Paul Menard and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang came away from Sunday’s Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway with an 18th-place finish plus an additional point for a 10th-place finish in Stage One.
Menard started the race from 14th place and worked his way forward to post a top-10 finish in the first 50-lap Stage.
As the race went on, Menard had to deal with a tight handling condition and came up two positions short of scoring more points in the second 50-lap Stage.
Skies were threatening for the first two stages, but the sun came out for the final 60 laps, and that seemed to adversely affect the handling of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang.
“When Paul was in clean air he was really fast, but there was a noticeable difference in speed when he was in traffic,” Eddie Wood said. “We were tight off Turn Three, and restarts were a challenge.”
Wood said the team’s over-the-wall pit crew had another impressive outing, and complimented crew chief Greg Erwin for his call to run long during the third and final stage, a strategy that netted the team four positions.
“We made the most of what we had today, and we’ll move on to Michigan, which has always been one of our better tracks,” he said.
WBR PR
