the early laps of the event, Menard slipped back several positions as he fought a tight-handling condition. The “Slugger” Labbe-led crew made a variety of chassis adjustments to the No. 27 machine on multiple four-tire pit stops in an attempt to remedy the handling condition. During the middle portion of the 334-lap affair, Menard continued to struggle with a tight condition and fell a lap down to the leader on lap 230. The Eau Claire, Wis., native was determined to gain his lap back and maintained a top-15 position, ultimately getting the “Lucky Dog” pass on lap 256, allowing him to return to the lead lap. The Richard Childress Racing driver continued to fight handling issues as cloud cover caused changing track conditions, but Menard was able to run in the top-15 for the remainder of the race, ultimately crossing the finish line in 15th place. He sits 17th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings heading into Phoenix International Raceway.

We started the race off super tight, but as the laps wore on the car improved. Then we lost our drive off the corners. We struggled with the handling of our Quaker State/Menards Chevrolet all day. The crew made a variety of changes, but we just couldn’t hit on the right setup. There at the end we went from being too tight to too free. We’ll keep our heads up and hope for better results next weekend. – Paul Menard

Race Notes

• Started – 4th, Finished, – 15th,  Laps led – 0, Points – 17th
• Menard completed 148 green-flag passes, 40 of which came while running in the top 15 (Quality Passes).