Menard, Carter pairing up at Yates Racing for 2009

If veteran crew chief Larry Carter earned his "master builder's certificate" for what he engineered in the second half of the 2008 Sprint Cup season with Jamie McMurray at Roush Fenway Racing, he has an even more ambitious project ahead of him.

After two years working with McMurray on the No. 26 Ford, in 2009 Carter will move to Roush Fenway's close ally, Yates Racing, to serve as crew chief for third-year Cup Series driver Paul Menard on Yates' new third team, which will field No. 98 Fords.

Carter

"Obviously, I'm really excited," Menard said. "Seeing what [Carter's] done the last half of the season and the momentum that they've built, they've definitely hit on something and having him come over to Yates Racing is definitely going to strengthen that whole program.

"He can bring a lot of his expertise over and maybe we can carry that momentum that he built up and roll us into Daytona [2009 season opener] on a high note."

"I enjoy the challenge of building a team, and working with a younger driver," Carter said. "I'm looking forward to working with Paul. He's done some good things and he certainly hasn't proven that he can't do this, which is not something you can say about some of the people in this garage area."

Carter, 46, and Menard, 28, join the organization that fielded the No. 28 Ford for Travis Kvapil, which finished 23rd in the 2008 drivers' standings, and the No. 38 Fusion for David Gilliland, which was 27th in points.

Carter joins a crew chief cadre that includes the veterans Todd Parrott, who was a key element in Yates Racing's history, and Cully Barraclough. Menard said he was looking forward to that, and the Roush Fenway affiliation.

Yates Racing gets its chassis from Roush Fenway and is a partner with Roush, building the highly regarded Roush Yates Engines.

"It's huge to have that connection," Menard said. "Obviously the Roush Fenway organization has won a lot of races this year and contended for the championship. They have a strong engineering base, so for Yates to contract that out and share some of that information is huge, because we know what cars are running out front every week and we haven't had that in the past."

Menard, who finished 26th in the drivers' standings, had a career best second-place finish this season at Talladega in the fall.

A native of Eau Claire, Wis., Menard has made all but one of his 75 career Cup starts for Dale Earnhardt Inc. He also scored his lone victory in the Nationwide Series in 2006 at The Milwaukee Mile. Menard won his first career Cup pole in July 2008 at Daytona.

Carter, who got his start as a crew chief in 1999 working with his uncle, legendary crew chief and owner Travis Carter, won his first Cup race in 2004, working with former Cup champion Rusty Wallace at Penske Racing.

Larry Carter scored both his and McMurray's second career Cup victory last summer at Daytona, then facilitated five top-seven finishes for McMurray in this season's last six races -- including three consecutive third places to end the season -- despite knowing they would part company at the end of the season.

From the season's midpoint, at Daytona, Carter and McMurray charged from 23rd in the standings to finish 16th. McMurray logged all four of this season's top-five finishes in the last six races of the season, and eight of his 11 top-10s.

In the Chase for the Sprint Cup, McMurray finished second to Roush Fenway teammate David Ragan in the unofficial "Chased-Out standings," for drivers not in the Chase during the 10-race playoff.

"If you really looked back and paid attention to our team, for the last three months we've had just really fast cars and just didn't really have much to show for it, and for the last two months we've had things just kind of go our way and then, obviously, the last month has just been incredible," McMurray said. "Larry has just done an incredible job -- a great job.

"Even when I was with Ganassi and could contend to make the Chase, I didn't run as well as I am right now. It's by far the best I've run in my career. It just seems like every week you have a chance to win, so it's a lot of fun to get to run that well."

Menard's looking forward to the same thing when he hooks up with Carter.

"Robert Yates Racing was around for a long time, but Yates Racing itself was a start-up team [in 2008]," Menard said. "But they obviously have a lot of talent and a lot experience over there, both crew chiefs and team members, so with that whole program getting put together kind of late last year and early this year, I think they've done remarkably well, considering the building process they had to go through.

"Now, we've got a couple months where we can build it even stronger yet. For being a young team, they've got a lot of experience, so I'm looking forward to it."