BUSCH: Richmond II: Paul Menard qualifying notes

Menard Posts Top-10 Qualifying Effort at Richmond for Friday Night's NASCAR Busch Series Emerson 250

RICHMOND, Va. (Thursday, Sept. 9, 2004) -- Paul Menard posted his second-best qualifying effort of his NASCAR Busch Series season this afternoon, earning a fifth-row starting spot in Friday night's Emerson 250 at Richmond International Raceway.

Menard and the #11 Menards/Energizer Chevrolet of Dale Earnhardt, Inc., circled the three-quarter-mile tri-oval at 126.310 mph (21.376 seconds), good for the 10th-fastest time among 57 car-and-driver combinations attempting to make Friday night's 43-car starting grid. The effort was surpassed this season only by his career-best Busch qualifying effort of eighth at Talladega Superspeedway last April.

Earlier in the day, Menard was fastest among all competitors in the day's first and only practice session. Due to morning rains that delayed the start of Busch Series and NASCAR Truck Series on-track activity today, Busch Series Happy Hour was cancelled.

NASCAR Nextel Cup regular Kasey Kahne grabbed the pole at 127.678 mph, with Kyle Busch qualifying second and Robby Gordon third.

Race time Friday is 8 p.m. EDT with a live broadcast set for the TNT cable network.

PAUL MENARD

"I knew we put in a good couple of qualifying laps at the time, but being the second car out and the weather looking like it was going to cool pretty quickly, I had a feeling the pole was out of the question. Still, we felt our lap would stand up pretty well, and a top-10 is certainly a good starting spot for tomorrow night. After a rough weekend at California, we really needed a pick-me-up, and being the fastest in practice was definitely a good way to kick off the weekend. We worked just about exclusively on race setup, and ran some pretty consistently quick laps, so it will be nice to start toward the front and be in position to capitalize on that."

-mr-