Paul Menard

Paul Menard is a NASCAR driver born in 1980 who competes in the Busch Series driving the #15 and #11 Chevrolet Monte Carlos Medards for the team Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Paul Menard is son of John Menard, Jr, founder of Menards, the chain of home improvement stores based in Midwestern United States. His career began very early. He was just eight years old when he won the Briggs Junior Class Championship in Wisconsin. However, that was just the beginning of a successful career as a driver. When he was 15 years old, he began ice racing and won 10 International events throughout his career.

2000 was the year in which he began racing in the NASCAR ReMax Challenge with a limited schedule. He finished the challenge 13th in points. The next year, he triumphed at Road America in Wisconsin and finished 9th in points. The season 2002 saw a mixed of SCCA Trans-Am (1 front-row start, 4 top-10 finishes), Grand-Am Cup (victories at Fontana and Phoenix), the NASCAR Southwest Tour, and ReMax Challenge (2 poles, 7th in points). Even busier that the previous year, in 2003, Paul joined Andy Petree Racing to compete in Busch, Craftsman Truck Series, and NASCAR Nextel Cup events while competing still in ARCA.

The next season, 2004, he began competing in the NASCAR Busch Series driving the Chevrolet #33 of Menards. However, he had to move from Andy Petree Racing to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. because of a lack of performance. In spite of this, he soon found his groove with his team and achieved his first Bud Pole Award. He got his first top-10 and top-5 when placed 5th at the Kentucky Speedway. In 2006, he got his first top-10 at the Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway when he finished 7th.