Lead-lap finishes help thrust Paul Menard into top-10 in points

By Bob Pockrass

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Paul Menard speaks after a fifth-place finish at Atlanta.

LaDon George
NASCAR Illustrated

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Paul Menard has gone from 31st in points at the close of 2009 to ninth just four weeks into the 2010 Sprint Cup season.

And to Menard, there’s a pretty simple explanation.

“The biggest thing is we’ve been finishing the races,” Menard said in a phone interview. “We had trouble with that the first three races last year and it’s just so competitive that you get behind and it’s so hard to make it back up.”

Menard finished on the lead lap in only 12 races last year and had four races where he was not running at the finish. This year, he has completed every lap and posted his first top-10 finish of the season with a fifth last week at Atlanta.

He has a new crew chief this year in Slugger Labbe and his No. 98 team is now part of the Richard Petty Motorsports stable, which absorbed Yates Racing. Menard said that through the organization’s simulation programs, the engineers have a better understanding to create better setups which in turn results in having more grip.

“We’ve had faster cars,” Menard said. “In the offseason, the guys just made better race cars and kind of focused in on what our weaknesses were last year. All the Fords chipped in and made better cars and big gains.”

But maybe the biggest gain is just the way the setups of the new cars react to slight changes. Last year, Menard didn’t feel the team could make the car better on a race weekend. This year, Menard has started no better than 23rd and is averaging a starting spot of 29th. His average finish, however, is 13th.

“This year, if we’re off, we can make adjustments to the car and the car responds to it,” Menard said.

If Menard, who is in his fourth full year of Cup racing, can stay in or near the top 12, he would be one of the surprises among drivers competing for a spot in the Chase For The Sprint Cup.

“It’s not going to get any easier by any means,” Menard said. “So we’ve got to keep improving and keep trying to do the right thing and finishing races and running up front. … We’re after race four going into race five, so it’s pretty early for [Chase talk].“

Menard’s main goal for the start of the year was to finish in the top 20 in each of the first five races to solidify himself in the points. So far, he has done that in the first four races. Being comfortable in the points will allow a team and a driver to take more chances.

“I know I’ve got fast cars and we’re sitting fairly good in the points,” Menard said. “Last year, we were way back in points, so that makes you pretty nervous trying about trying to dig yourself out of the hole. We don’t have a hole to dig [ourselves] out [of] so we can focus on just going forward and trying to do the same things we’ve been doing and just improve on them.

“I’m not an emotional guy and I don’t introspect a whole lot. We’ve got a job to do and we’re going to work on doing it.”