Paul Menard

Born in 1980, Paul Menard decided to move away from his family's home improvement store and explore the world of car racing.

He began at Karts at the age of 8 and was soon looking at ice-racing in Wisconsin, something he still does in his free time. Paul had moved up through the local, regional and national racing levels to compete at the NASCAR Midwest and Southwest Series for three years, between 2000 and 2002. He steadily improved in his standings each year as he finished 13th in 2000, 9th in 2001 and 7th in 2002. His year ended with a bang as he won at Phoenix in the NASCAR Southwest Series. He also took part in the Trans Am Series in 2002 and in 5 events, he had four top-5 finishes. His Grand Am series was even better as won the two events that he entered in the same year.

In 2003, he moved into the 2003 NASCAR Nationwide Series with six events for Petree. He finished 60th in the standings without any noteworthy results. With Petree, he also took part in five NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series events.

He got his first full season in 2004 where he competed in 14 events, finishing 23rd in the 2004 NASCAR Nationwide Series standings. He participated in the Sprint Cup in just one event and starting at 43rd place, he finished the race in 29th place. In 2005, he finished sixth in the 2005 NASCAR Nationwide Series standings with six top-five finishes and 15 top-ten finishes. He ended the season with a bang as he got top-ten finishes in 15 of the last 20 events. His Sprint Cup Series was limited to one race again as he qualified at 42nd place and finished at 27th.

In 2006, he again repeated his 2006 NASCAR Nationwide Series standings although this time 'round, he had seven top-5 finishes, 16 top-ten finishes and his maiden race win as well. He had seven rounds of racing at the Spring Cup level and he had a wonderful 7th place finish in Atalanta to boast of.

He got his first full season at the Sprint Cup in 2007 and a 12th place finish was his best performance in the season. He now gets another opportunity to show his prowess and considering Paul's ability to make things happen, we are surely in for one heck of a season.