NASCAR Driver Profile 2010: Paul Menard

Paul Menard has bounced from team to team over the years but as long as the family name is Menard, he will have a ride in today's NASCAR. Menard was the only survivor to move over to Richard Petty Motorsports when Robert Yates Racing made the decision to merge in December.

Menard brings the most important ingredient in NASCAR-money.
Menard's qualifications to join the Richard Petty Motorsports team were for financial reasons, not talent. Menard brought his family sponsorship over to the Petty team to round out the four driver team. Menard's is a family owned home improvement chain in the Midwest.

Menard has new teammates but sticks with Ford.
Menard's teammates will be Kasey Kahne, Elliot Sadler and AJ Allmendinger. The team will drive Ford powered cars, prepared by the Yates mechanics. The Richard Petty Motorsports team is switching from Dodge to the Fords to try to find the speed they have been lacking.

Menard did win a race a race at his home track in Milwaukee.
Paul Menard started racing for Andy Petree when he broke into what was then called the Busch Series. Soon after, Dale Earnhardt Inc. signed him up to race in the Busch series in 2004. Menard did capture a win at the Milwaukee Mile, his home track, racing in the NASCAR junior circuit and finished sixth in the standings in his last full season, before graduating to NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Menard has only one top 5 in three years of racing NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Menard has struggled since moving up to the top of the NASCAR ladder, scoring only one top five in three years of competition. If it were any other driver, they would have been released from their contract but with Menard's sponsor being his own family, it won't happen anytime soon. The pressure now rests on Richard Petty Motorsports to make Menard successful.

Sammy Johns will try his hand at making Menard productive.
Menard will have a new crew chief to begin 2010, it will be veteran crew chief Sammy Johns, Johns has been with Ray Evernham since he created his team and came along when Evernham merged with Richard Petty. Johns started his career with Jimmy Spencer in 1990 and has worked as a crew chief for Ken Schrader, Jeremy Mayfield, Casey Atwood and most recently AJ Allmendinger.

Menard can consider a top 20 in the final standings a success.
Menard finished 31st in the final 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup and 26th in the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup final standings and will most likely finish right in the top 30 again in 2010. That will be okay with Menard's, the sponsor as long as they keep selling their home improvement supplies.

sources:
www.espn.go.com
www.nascar.com
www.pitroadscene.com