Paul Menard

Infobox NASCAR driver
Name = Paul Menard
Birthdate = birth date and age|1980|8|21
Birthplace = Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Cup_Car_Team = 15 - Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
Previous_Year = 2007
Prev_Cup_Pos = 34th | Best_Cup_Pos = 34th - 2007
Cup_Top_Tens = 2
Cup_Poles = 1
First_Cup_Race = 2003 Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen (Watkins Glen)

Prev_Busch_Year = 2007
Prev_Busch_Pos = 43rd
Best_Busch_Pos = 6th - 2005 & 2006
Busch_Wins = 1
Busch_Top_Tens = 37
Busch_Poles = 2
First_Busch_Race = 2003 Trace Adkins Chrome 300 (Nashville)
First_Busch_Win = 2006 AT&T 250 (Milwaukee)
Last_Busch_Race = 2007 Yellow Transportation 300 (Kansas)

Prev_Truck_Year = 2003
Best_Truck_Year = 42nd - (2003) (Craftsman Truck Series)
First_Truck_Race = 2003 GNC 200 (Milwaukee)
Last_Truck_Race = 2007 Kroger 250 (Martinsville)
Truck_Top_Tens = 1
Updated_On = July 4, 2008

Paul Menard (born August 21, 1980) is a NASCAR driver currently competing in the Sprint Cup Series driving the #15 Menards Chevrolet Impala SS for Dale Earnhardt, Inc.. He is the son of Menards founder John Menard, Jr., whose company is his sponsor.

Early career

Menard's racing career began to take shape at the age of eight when he won the Briggs Junior Class Championship in his native Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He later won the Briggs Medium Class Champion before working his way up the racing rungs. He began ice racing at the age of 15 and won 10 International Ice Racing Association events in his career. He continues to compete in IIRA events in and around Wisconsin.

In 2000, Paul began racing a limited schedule in the ARCA ReMax Challenge finishing 13th in points. During his rookie season in 2001, he earned a pole and victory at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, finishing ninth in points.

The 2002 season saw a mixed bag of ReMax Challenge (two poles, seventh in points), SCCA Trans-Am (one front-row start, four top-10 finishes), Grand-Am Cup (victories at Fontana and Phoenix) and the NASCAR Southwest Tour. He capped his season in thrilling fashion in the latter series with a dramatic last-lap pass of veteran Ken Schrader for the Phoenix victory.

The 2003 season was even busier when Menard joined Andy Petree Racing to compete in NASCAR Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck Series events while still competing in ARCA.

In his first ARCA start at Salem, Ind., he qualified second and finished fourth. Later that year, he started on the pole at Winchester, Indiana, and then scored his first ARCA victory at Talladega. He also registered top finishes of ninth in the Busch race at Indianapolis Raceway Park and eighth in the Truck race at the Kansas Speedway.

NASCAR career

In 2004, Menard began the NASCAR Busch Series season driving the No. 33 Menard’s Chevrolet. But due to a lack of performance, he moved from Andy Petree Racing to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. 10 races later, Menard won his first career pole position. With Dan Stillman as crew chief beginning in 2005, they started out by leading 57 laps at Daytona. Winning the Bud Pole Award at Talladega also had them running up front until getting caught up in a wreck.

Menard got his first top-10 and top-five by placing fifth at the Kentucky Speedway. From there, the team went from 20th to the top-10 in points before finishing sixth on the season.

In 2006, driving the #15 car part-time for DEI, Menard scored his first Top-10 finish in the NEXTEL Cup Series by coming in seventh place at the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Menard also won his first Busch Series race on June 24 at his home track of the Milwaukee Mile by holding off a late race charge and bump from NEXTEL Cup regular Kevin Harvick. Harvick eventually caused a multi-car wreck attempting to bump Menard out of the way. Menard finished off 2006 with a sixth place finish in the standings, tying his best finish in the standings last year (2005). He scored 16 top-10 finishes and 7 top-5 finishes in the Busch Series.

In 2007, Menard made his full-time Cup debut. Most of the year was a struggle stemming from the #15 car's position outside the top-35 spots in owner's points. This led to a failure to qualify for 6 of the 36 races. However, after DEI's merger with Ginn Racing, the owner's points were transferred from Sterling Marlin's #14 car to Menard who was then locked in to the rest of the races. His best finish of 2007 was in the Citizens Bank 400 where he finished 12th. In the Busch Series, he picked up 5 top-5 finishes. After the fall race at Charlotte, in which Menard and Tony Stewart made contact on pit road, a feud between the drivers ensued, with Tony Stewart criticizing Menard's career, saying

"You can have your father buy your ride and write DEI a big check, but you can't buy talent. And that's what John Menard's been good at his whole life, is just buying success. He's bought his son a Nextel Cup ride and he's just got enough talent to just be in the way most of the time."

In 2008, Menard won his first Sprint Cup Series pole at Daytona International Speedway and has remained in the top 35 in owner's points for the entire season so far.

2008 will be Menard's last year at DEI, as he and the Menards sponsorship will move to Yates Racing for 2009.

External links

* [http://aolsvc.sports.aol.nascar.com/drivers/dps/pmenard00/bg/ Profile on NASCAR.com]
* [http://www.daleearnhardtinc.com/content/motorsports/t_driver_11Busch.aspx Dale Earnhardt Inc. Profile]
* [http://menardsracing.net/ Team Menard]
* [http://menardsracing.net/drivers_pmenard.html Paul Menard's Team Menard Profile]
* [http://www.racing-reference.info/driver?id=menarpa01 Drivers statistics at racing-reference.info]
* [http://www.menardfansite.com Paul Menard Fansite]
* [http://www.paulmenard15.webs.com Menards Racing]