John Paul Christian Menard (born August 21, 1980) is an American semi-retired professionalstock car racing driver who currently competes full-time in theTrans-Am Series, driving the No. 3Ford Mustang for3GT Racing. Menard is the 2024Trans-Am Series champion in the TA class.

Paul Menard
Menard at the2018 Can-Am 500
Born	John Paul Christian Menard (1980-08-21)August 21, 1980 (age 44) Eau Claire, Wisconsin, U.S.
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg)[1]
Achievements	2024SCCA Trans-Am TA Series Champion 2011Brickyard 400 winner
NASCARCup Series career
471 races run over 16 years
2019 position	19th
Best finish	14th (2015)
First race	2003Sirius Satellite Radio at the Glen (Watkins Glen)
Last race	2019Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead)
First win	2011Brickyard 400 (Indianapolis)
Wins Top tens Poles 1 69 2
NASCARXfinity Series career
220 races run over 16 years
2019 position	84th
Best finish	5th (2010)
First race	2003Trace Adkins Chrome 300 (Nashville)
Last race	2019ROXOR 200 (Loudon)
First win	2006AT&T 250 (Milwaukee)
Last win	2015Road America 180 (Road America)
Wins Top tens Poles 3 102 6
NASCARCraftsman Truck Series career
8 races run over 3 years
2021 position	45th
Best finish	42nd (2003)
First race	2003GNC 200 (Milwaukee)
Last race	2021United Rentals 176 (Watkins Glen)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 2 0
Statistics current as of November 4, 2024.

Menard competed full-time in theNASCAR Cup Series from2007 to2019, driving forDale Earnhardt Inc.,Yates Racing,Richard Petty Motorsports,Richard Childress Racing, andWood Brothers Racing. He retired from full-time competition after the 2019 season. He has also competed in theNASCAR Xfinity Series in the past, including running part-time withAndy Petree Racing in2003 and2004, full-time with DEI in2005 and2006, and full-time withRoush Fenway Racing in2010. He has won 1 Cup Series race (the2011 Brickyard 400), 3 Xfinity Series races, and 1ARCA Menards Series race.

He is the son of entrepreneurJohn Menard Jr., the founder of theMenards chain of home improvement stores.

Menard's racing career began at the age of eight when he won the Briggs Junior Karting Class Championship in his nativeEau Claire, Wisconsin. He later won the Briggs Medium Class Champion before working his way up to higher level racing. He beganice racing at the age of 15 and won 10International Ice Racing Association events in his career. He continues to compete in IIRA events in and aroundWisconsin. In the summers he racedlegends cars on short tracks in Wisconsin.^[2] He borrowedBryan Reffner'sLate Model for a week winning his heat race and placing around fourth in the feature.^[2] He decided to build his own late model and raced the car three to four times per week.^[2] In an interview with Motorsports Minute, Menard said he chose stock cars over Indy Cars because there was no feeder series for Indy Car in his native Wisconsin.^[2]

In 2000, he began racing a limited schedule in theNASCAR Re/Max Challenge Series, finishing 13th in points. During his rookie season in 2001, he earned a pole and victory atRoad America inElkhart Lake, Wisconsin, finishing ninth in points. The 2002 season saw Menard compete in ReMax Challenge (two poles, seventh in points),SCCATrans-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 the latter series with a last-lap pass of veteranKen Schrader for the Phoenix victory.

In 2003, Menard joinedAndy Petree Racing to compete inNASCAR Cup Series,Busch, andTruck Series events while still competing inARCA. In his first ARCA start atSalem Speedway, he qualified second and finished fourth. Later that year, he started on the pole at Winchester, Indiana, and then scored his first ARCA victory atTalladega Superspeedway. He also had top finishes of ninth in the Busch race atIndianapolis Raceway Park and eighth in the Truck race at theKansas Speedway.

In 2004, Menard began the NASCAR Busch Series season driving the No. 33 Chevrolet. Midway through the season, he moved toDale Earnhardt, Inc. in the No. 11 Chevy. 10 races later, Menard won his first career pole position atKansas Speedway and finished 23rd in points despite no top-tens and missing seven races. With Dan Stillman as crew chief beginning in 2005, they started out by leading 57 laps atDaytona. Winning theBud Pole Award atTalladega also had them running up front until getting caught up in a wreck. He got his first top-10 and top-five by placing fifth at theKentucky Speedway. From there, the team went from 20th to the top-10 in points before finishing in sixth place overall, for the season.

In 2006, driving the No. 15 car part-time for DEI, Menard scored his first top-10 finish in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series by coming in seventh place at theGolden Corral 500 atAtlanta Motor Speedway. Menard also won his first Busch Series race on June 24 at his home track of theMilwaukee Mile by holding off a late race charge and bump from Cup regularKevin Harvick. Harvick eventually caused a multi-car wreck attempting to bump him out of the way.^{[citation needed]} 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 theBusch Series.

In 2007, Menard ran his first full-time Cup season. He failed to qualify for six races that season, but after DEI's merger withGinn Racing, the owner's points were transferred fromSterling Marlin's No. 14 car to Menard, who was then locked into 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 andTony Stewart made contact on pit road, a feud between the drivers ensued; Stewart had driven for John Menard in theIndy Racing League's early years.

In 2008, Menard won his first Sprint Cup Series pole at Daytona International Speedway in early July and remained in the top 35 in owner's points for the entire season. At Talladega in the fall, Menard had the best run of his career leading laps and coming home with a strong second-place finish. He also was up front for a good part of the day in the other. He finished up the season with $3,559,130 in earnings and finished 26th in points standings, a career high.

For the 2009 season, Menard moved over to the No. 98Ford Fusion operated byYates Racing. Menard showed limited improvement in 2009, running in the top 10 many times, only to later have problems. For example, he crashed at Las Vegas Motor Speedway while running very well, and was involved in a wreck with only 40 laps to go, while running 7th. These issues lead to the team being in danger of falling out of the top 35 in points standings for much of the year. Menard's best finishes included two 13th-place finishes in theAarons 499 atTalladega Superspeedway as well as theSamsung 500 atTexas Motor Speedway, and a 15th-place finish in theSouthern 500. At the second Dover race, Menard started 10th and ran in the top 10 for most of the day, only to find his car tighten up near the end of the race and come home 19th. At the end of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Menard was the only driver to not score a top 10 finish who ran all of the races. Menard ended up finishing 31st in the final point standings.

For the 2010 season, his No. 98 team moved over toRichard Petty Motorsports, due to its merger withYates Racing. In his first start with RPM he finished 13th in the2010 Daytona 500. He then went on to have Top 20s atLas Vegas andFontana. The following race atAtlanta Motor Speedway Menard posted his second highest career Cup series finish with a fifth place showing followed by a few more top 20s. After that, he fell from the Top 12 in points. At Charlotte, he finished eighth after running in the top 10 all race long. Menard also posted another top 10 in the circuit's 19th race atChicagoland Speedway. AtDover International Speedway in September he ended up with a 7th-place finish. The following week he started from the second position at Kansas. While most publications rated him around 30th in the 2010 preseason, he finished 23rd in points.

In early 2010, Menard drove in the No. 90 Daytona Prototype for Spirit of Daytona Racing in the Rolex 24 hours at Daytona International Speedway. In 2010 he came close to winning the Nationwide Series race at Road America in his hometown of Wisconsin. Menard was running 7th when he was spun out on the final lap by road course specialistTony Ave. It appeared that Menard was to blame, but footage captured by a fan showed thatOwen Kelly was at fault.

Menard moved toRichard Childress Racing in 2011, driving the No. 27.^[3] On July 31, 2011, Menard won his first and only Sprint Cup race in his 167th start, in theBrickyard 400 at the prestigiousIndianapolis Motor Speedway. He did so by making his last pit stop with 36 laps to go. He led late, but with 9 laps to go, he was passed byJamie McMurray. With four to go, he regained the lead and held offJeff Gordon, the winner of the inaugural Brickyard 400 in the final laps, having enough fuel to do so. He is the first member of the Menard family to win at Indianapolis, in any event, held at the track. He also joinsTrevor Bayne,Regan Smith,David Ragan, andMarcos Ambrose as first-time winners in the 2011 season.

In September 2011 at Richmond, Menard and RCR became the center of controversy when Menard spun in the waning laps. It was believed that his accident was intentional, intended to assist his teammate Kevin Harvick who later won the race against Jeff Gordon who would have won if the caution did not come out.^[4]

In 2012, Menard did not perform well. He crashed during the Aaron's 499 at Talladega and went winless for 2012. In 2013, he slightly improved when he was briefly inChase for the Sprint Cup contention. A blown engine early in theCoke Zero 400^[5] caused him to be knocked out of the Chase with a few races left before the Chase began. In the season-endingFord EcoBoost 400, Menard's tire exploded upon stopping in his pit box; Menard stated, "About a lap later, they told me I was on fire. I lost my brakes, and the damned wheel blew right off."^[6]

In 2014 Menard scored 13 top tens (a career high) and held a chase spot for most of the regular season but two consecutive 18th place finishes at Atlanta and Richmond (final race of the regular season) dropped him out of contention.

Menard won the Nationwide race at Michigan for his first NNS win since 2006 in June 2014. He won afterJoey Logano blew a tire with 4 laps to go.

In the2015 Sprint Unlimited at Daytona, Menard won the pole for the race by drawing. He led the first 7 laps until he was involved in a big wreck, finishing 21st. The race was later won byMatt Kenseth. Menard later finished in the top 5 in Auto Club and in Talladega and got 5 top 10s and 22 top 15s. He made the Chase for the first time in his career mostly because he had only one DNF (a blown engine in Texas), grabbing the final spot by 17 points over Aric Almirola. He was eliminated in the first round, but with Matt Kenseth's two-race suspension, Menard passed him and finished in a career-best of 14th in the standings. Also in August 2015, Menard took the checkers atRoad America, holding offBlake Koch andRyan Blaney for his third Xfinity Series win. Aside from the 2011 Brickyard 400, the win was Menard's biggest of his career, as Menard had grown up a few miles from the track.

In the 2016 Sprint Unlimited, Menard finished in a career best 3rd place, after surviving several big ones.

To start of 2017, Menard survived wrecks in the Daytona 500 and brought home a 5th place finish after a few cars ran out of gas. The next week at Atlanta, he finished 25th. Menard scored his 2nd top 10 of the year in the GEICO 500 at Talladega, finishing 9th. In the Coke Zero 400, Menard ran up front late and came home 3rd, barely behindRicky Stenhouse Jr. andClint Bowyer. Menard survived most of the carnage in the Brickyard 400 but crashed in a late big one.

On July 26, 2017, Menard was announced as the replacement forRyan Blaney in the No. 21Wood Brothers Racing Ford starting in 2018.^[7]

On June 30, 2018, almost 10 years to the day, Menard got his second everNASCAR Cup Series Pole Award atChicagoland Speedway for theOverton's 400.

On July 12, 2019, Menard announced he had a contract for the 2020 season, indicating that he plans to stay with Wood Brothers.^[8] On September 10, 2019, Menard announced his retirement from full-time racing after the 2019 season.^[9]

On May 17, 2021, Truck Series teamThorSport Racing announced that Menard would return to NASCAR and compete in a fifth part-time truck for the team, the No. 66, in the series' new race atCircuit of the Americas. It is his first NASCAR start in his semi-retirement, and his first Truck Series start since2007 when he competed in the springMartinsville race in the No. 51 forBilly Ballew Motorsports.^[10]

A native ofEau Claire, Wisconsin, Menard is the son ofMenards founderJohn Menard Jr. He attended theUniversity of Wisconsin-Eau Claire,^[11] majoring in business. He currently resides in theCharlotte, North Carolina, area with his wife Jennifer.^[12] The couple had their first child, a daughter, on March 18, 2014.^[13] The family later welcomed another child, a son, in November 2017. Menard is a Roman Catholic and a fan ofpower metal music. Paul Menard doesn't have any social media and he chooses to stay away from it because "it is nothing good and there's so much more to life than looking at other people's lives behind a screen."^[14]

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

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

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

• Official website
• Paul Menard driver statistics at Racing-Reference