Menard qualifies well on Truck debut.

Paul Menard bounced back from last weeks gutting failure to qualify at the Infineon Raceway on what would have been his Winston Cup debut to post a strong top-20 qualifying effort for what WILL be his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut this weekend.

Far from leaving his head in a spin at the sheer quantity of different machinery he has already sampled in 2003, Menard took to his Turtle Wax sponsored Chevrolet Silverado like a duck to water as he qualified 17th (out of 39) for the GNC 200 at the fabled Milwaukee Mile.

Menard's lap of 30.518 seconds was a shade quicker than his best practice lap earlier Friday at the Milwaukee Mile, confirming his place in the field for the ninth round of the 2003 Craftsman Truck Series. In addition to his newest mount, Menard has already raced in ARCA, NASCAR Busch and Trans-Am competition in 2003 in addition to practicing and qualifying for last Sunday's Dodge/Save Mart 350 Winston Cup event.

"Not super happy with the lap, but we'll take it," said Menard. "The truck was pretty loose on my first lap - actually, I almost lost it coming to the green at one point. The tires came in for the last lap though, which was our best of the day so far. Obviously would have liked to be faster, but we have improved as the day has gone on.

"For our first weekend in the trucks, I'm pretty happy about that. We focused a lot on race setup when we tested here and I feel like we'll be better Saturday than we were today which is what counts anyway. I've got some people coming in from Turtle Wax for the race so we want to shine when the flag drops for sure."