Paul Menard has been running very well lately apart from a 26th-place finish last week in Sonoma. Back at an intermediate track this weekend, the 38-year-old won his first NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series pole of the season at Chicagoland Speedway.
Menard was the fastest in both the first and third rounds of qualifying for the Overton's 400 (2:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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"My guys did a hell of a job today," Menard told NBCSN after his run. "We weren't very good in practice, we did a mock run I was so loose I had to abort it so we never really got a true mock run, but the car had speed in all three of those rounds, we got a little too loose in Round 2 and adjusted for it and Round 3 drove like Round 1, so it was good."
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Ryan Blaney will start second and Chase Elliott third. Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer round out the top five after a series of failed post-qualifying inspections shuffled the field.
The cars of Martin Truex Jr. (qualified 12th), Denny Hamlin (qualified fourth), Jimmie Johnson (22nd) and Chris Buescher (23rd) all failed inspection. Their qualifying times were disallowed, and they'll line up at the rear of the field in positions 36-39.
Additionally, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (24th) will move to the rear for the green flag because of an unapproved adjustment, per NBCSports.com.
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Earlier in the day, Menard finished eighth in the Overton’s 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Chicagoland, under brutally hot conditions that saw the temperatures in the cockpits of the race cars reach 150 degrees.
Between the race and Cup qualifying, Menard used the brief break to recover.
“After the race, I went back to the hauler — I'm on my fourth or fifth different pair of underwear," Menard quipped. "Just been keeping it fresh, I guess. Drank some pickle juice, a lot of ice packs and I feel pretty good.
"Pickle juice gives you all your salt back. It’s an old wives’ tale, I guess, but we did it in football all the time, and it seemed to work. I hadn’t drunk pickle juice in a while, but I thought today was a good day to do it."
Material from the NASCAR Wire Service was used in this report.
Starting lineup for the Overton's 400 at Chicagoland Speedway
Position, car number, driver, make, speed
1. (21) Paul Menard, Ford, 180.012 mph.
2. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 179.880 mph.
3. (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 179.748 mph.
4. (41) Kurt Busch, Ford, 179.545 mph.
5. (14) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 179.491 mph.
6. (10) Aric Almirola, Ford, 179.259 mph.
7. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 179.093 mph.
8. (24) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 179.057 mph.
9. (20) Erik Jones, Toyota, 178.826 mph.
10. (19) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 176.315 mph.
11. (4) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 178.761 mph.
12. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, 178.731 mph.
13. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 178.489 mph.
14. (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 178.047 mph.
15. (88) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 177.754 mph.
16. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 177.684 mph.
17. (31) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 177.288 mph.
18. (42) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 177.223 mph.
19. (47) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 177.061 mph.
20. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 176.373 mph.
21. (6) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 176.557 mph.
22. (43) Bubba Wallace #, Chevrolet, 176.378 mph.
23. (38) David Ragan, Ford, 175.890 mph.
24. (95) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 175.827 mph.
25. (13) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 175.467 mph.
26. (34) Michael McDowell, Ford, 174.306 mph.
27. (15) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 174.087 mph.
28. (32) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 174.020 mph.
29. (23) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 173.902 mph.
30. (99) Kyle Weatherman, Chevrolet, 170.740 mph.
31. (00) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, 170.412 mph.
32. (72) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 169.194 mph.
33. (51) BJ McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 169.099 mph.
34. (7) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 168.471 mph.
35. (66) Timmy Hill(i), Toyota, 167.567 mph.
36. (78) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 0.000 mph.
37. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 0.000 mph.
38. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
39. (37) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 0.000 mph.
# Rookie.
(i) Ineligible for Cup Series points.