Paul Menard drove to a hard-fought 23rd-place finish in Sunday’s 500-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Martinsville Speedway. Menard started from the 13th position and maintained a spot in the top 20 for 52 laps of competition. When the caution flag was displayed on lap 53, Menard reported the Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet was loose through the center of turns. Crew chief Justin Alexander made the call for four tires, fuel and removed a spring rubber from the right rear. Through the next 164 laps, Menard fought a loose-handling condition and chatter in the right rear which brought him to pit road four times for fresh tires, fuel and wedge adjustments. The Wisconsin native was caught up in a multi-car incident on lap 227, forcing him to pit road for damage repair to the nose of his Chevy.
The Alexander-led team confidently made repairs and kept Menard on the lead lap after five stops on pit road. Once under green-flag conditions again, the Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevy driver raced his way from 23rd to the 10th spot on lap 363 with lap times faster than the leader. Menard was caught up in an incident on lap 366 and sustained minimal damage to the nose. The Richard Childress Racing team fought hard for the remainder of 263-mile event and crossed the finish line 23rd, which moves Menard up to seventh in the driver point standings. Up next for the No. 27 team is the Saturday night event at Texas Motor Speedway on April 11th.