NASCAR Sprint Cup Series - Hollywood Casino 400
October 6, 2013 – Kansas Speedway
Starting from the eighth position, Paul Menard and the No. 27 SPLASH/Menards team brought home their eighth top-10 finish of the season after crossing the stripe seventh at Kansas Speedway on Sunday. In the early stages of the 267-lap event, Menard relayed to the crew that his Chevrolet was tight through the center of the corners and on exit. Though he was struggling with minor handling issues, Menard ran lap times faster than the leader and was scored in third at lap 87. The Eau Claire, Wis., native maintained a position in or near the top five until coming down pit road for a routine-pit stop on lap 171 for right-side tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. Shortly after pitting, Menard relayed to the team that the No. 27 machine was tight and he was scored in ninth at lap 185. As the circuits wore on, the car's handling improved and Menard was back inside the top three at lap 200. The Richard Childress Racing driver remained in third until pitting under caution one final time for fuel and right-side tires on lap 229. Several cars elected to take fuel only and Menard lined up for the restart in ninth. With 35 laps remaining, Menard improved two positions to finish seventh and now sits in the 17th position in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver championship point standings heading into Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The No. 27 team put together a great SPLASH/Menards Chevrolet this weekend at Kansas Speedway. We were pretty good all weekend and the car was fast. We had a good qualifying run and maintained a spot in the top 10 for most of the race. We had a better car than what our finish showed, but we just got behind on that last pit stop having to take fuel and couldn't make up much ground in the remaining laps. All-in-all it was a solid day for our team and I'm happy with our results this weekend. - Paul Menard
Race Notes
- Started - 8th, Finished, - 7th, Laps led - 0, Points - 17th
- Menard had an Average Running Position of third, was the second Fastest Driver on Restarts and fourth Fastest Driver Early in a Run.
- Menard also spent 98.1 percent of Laps in Top 15 ranking him third.
