2009-Present
For the 2009 season Paul Menard and his sponsorship (Johns Manville, Moen, Richmond Water Heaters, Turtle Wax, Energizer, Pittsburgh Paints, NIBCO, Zecol, Peak, Vertus, Sylvania, Quaker State and Menards) moved over to the number 98 Ford Fusion operated by Yates Racing. Paul 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. Paul's best finishes include two 13th place 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. At the second Dover race, Paul showed his skills by starting 10th and running 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. Paul ended up finishing 31st in the final point standings.
For the 2010 season his #98 Menard's team moved over to Richard Petty Motorsports, due to its merger with Yates Racing. In his first start with RPM he finished 13th in the 2010 Daytona 500. He then went on to have Top 20's at Las Vegas and Fontana. The following race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Paul posted his second highest career Cup series finish with a fifth place showing followed by a few more top 20's. 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 at Chicagoland Speedway. At Dover International Speedway in September he ended up with a 7th place place finish. The following week he started from the second position at Kansas. He finished a mildly surprising 23rd in points. Many publications rated him around 30th in the 2010 preseason.
Paul Menard is to drive the fourth entry for Richard Childress Racing in 2011. RCR shut down its fourth team after lack of funding after the 2009 season. Presumably the Menard sponsorship makes up for that lack of funding. He will use the #27. Menard has opted to run for the 2011 Sprint Cup Championship, choosing not to earn drivers points in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (which he will drive a part-time schedule in the Kevin Harvick Inc. #33 Chevy). In early 2010, Menard drove in the number 90 Daytona Prototype for Spirit of Daytona Racing in the Rolex 24 hours at Daytona International Speedway. So far throughout 2011 with Richard Childress Racing in the #27 Menards Chevrolet Impala, Menard has broken the top 10 in the Sprint Cup points standings, the highest in his Cup career.
On July 31, 2011, Menard won his first Sprint Cup race in his 167th start, in the Brickyard 400 at the prestigious Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He did so by making his last pit stop with 36 laps to go. He led late, but with nine laps to go he was passed by Jamie McMurray. With four to go he regained the lead and held off Jeff 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, or the first person driving sponsored by Menards to win at Indianapolis, in any event held at the track. He also joins Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith, David Ragan, and Marcos Ambrose as first-time winners in the 2011 season.
Later at Richmond in the Wonderful Pistachio 400, his teammate Kevin Harvick, led most of the race and won after Paul Menard accidentally spun out as Jeff Gordon took the lead from Harvick; it brought a caution out. It was speculated by Gordon that Paul Menard spun his car on purpose so that the caution would come out for Harvick to win, but NASCAR officials said that there was nothing to be suspicious about and awarded Harvick the victory. However despite the call by NASCAR to this day 60% of the NASCAR world fans and even some drivers of the sport have still speculated and studied the radios between RCR and Menard to indicate that the caution was on purpose but nothing has been proven.
In 2012 Paul Menard unlike his first year on Richard Childress Racing had bad luck until he had his first top ten at the chase races at Kansas and Phoenix. Menard in his time off helps his father in their next racing plans including studying and supporting his father's ownership with fellow driver Robby Gordon in Robby Gordon Motorsports.
Read more about this topic: Paul Menard