NASCAR Sprint Cup Series - Pure Michigan 400
August 18, 2013 - Michigan International Speedway
Paul Menard, No. 27
Paul Menard will pilot chassis No. 428 at Michigan International Speedway. This No. 27 Chevrolet SS was raced previously this season at Indianapolis Motor Speedway where Menard drove it to a 12th- place finish. Menard has 14 starts at Michigan International Speedway. His best start of fourth came earlier this season and best finish of fourth took place in 2011. The Wisconsin native has completed 2,764 of 2,810 laps attempted (98.4 percent) at the Brooklyn, Mich., track, leading 15 of them. Starting 10th, Menard survived a green-white-checkered finish collecting a ninth-place result in last year's event at Michigan International Speedway.
Michigan (International Speedway) is the fastest track we go to since they repaved it last year. We are averaging close to 200 mph, which hands down makes it one of the fastest places we race. It's a challenging track, because the tires that we run there are hard and the track has a lot of grip. You're always on kind of a knife's edge through the corners because the groove is very narrow right now. The more we run at Michigan the wider the groove will get, and we will be able to do more passing. I think we already started to see that from last year to the first race this year. The groove has definitely increased and we could race harder and race side-by-side. I expect this weekend's race we will see even more side-by-side racing. We had a pretty good car in the June race, and I'm sure 'Slugger' and the guys will have another fast NIBCO/Menards Chevrolet prepared for this weekend. - Paul Menard
ESPN's live coverage from Michigan International Speedway begins Sunday, Aug. 18 at Noon Eastern Time. The race will also be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.
