Paul Menard

At 44 years old, Paul Menard has this physical status:

John Paul Menard (born August 21, 1980) is an American former professional stock car racing racer.

In the No. 2 class, he last competed full-time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Wood Brothers Racing' 21 Ford Mustang is retiring from regular competition after the 2019 season.

He also competed part in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, leading the No. 10. For Team Penske, there are 12 Mustangs available.

He is the son of Midwestern home improvement entrepreneur John Menard Jr., the father of the Menards chain.

Personal life

Menard, a native of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is the son of Menards founder John Menard Jr. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, majoring in commerce. He and his wife Jennifer currently reside in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area. On March 18, 2014, the couple had their first child, a daughter. In November 2017, the family welcomed another child, a boy. Menard is a Roman Catholic and a fan of power metal music. Paul Menard does not have a social media page, and he avoids it because "it is nothing useful and there's so much more to life than seeing other people's lives behind a screen."

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Racing career

When he won the Briggs Junior Karting Class Championship in his hometown Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Menard's racing career began at the age of eight. He later became the Briggs Medium Class Champion before moving on to higher level competition. He began ice racing at the age of 15 and has won ten International Ice Racing Association championships in his career. He is still competing in IIRA competitions in and around Wisconsin. He raced legends cars on short tracks in Wisconsin in the summers. He borrowed Bryan Reffner's Late Model for a week after winning his heat race and finishing fourth in the feature. He decided to build his own late model and rode the car three to four times per week. Menard said he preferred stock cars over Indy Cars in a chat with Motorsports Minute because there were no feeder system for Indy Cars in his native Wisconsin.

He began racing in 2000 with a limited schedule in the NASCAR Re/Max Challenge Series, finishing 13th in points. In 2001, he earned a pole and win at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, finishing ninth in points. Menard was featured in the ReMax Challenge (two poles, seventh in points), SCCA Trans-Am (one front-row debut, four top-ten finishes), Grand Amcup (victories at Fontana and Phoenix), and the NASCAR Southwest Tour during the 2002 season. Ken Schrader, a veteran, capped his season in the Phoenix series with a last-lap pass.

While still competing in ARCA, Menard joined Andy Petree Racing to compete in NASCAR Cup Series, Busch, and Truck Series events in 2003. He qualified second and fourth in his first ARCA debut at Salem Speedway. He got his first ARCA victory at Talladega Superspeedway later this year, beginning on the pole at Winchester, Indiana, and then scoring his first ARCA victory. He also finished ninth in the Busch race at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and eighth in the Truck race at the Kansas Speedway.

Menard debuted the No. 77 in 2004, driving the No. 86. Chevrolet is a brand new product line. In the No. 71 midway through the season, he migrated to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. 11 Chevy. Despite no top-tens and missing seven races, Menard gained his first pole position at Kansas Speedway and ended 23rd in points. They began leading 57 laps at Daytona with Dan Stillman as the crew chief in 2005. Also winning the Bud Pole Award at Talladega, they were running up front before being trapped in a car. By finishing fifth at the Kentucky Speedway, he earned his first top ten and top-five. The team went from 20th to the top-ten in points before finishing in sixth place overall for the season.

In 2006, the No. 2 was driving the No. 1 on the international charts. Menard, 15, achieved his first top-ten finish in the NASC Nextel Cup Series by finishing seventh at the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in seventh place. On June 24, Menard claimed his first Busch Series race at his home track of the Milwaukee Mile by denying a late race charge and a raise from Cup regular Kevin Harvick. Harvick was involved in a multi-car accident attempting to push him out of the way. Menard reached his sixth-place finish in the standings in 2006, tying his best finish in the standings last year (2005). In the Busch Series, he had 16 top-10 finishes and 7 top-5 finishes.

Menard's first full-time Cup season was in 2007. He failed to qualify for six races this season, but after DEI's acquisition with Ginn Racing, the owner's points were transferred from Sterling Marlin's No. 57. Menard was a 14-car racer who was then forced into the remainder of the schedule. In the Citizens Bank 400, where he finished 12th, he had his best finish of the year. He has achieved five top-five finishes in the Busch Series. A feud between the drivers erupted after the fall race at Charlotte, in which Menard and Stewart were in touch on pit road; Stewart had been driving for John Menard in the Indy Racing League's early days.

Menard claimed his first Sprint Cup Series pole at Daytona International Speedway in early July and remained in the top 30 in owner's points for the entire season. Menard had the best run of his career leading laps in the fall and returned home with a solid second-place finish. In the other case, he was up front for a good portion of the day. He ended up the year with $3,559,130 in earnings and finished 26th in points standings, a career high.

Menard climbed to the No. No. 1 for the 2009 season. Yates Racing runs 98 Ford Fusion. Menard made modest progress in 2009, running in the top ten times at a point, but then had to have problems. For example, he crashed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway while running 7th and was involved in a wreck that had only 40 laps to go. As a result of these issues, the team is in danger of losing out of the top 30 in points standings for the majority of the year. Menard's best finishes in the Aarons 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, as well as the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, and a 15th-place finish in the Southern 500. Menard, a tenth of the day's best, started tenth and ended in the top ten for the majority of the day, only to find his car tightening up near the end of the season and end 19th. Menard was the only driver to not finish in any of the series at the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In the final point standings, Menard finished 31st.

His No. 1 is No. 102 for the 2010 season. Due to Yates Racing's merger, the 98 team was moved to Richard Petty Motorsports. In his first appearance with RPM, he came in 13th in the 2010 Daytona 500. He then went on to have top-20s at Las Vegas and Fontana. With a fifth place finish in the following series, followed by a few more top 20s, Atlanta Motor Speedway Menard's second highest finish in his career Cup series finish. He dropped from the Top 12 in points after that. After being in the top ten for the longest time, he came in eighth at Charlotte. In the circuit's 19th race at Chicagoland Speedway, Menard also ranked in another top ten. He finished 7th overall at Dover International Speedway in September with a 7th-place finish. He came from second position at Kansas the previous week. Although most journals rated him around 30th in the 2010 preseason, he came in 23rd in points.

In early 2010, Menard rode in the No. 1 in the No. tennent. In the Rolex 24 hours at Daytona International Speedway, 90 Daytona Prototype for Spirit of Daytona Racing is the most popular race in the Rolex. In 2010, he came close to winning the Nationwide Series race in Wisconsin in his hometown of Wisconsin. On the final lap by road course specialist Tony Ave, Menard was running 7th when he was spun out. Menard appeared to be to blame, but a video taken by a fan showed Owen Kelly was to blame.

In 2011, Menard changed to Richard Childress Racing, driving the No. 201. 27 people have been arrested in the United States on 27 different occasions. In the prestigious Indianapolis Motor Speedway's inaugural Brickyard 400 on July 31, 2011, Menard won his first and only Sprint Cup event in his 167th start. He did so by coming to his last pit stop with 36 laps to go. He started late, but Jamie McMurray led him to victory after 9 laps to go. With four more laps remaining, he recovered the lead and held off Jeff Gordon, the winner of the inaugural Brickyard 400, but with enough fuel to do so, he maintained his lead. He is the first member of the Menard family to win in any case that was held at the track. In the 2011 season, Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, David Ragan, and Marcos Ambrose were among the first-time winners.

When Menard spun in the waning laps in September 2011, Richmond, Menard, and RCR became the center of the scandal. His crash was believed to be deliberate, with the intention of assisting his colleague Kevin Harvick, who later won the race against Jeff Gordon, who would have won if the warning had not come out.

Menard did not do well in 2012, and that was disappointing. He crashed during the Aaron's 499 at Talladega and went winless for 2012. He barely improved when he was in Chase for the Sprint Cup for the first time in 2013. With just a few races remaining before the Chase began, he was knocked out of the Chase early in the Coke Zero 400. Menard's tire exploded after stopping in his pit box; Menard wrote, "About a lap later, they told me I was on fire." "I blew right off the damned wheel," I screamed over.

Menard's career high in 2014 (and his first season) and dominated the chase for the bulk of the regular season, but two consecutive 18th place finishes at Atlanta and Richmond (the final race of the regular season) put him out of contention.

In June 2014, Menard won the Nationwide Race at Michigan for his first NNS victory since 2006. With four laps to go, he claimed victory after Joey Logano blew a tire.

Menard won the pole for the race by drawing in the 2015 Sprint Unlimited at Daytona. He led the first 7 laps until he was involved in a big accident, finishing 21st. Matt Kenseth later won the competition. Menard stayed in the top five of Auto Club and Talladega, receiving five top tens and 22 top 15s. He appeared in the Chase for the first time in his career, largely because he had just one DNF (a blown engine in Texas), winning the final spot by 17 points over Aric Almirola. He was disqualified in the first round due to Matt Kenseth's two-race suspension, but Menard defeated him and finished in 14th place in the standings. Menard beat Road America in August 2015, leaving off Blake Koch and Ryan Blaney for his third Xfinity Series victory. The win was Menard's biggest of his career, excepting the fact that he had grown up a few miles from the track.

After surviving several major ones, Menard finished in a career-best 3rd place in the 2016 Sprint Unlimited.

Menard survived wrecks in the Daytona 500 and claimed 5th place finish after a few cars ran out of gas. He finished 25th in Atlanta this week. Menard placed in the GEICO 500 at Talladega, finishing ninth, his second top ten of the year. Menard was up front late and home third, just behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Clint Bowyer in the Coke Zero 400. The majority of the carnage in the Brickyard 400 was salvaged, but a late big one was fatal.

Menard was announced as the replacement for Ryan Blaney in the No. 66 on July 26, 2017. Starting in 2018, Wood Brothers Racing Ford was a racing team.

Menard earned his second straight NASC Series Pole Award at Chicagoland Speedway on June 30, 2018.

Menard announced on July 12, 2019 that he had signed a new deal for the 2020 season, hinting that he intends to remain with Wood Brothers. After the 2019 season, Menard announced his retirement from full-time racing on September 10, 2019.

Menard will return to NASCAR and race in his fifth part-time vehicle for the team, the No. 2021, on May 17, 2021. In the series's latest race at Circuit of the Americas, 66, is 66. It's his first NASCAR appearance in his semi-retirement and his first Truck Series appearance since 2005, when he competed in the No. 66 championship in the spring Martinsville, Georgia. Billy Ballew Motorsports is 51.

Motorsports career results

(Bold) (Bold – Pole position earned by qualifying time) Italics – pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

(key): (Bold) – By the qualifying time, he had been in pole position. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

1 Ineligible for series points in this season.

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