Paul Menard was the top Raybestos Rookie in today’s first NEXTEL Cup Series practice session at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, logging the seventh-best overall speed. Menard was the top Raybestos Rookie qualifier for the race and will start 17th in Saturday night’s Bank of America 500.

PAUL MENARD IN THE No. 15 MENARDS/RAIN-X CHEVROLET: HOW GOOD IS THE CAR? “It’s good. We didn’t do a whole lot there, really. We just kind of got a baseline and waited for it cool off tonight so we can get a good read on the car.” WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO HAVE A GOOD RUN HERE? “I’d take a good run anywhere. It doesn’t matter where we’re at but here, obviously, I’ve got my family in town and the family from the race shop and the guys that work there and their families are all here. It’s a little extra motivation.” WAS THE CAR LOOSE OR TIGHT? “Just a little bit loose. We can make it tight in the middle but it’s primarily loose back to the gas and some of that might be the track temp. I mean, as it cools down that should help it, I hope.” A LOT OF DRIVERS RAN THE TOP GROOVE IN THIS PRACTICE SESSION. DO YOU THINK THAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE RACE? “I think so. I never did go up there. I was going to wait until tonight and do some longer runs and work with that. Our car was working really good at the bottom so I mean, I had no need to go up there. But I’ll probably try it out at some point.” WERE YOU PLEASED WITH TIRE WEAR IN PRACTICE? “Yeah, I mean, these tires are rocks and they don’t wear out. We ran probably 10 laps and they still have the center line on ‘em.” IS THIS A TRACK WHERE YOU WISH YOU WERE IN THE BUSCH RACE TONIGHT? “We originally going to run this race and decided not to at the last minute. We just got focused on our Cup effort. It does distract you from the big picture but at the same time laps are laps and it always helps.” HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO RUN WELL AND BE COMPETITIVE IN THESE LAST FEW RACES? “Try to get some momentum built up. I mean it’s going to be a whole different deal next year. We’ll run the COTs at tracks like this. The Atlanta test is going to be huge and we’re looking forward to that.” WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PREPARE FOR THE 2008 SEASON? “Build some new cars. The car that we’ve been running had been built early on in the year and they’re pretty heavy and we’ve learned a lot on these COTs. Just build new cars, lighter cars and get more adjustability in ‘em.”