[media-credit name=”Harold Hinson Photography” align=”alignright” width=”225″]
[/media-credit]With the championship Chase looming and all the talk focusing on other drivers like Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards potentially scrapping their way in, one driver, Paul Menard, sits quietly in contention.
The driver of the No. 27 Duracell/Menards Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing has 507 points accrued in the Chase standings and currently is back 169 points from leader Matt Kenseth.
So, why no spot light on this quiet contender?
“It really doesn’t matter to me,” Menard said with a wry smile. “I’m not out here to make noise.”
“I’m just out here to do the best job I can.”
And, in spite of admitting there may just be a wilder side in addition to his quiet side, Menard is all business when it comes to racing.
“There’s a wild and crazy side like there is to everybody,” Menard said. “But when we’re at the race track, we have a job to do and that’s my number one priority.”
“Seven days a week, that’s my number one priority and I’m even more focused starting Thursday night through race day on Sunday night,” Menard continued. “There’s so much riding on these races and so many people that put so much into the cars and making the whole deal happen.”
“You feel bad if you don’t do your part and make something happen.”
Menard is definitely trying to make something happen at the track and in the Chase. But, like so many other drivers, he realizes that he needs at least one win, and maybe more, to have a realistic chance.
“We’re a long ways out of tenth,” Menard said. “We don’t have any wins and those other guys do.”
“We need to win at least a race and if we stay where we’re at, we might be OK,” Menard continued. “But we’d be even better with a few wins.”
“So, we have to get a little bit more aggressive and try and make something happen.”
While Menard focuses on one race at a time, he cannot quite get that Chase out of his mind. In fact, he has been cogitating about it all since the off-season.
“In the big picture, you are always thinking about the Chase,” Menard said. “That’s what we’ve been thinking of since last August and throughout the off-season.”
“But you do have to take it one race at a time and not think too far ahead,” Menard continued. “You have to go out every weekend and do the best job you can.”
“If you lose focus of your week to week, you might lose track of the big picture too,” Menard said. “We take it week by week and try to make something happen.”
One of those races where Menard was trying to make something happen was last weekend at Daytona. In spite of a late race wreck and several trips to his pits for repairs, Menard still managed to quietly pull of a top-15 finish.
“I don’t know,” Menard said. “I’m not a real big fan of that type of racing just because you have to manage your temperatures so much and you have to position yourself at the end.”
“We were sitting in a pretty good spot winding down,” Menard continued. “It was five laps to go and we had kind of a run.”
“I probably should have taken it but decided it was still too early,” Menard said. “And the next lap, we got wrecked.”
“So, it was just one of those deals that was kind of frustrating,” Menard continued. “Anytime you have 43 cars that close together three-wide around a fairly narrow track, bad things happen.”
Menard has also been quietly busy since Daytona, testing the past few days at Nashville. And surprisingly, this driver really enjoyed it.
“We tested at Nashville this past week,” Menard said. “We were just trying to develop ideas and areas to get better in the future. It was nothing specific but a lot of things in general.”
“Any day in a race car is a good day for me,” Menard continued. “I’m a big fan of testing and wish we’d do it more often.”
“The problem is that we don’t have enough people to do it on a regular basis,” Menard said. “We have to take a lot of our road guys and that takes away from the shop effort and burns them out.”
“For me, it’s easy because I like testing.”
From Daytona to Nashville, Menard will test his skills this race weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. And while Menard is fond of the ‘Magic Mile’ it has not been magical as far as great finishes for the quiet driver.
“It’s a fun track to drive,” Menard said. “If you can get your car working just a little bit better than the other guy on the bottom and keep that drive off, that’s how you make passes.”
“The fast line is higher and the passing line is kind of lower, which is opposite for a lot of tracks.”
Menard will be quietly tackling NHMS with Chassis No. 349. This particular No. 27 Chevrolet chassis was last used at Martinsville in April.
“New Hampshire is very similar to Martinsville, but just a lot bigger,” Menard said. “It’s a stretched out Martinsville.”
“The same principal applies though,” Menard continued. “You use a lot of brakes. There are very tight corners and long straightaways.”
Although the chassis that he is using from Martinsville finished 26th there, Menard is hoping it will be better at New Hampshire, where his best finish has been 20th in the September 2011 race.
“This has been a horrible track for us in the race,” Menard said. “We’ve qualified well but we’ve had horrible finishes.”
“Without a doubt, we want to improve on 20th,” Menard continued. “If we come through with a top-10, I’d be pretty happy.”
Menard acknowledges that many factors play a part in racing in the ‘Granite State.’ So, he and his team are keeping a careful eye on weather and on mechanical problems as well.
“Weather a lot of times comes into play up here,” Menard said. “You practice under one condition and race under another.”
“That makes it difficult to be able to predict what the track’s going to do,” Menard continued. “That’s bit us in the past.”
“We’ve had some brake issues in the past and some other things happen over the year,” Menard said. “So, if we don’t have brake problems, knock on wood, and the weather’s going to stay consistent, we should have a good run.”
“I like this track,” Menard continued. “It hasn’t been good to me but I’ve run well in the Nationwide car and contended for wins.”
“I feel like I know how to get around the track and it’s time to put 301 laps together,” Menard said with quiet confidence. “That’s the difficulty every week and we just haven’t done it here….yet.”
