Quick Lane: Paul Menard MENCS Race Advance
O’Reilly Parts 500 – Texas Motor Speedway
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Paul Menard, driver of the No. 21 Quick Lane Ford Fusion, talks about the upcoming Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. The Wood Brothers Racing driver currently sits 15th in MENSC Driver Points heading into this weekend’s O’Reilly Parts 500.
PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Quick Lane Ford Fusion – YOU’RE 15TH IN MENCS DRIVER STANDINGS, BUT THE GAP IS SPREADING FROM 10TH PLACE BACK. IS IT TOO EARLY TO PAY ATTENTION TO DRIVER STANDINGS? “You’re always aware of where you’re at but it’s not panic mode. We’ve had a couple of races that we’d like to have back where we lost a lot of points. We know we’re capable of gaining a lot more points that we have right now. We just have to minimize mistakes and get the results we deserve.”
IS RICHMOND THE POINT OF THE SEASON WHEN TEAMS HAVE A GOOD BAROMETER OF THEIR PROGRAM OR IS IT EVEN EARLIER? “I think that you’re always looking at where your strengths and weaknesses are as a team. You’re always looking at what you can do better. I think that our strength so far has been the intermediate tracks like the one we’re going to this weekend at Texas. Our weakest track was a track like Phoenix. We just missed it. We didn’t have the speed that we needed and then had a right-rear tire issue that put us into the wall. A bad weekend but we have a lot of good tracks coming up for us. Richmond will be a question mark for us because it’s very similar to Phoenix. I thought we had a good car in Martinsville. Our Martinsville program was good which hopefully will translate over to Bristol. Richmond is a place where you’re about a quarter of the way through the season and you have a pretty good idea what kind of stuff you have.”
THE RECENT REPAVE AT TEXAS MAKES IT A NEW TRACK OF SORTS. DO YOU THROW OUT PAST RACE RESULTS AT TEXAS BECAUSE OF THE REPAVE? “Texas has been very hit or miss. We’ve run either really well or really bad. It’s a new Texas now with the repave. As the track goes into its second year with the new surface it’s going to open new opportunities for trying to find the right lines and manipulate the car through different lines on the track. The Fords ran really strong there last year, and I am looking forward to seeing what we have this weekend.”
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY’S HIGH-SPEED TURN 1 PRESENTS ANOTHER ‘HOLD YOUR BREATH’ MOMENT FOR DRIVERS THIS WEEKEND. HOW MUCH MARGIN OF ERROR DO YOU HAVE ON ENTRY INTO THE FIRST TURN? “It’s really narrow. It’s really flat. Turns 3 and 4 have so much banking that you have to set the car up for 3 and 4 height-wise which makes it less than ideal for 1 and 2 because it has less banking. Ideally, if both ends were the same you’d have a better handling car in 1 and 2 but you just can’t physically get the car where you want it in 1 and 2 because it will be dragging the bottom of it.
“Turn 1 margin for error last year was inches. If you missed it by half a foot you were holding on trying to get the car held down and stay in the grip. It got better in the fall race. Instead of inches it may be a couple of feet this weekend, but that makes all the difference in the world.”
DOES THE NARROW TURN 1 ENTRY MAKE RESTARTS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT ON WHICH LANE YOU ARE IN? “Yeah, for sure. We did see the middle groove come in, but it just takes time and rubber. The Xfinity Series cars will put some rubber down in the middle groove and that will help the Cup cars. It will be better than last year. As the track ages, it will just keep getting better and better.”
HOW MUCH DOES ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY REMIND YOU OF TEXAS? “The tire fall-off at Atlanta is so huge, three or four seconds on a run. If we fall-off a second per run at Texas that will be a lot. Texas is a lot smoother. There are still some bumps that they paved over but compared to Atlanta it’s a lot smoother.”
QUALIFYING IS ALWAYS A PRIORITY, BUT IT MUST BE MORE CRITICAL AT TEXAS CONSIDERING THE NEWER TRACK SURFACE: “Especially the way that pit stops are now, you need a good pit stall. Starting up-front at some track is more important, like Martinsville. I see Texas being a one groove race track. It’s going to be hard to pass. It’s high speeds. You’re going to have some aero disadvantage if you’re in the back in the pack. We’ll concentrate quite a bit at Texas on Friday.”
