RAYBESTOS® ROOKIE CONTENDER PAUL MENARD FEATURE FOR THE DAYTONA 500 NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES RACE AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2007.

PAUL MENARD, No. 15 MENARDS/PEAK ANITFREEZE CHEVROLET: “We had two good tests at Daytona and Vegas, better than what we thought we’d have, actually, time-wise and the racecars drove really good. We’d make a change to the car and it’d react to it, either good or bad, and you build your notebook from there.”

YOU TESTED VERY WELL AT LAS VEGAS. “We were pretty happy with Vegas. Like I said, the car drove really good and we could make changes to it and it would react accordingly and that’s going to be key when we go to California, Vegas and Atlanta all right in a row. So if we get our intermediate track down that’s three out of the five right there as far as getting locked in top-35 in points. Weather is going to be a determining factor in some of these races, I’m sure, as far as if qualifying gets rained out or not. The Daytona 500, you have two opportunities to make the race or you have two opportunities to not make the race. We’re going to do our best to get in the first time on speed and if we have to race our way in and do it the hard way we’ll do that. I think you have to be one of the fastest two of the non-locked in guys. It could be 36th, it could be fifth; we just don’t know. During the test here last month, the car drove awesome. We drafted really good. The car would suck up. It would drive down the hill and get underneath somebody. What we were lacking was the single-car speed, for one lap, pure speed. I think we learned some things. The 8 car, Dale Jr., was real good here by itself so we went back to the shop and kind of looked at that car and applied it to our car. Hopefully we get some of the speed out of it without losing the drivability.”

DO YOU KNOW BEFORE YOU COME DOWN HERE THAT NO ONE IS GOING TO DRAFT WITH YOU? “It’s part of the deal. I’m a Raybestos Rookie and in the Busch Series, I didn’t want to draft with rookies. There’s a lot of Raybestos Rookies that are going to be out there and hopefully some of the veterans will draft with me over them.”

DO YOU LOOK FOR HELP IN THE DRAFT FROM YOUR TEAMMATES? “You don’t rely on it, but if they can, great. You have to do your own thing. You have to pick the line that’s moving and you have to get the runs that you can and do the best you can with those runs. If you’re helping each other out in the process, that’s awesome, but you’ve got to kind of do your own thing.”

WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD SEASON FOR YOU? “Raybestos Rookie of the Year title and a top-20 in points.”

HOW SPECIAL WOULD IT BE TO BEAT JUAN PABLO MONTOYA FOR RAYBESTOS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR? “It’s not just Juan, though. It’s David Ragan, David Reutimann and there are some guys with a lot more stock car experience than Juan does. Juan is one of the best drivers in the world though, so he’s going to learn. But I think it’s going to be a little bit of a curve for him to start off with. Midseason I think he’ll come on pretty strong but these other guys are going to be just as tough.”

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BUSCH SERIES AND NEXTEL CUP? “The main difference between Cup and Busch is just the level of competition. Instead of 10 or 15 cars that could win every week in the Busch Series there’s 30 cars that can win now in the Cup series. You don’t drive the cars any differently. You set them up with very small differences in the setup. It’s just a matter of longer races. It’s more of a thinking man’s game on the Cup side than just go out and run your fanny off for 200 miles. It’s different but it’s not that different. I’m going to see how the first few races go and hopefully gain some respect of the veterans and go from there.”

HAS MARTIN TRUEX JR. GIVEN YOU ANY ADVICE AS YOU PREPARE FOR YOUR RAYBESTOS ROOKIE SEASON? “We just did a show on Sirius Satellite Radio just talking about where Martin was last year versus where I am this year. Martin had a team that had been together a long time but they were a Busch team moving up to Cup so it was essentially a rookie team. This year I’ve got Tony Eury Sr. [crew chief] and a lot of young guys on our team but a lot of experienced guys, too. It’s probably a little bit more well-rounded, more experienced team that I have going into ’07 than Martin did going into ’06.”

DO YOU GET ANY CONFIDENCE RUNNING WELL IN THE TEST AT LAS VEGAS? “I feel better being on the top part of the board than the bottom part of the board, for sure. The Daytona test, we weren’t that good by ourself but in the draft we were really good. That gives you a lot of confidence for the 150 if you have to race your way in. It doesn’t give you a lot of confidence for single-lap qualifying, which I hope we get in that way. Vegas is going to be big because you go to California, Vegas and Atlanta all in a row. It looks like we have our intermediate track program down fairly well. We learned a lot at the Cup test out there and learned something in the Busch test the last couple of days. Building up that program, too, that’s going to kind of be the bread and butter of the season. The majority of our races are on one-a-half-mile tracks, two-mile tracks that you need a downforce body on it. The first five races are interesting. You’ve got a speedway race, you’ve got three intermediate tracks and you’ve got the new COT car coming out in Bristol which we’ve tested quite a few times and we’re fine tuning on and we’re getting the bugs worked out of and we feel pretty good about that, too.”

IF YOU KNEW YOU WERE IN WITH A QUALIFYING TIME YOU’D FEEL BETTER ABOUT THE 150. “Our guys worked so hard over the winter to get a good race car. It definitely drives really good. We were top of the board in drafting and that attributes to being able to suck up. If you’re running at the top you can turn the wheel and cut down and drive underneath somebody at the bottom.”