Motorcraft NASCAR Dover Advance
AAA 400 Drive for Autism – Dover International Speedway
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Paul Menard, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion, talks about the upcoming Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race this weekend at Dover International Speedway. The Wood Brothers Racing driver currently sits 19th in MENSC Driver Points heading into the AAA 400 Drive for Autism.
PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion: BACK TO SHORT-TRACK RACING THIS WEEKEND IN DOVER WHERE QUALIFYING UP FRONT IS REALLY IMPORTANT: “Yeah it is. You need to get a good pit selection. The pit boxes are small. Pit road is narrow, so you want to get a good pit stall to take away some of the frustrations you have on pit road.
“The race itself, sometimes it opens up into a multi-groove track and other times it doesn’t. It’s hard to predict. It really depends on what tire Goodyear brings and sometimes it depends on the weather. If the weather is hotter than you can move around. If it’s cold, then you’re stuck to the bottom and it makes it really hard to pass.”
WHAT THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU AT DOVER? “Trying to connect the corner to get the exit good without messing up entry or the center. You need to launch off the corners and it’s a fine line of being too loose or too tight on exit. It’s a fine line of being too loose in and not turning the center of the corner or being too tight. Not being able to get off the corner is a challenge. You have to be able to connect the whole corner. It doesn’t look like it but you’re in the corners for a long time during the lap. The straightaways are really short, and the corners are long. Getting the corners to flow is really important.”
DOES A TOP-10 AT BRISTOL A FEW WEEKS AGO GIVE YOU POSITIVE THOUGHTS HEADING INTO DOVER? “It’s a new weekend. I feel like we’ve learned a lot the last few weeks in terms of what I need as a driver and interpret what the car is doing. Dover is most similar to Bristol but it’s still different. It’s an entirely different animal. We’re looking at notes and putting our twist on what we’ve learned so far this year. We’re going our own way to try and unload a little bit quicker.”
RESTARTS ARE ALWAYS A HANDFUL AT DOVER AS THINGS HAPPEN SO FAST IN FRONT OF YOU: “They can be wild especially if you’re on a short run with old tires. You pick up a lot of rubber on restarts and that makes it really slippery. Making the matter worse is that you get all stacked up on restarts, two-wide, sometimes three-wide. The corners are wide, and the straightaways are narrow which funnels all the cars down coming out of the corners. If there is an accident in front of you there’s no real place to escape. Restarts are so important and pretty hairy.”
A GOOD TOP-10, TOP-FIVE AND CHALLENGE FOR A RACE WIN IS WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED THIS WEEKEND: “Yeah. We had a rough few weeks. I had a great race in Talladega going before the wreck. I struggled at Richmond. We had a solid Bristol. We just need to put it all together and click off some good runs.”
YOU TESTED ON THE ‘ROVAL’ AT CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY THIS WEEK. HOW WAS THE TEST? WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF WHAT KIND OF RACING WE’LL SEE IN THE FALL? “As a driver, the ‘Roval’ is going to be the toughest races of the year to make it to the finish. There’s going to be a lot of attrition. It’s going to be hard on brakes. Hard on tires. Hard on the car body. It’s just so narrow to pass. It’s going to be a lot of attrition. If I was a race fan I’d be buying my tickets right now. It’s going to be nuts.”
