There's an unusual face near the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. Or, at least, it seems unusual since this driver has never made a Chase for the Sprint Cup in his NASCAR career.
But the reality is that, in recent years, the top ten has been a relatively normal home for little-heralded Richard Childress Racing driver Paul Menard.
As long as we're talking about the first few races in a season, at least.
While Menard's current overall ranking of ninth might seem surprisng, the truth is he's been ranked among the top ten drivers after four races for four straight years.
No other driver, not even Jimmie Johnson, can say that.
As a guy, Menard tends to be laid back and rather unexcitable. When he won his lone Cup Series victory, the 2011 Brickyard 400, it was arguably one of the more chill victory lane celebrations in NASCAR history.
That demeanor is mirrored out on the track. While he's far from flashy, he rarely finds himself in trouble, either. He's a virtual lock to finish inside the top 20 every single week.
Menard isn't likely to elicit pit road speeding penalties in consecutive weeks like Kyle Busch has the last two races. He certainly won't be found getting into Twitter tiffs with his competitors like former teammates Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano did after Bristol.
The bad news, however, is that if history repeats itself for a fourth time, Menard isn't likely to hang around the top ten for much longer.
His average final points finish during his streak is 18.7, including a career-best mark of 16th in 2012.
Still, in spite of that, Menard's consistently solid starts over the last few years deserve mention. Now he simply needs to translate his knack for starting strong into a season-long affair.
It's far too early to tell if a Chase run is likely or not. The upcoming race at Auto Club Speedway could be a possible sign one way or another.
The two-mile oval in Fontana, California is statistically one of Menard's worst tracks; he's never finished better than 18th there and he has a lower career average finish at only two other places: Loudon, New Hampshire and Richmond, Virginia.
If he can manage a career-best finish there — and certainly if he could perform like teammate Kevin Harvick, who has four straight finishes of seventh or better including a 2011 win at Fontana — then we can certainly take him seriously as a dark horse threat for a spot in the Chase.
Until then, Paul Menard's solid start to 2013 isn't much more than that: a solid start that makes for interesting trivia and is impressive in and of itself, but won't figure into the overall storyline of the season unless he finds improvement going forward.
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