Menard’s Future at RCR still in doubt

Paul Menard

Paul Menard enters the season in a contract year with Richard Childress Racing. After a disappointing 2012 effort, he needs a much better performance to ensure his Sprint Cup Series future. But Menard is not concerned about the business aspect of the sport right now and remains focused on simply improving his effort. "I'm sure those questions will be coming throughout the year," Menard said. "I hope by the middle of summer, we'll have an answer for everybody." Despite the advantage of having his family's home improvement warehouse company's funding for sponsorship, Menard says he hasn't discussed joining any other team with or without crew chief Slugger Labbe.

"Honestly I haven't had discussions with anybody," he said. "Slugger is a great friend and a hell of a crew chief." Menard thinks the off-season changes in personnel that took place at RCR will pay dividends on the track. The hiring of Dr. Eric Warren as competition director and the addition of more engineers are two reasons for Menard's confidence in his team and the new Cup car.

"Getting everybody on the same page and working in the same direction has translated to this 2013 car, trying to get everything we can to build up a notebook from all the testing we've done," he said. "We've got good speed. I think the test at Las Vegas in a couple weeks is going to be one of the biggest tests of the year, just to understand what these cars do." Motor Racing Network