Paul Menard, driver of the DEI No. 15 Menards Impala SS, met with members of the media in the Daytona International Speedway Media Center during day one of the second session of Preseason Thunder Testing and 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500.
Q. Talk about how the first day of testing went and expectations for 50th anniversary of Daytona 500.
PAUL MENARD: “We have learned a lot. It is nice to come down for the second session; two of our team cars were here last week. They ran through a lot of different aero things, chassis things. Coming down here this week, we learned a lot from that so we were a couple steps ahead of where we would have been otherwise. Unloading we weren’t very fast at all, toward the bottom of the sheet.. We have kept working on it. Doug Randolph, my new crew chief, we are still learning each other. This is our second test together. He got the car going over a half of a second faster from where we unloaded, which at a plate track like this is big. We have two more days of it.
“I will take any of them (Daytona 500 wins). Being the 50th, obviously with the history here, it is pretty special. I grew up around the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 was right there along side of the Indy 500. I grew up an Indy car guy, but the last about 15 years, I have really gotten in to the stock car racing and watching Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin and all of those guys, go at it was how I started my racing season. Growing up in Wisconsin where in February there isn’t a whole lot to do, so we would watch the Daytona 500, then go play around on our snowmobiles. It is a privilege to be in it.”
Q. On potential of Jeffrey Earnhardt.
PAUL MENARD: “He is funny. We did a road course test together at VIR, he was getting ready for Lime Rock and we were getting ready for Watkins Glen. I was supposed to drive his Busch East car, I was supposed to sit in the seat, but the kid is this (makes small width gesture with hands-laugher) I could probably get a leg in there. I went out in my Busch car and he was following me in his Busch East car and trying to learn the lines and he picked up something like 20 seconds a lap, it was pretty cool. He is a neat kid. Definitely a chip of the old block, it is cool to see him to well.”
Quotes were courtesy of a Chevy Racing press release.
