Although John Menard spent millions of dollars trying to win the Indy 500 for over three decades; it was his son Paul who got to victory lane first -- at the Brickyard 400.
"I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid," said Paul Menard "this is for my dad. I have a lot of emotions right now. I can’t believe we won Indy."
And even more ironic this was Paul Menard’s first win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup division in 167 races. There were many critics who said that Menard was a driver with moderate talent and was the son of a wealthy man who could afford to buy a ride for him.
When he was signed to drive a fourth Richard Childress Racing team the skeptics wondered why Childress would risk his reputation with such a driver after he previously folded a fourth team.
Richard Childress admitted that he "caught a lot of flak when we decided to go to four teams. I knew if the right situation came along, we'd win." Which was a politically correct way of avoiding the issue that in Menard’s career, before joining Childress – 147 races – he had only two top-five finishes. But this year Menard has had a big improvement.
In 2011, Menard has four top-five finishes including Sunday’s victory at the Brickyard.
Between his first big NASCAR win and his father’s three decades of struggles it was a very emotional day for the Menard family.
Paul was so young when his father first brought him to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway he had to be smuggled into the garages. He’d watch the crew work on his father’s David-like Indy Car teams trying to battle the Goliath-like Penske and Ganassi organizations.
Other than the underdog aspect of the fourth first-time winner in NASCAR this year, following Trevor Bayne at the Daytona 500, Regan Smith at Darlington, and David Ragan, at the Coca Cola 400 at Daytona, the race was an unremarkable fuel strategy event.
The final caution was waved on lap 120 and, that’s when the chess game of when to pit started. Jamie McMurray, Menard, Tony Stewart and others pitted on lap 123 – but gambled badly because they wouldn’t get the mileage to go to the end.
Stewart took the lead on lap 135, but, had to pit again on lap 145. He explained “come to find out we were three short and there was no way we could make up three. A lap and a half I think I could have got him, but there is no way we could have got him three laps. We inherited the lead anyway because we stayed out and everybody else in front of us came in so we knew it was a borrow lead.”
Menard had led earlier, but, finally looked ready to challenge as he took over then. But last year’s winner Jamie McMurray takes the lead on 152 as Menard’s crew chief, Slugger Labbe, told him to save fuel.
McMurray had to go into conservation mode and with three laps to go, Labbe’s calculation told Menard to go for it. Jeff Gordon, a four-time winner of the race, was also able to try to catch Menard, but, just ran out of time and settled for a second place finish.
“I thought that was the guys we were going to race and then when (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) told me there were guys that were going to try to stretch out fuel mileage all I could do was drive as hard as I could. Every time I got to a car that was saving fuel they kind of held me up a little bit and made it a little more difficult for me to pass so I knew we were weren't going to quite get to Paul (Menard), it was really about him running out of fuel. We tried as hard as we could to put pressure on him and I've got to say as disappointing as it is to not win this race it sure was great to run that good and I've got to congratulate Paul Menard. I don't think there is anybody in this garage area that appreciates a win here at the Brickyard more than Paul. He grew up here as a kid and I think that's pretty special, pretty cool."
McMurray who finished fourth behind Regan Smith said “we were a couple laps short on fuel so all of us were saving gas there at the end and I wanted to be the guy out front because I felt like it was going to be hard to pass when we all decided to go.” Only he never got the go signal. But Menard did and got the win.
"I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid," said Paul Menard "this is for my dad. I have a lot of emotions right now. I can’t believe we won Indy."
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| Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR |
And even more ironic this was Paul Menard’s first win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup division in 167 races. There were many critics who said that Menard was a driver with moderate talent and was the son of a wealthy man who could afford to buy a ride for him.
When he was signed to drive a fourth Richard Childress Racing team the skeptics wondered why Childress would risk his reputation with such a driver after he previously folded a fourth team.
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| Photo: nascar.com |
Richard Childress admitted that he "caught a lot of flak when we decided to go to four teams. I knew if the right situation came along, we'd win." Which was a politically correct way of avoiding the issue that in Menard’s career, before joining Childress – 147 races – he had only two top-five finishes. But this year Menard has had a big improvement.
In 2011, Menard has four top-five finishes including Sunday’s victory at the Brickyard.
Between his first big NASCAR win and his father’s three decades of struggles it was a very emotional day for the Menard family.
Paul was so young when his father first brought him to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway he had to be smuggled into the garages. He’d watch the crew work on his father’s David-like Indy Car teams trying to battle the Goliath-like Penske and Ganassi organizations.
Other than the underdog aspect of the fourth first-time winner in NASCAR this year, following Trevor Bayne at the Daytona 500, Regan Smith at Darlington, and David Ragan, at the Coca Cola 400 at Daytona, the race was an unremarkable fuel strategy event.
The final caution was waved on lap 120 and, that’s when the chess game of when to pit started. Jamie McMurray, Menard, Tony Stewart and others pitted on lap 123 – but gambled badly because they wouldn’t get the mileage to go to the end.
Stewart took the lead on lap 135, but, had to pit again on lap 145. He explained “come to find out we were three short and there was no way we could make up three. A lap and a half I think I could have got him, but there is no way we could have got him three laps. We inherited the lead anyway because we stayed out and everybody else in front of us came in so we knew it was a borrow lead.”
| |
| Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR |
Menard had led earlier, but, finally looked ready to challenge as he took over then. But last year’s winner Jamie McMurray takes the lead on 152 as Menard’s crew chief, Slugger Labbe, told him to save fuel.
McMurray had to go into conservation mode and with three laps to go, Labbe’s calculation told Menard to go for it. Jeff Gordon, a four-time winner of the race, was also able to try to catch Menard, but, just ran out of time and settled for a second place finish.
“I thought that was the guys we were going to race and then when (crew chief) Alan (Gustafson) told me there were guys that were going to try to stretch out fuel mileage all I could do was drive as hard as I could. Every time I got to a car that was saving fuel they kind of held me up a little bit and made it a little more difficult for me to pass so I knew we were weren't going to quite get to Paul (Menard), it was really about him running out of fuel. We tried as hard as we could to put pressure on him and I've got to say as disappointing as it is to not win this race it sure was great to run that good and I've got to congratulate Paul Menard. I don't think there is anybody in this garage area that appreciates a win here at the Brickyard more than Paul. He grew up here as a kid and I think that's pretty special, pretty cool."
McMurray who finished fourth behind Regan Smith said “we were a couple laps short on fuel so all of us were saving gas there at the end and I wanted to be the guy out front because I felt like it was going to be hard to pass when we all decided to go.” Only he never got the go signal. But Menard did and got the win.