The Final Lap with Kerry Murphey

7-Paul Menard Holds Off Jeff Gordon to Win Brickyard 400

Surprise winners in 2011, take three. For much of its 19 years, Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Brickyard 400 had been won by the greatest names in NASCAR: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jarrett, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, bill Elliott – champions all. No first-time winners in the bunch – until this July. Midwesterner Paul Menard wound up kissing the start-finish line bricks after prevailing in a torrid battle with four-time Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon. Menard joined Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne and SHOWTIME Southern 500 winner Regan Smith to score a first victory on the schedule’s largest stages.

Hendrick Motorsports Lands Three Indy Contingency Awards

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Aug. 2, 2011) – Despite coming up one position shy in his bid for a fifth win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jeff Gordon’s strong run in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 presented by BigMachineRecords.com sent a message that he is a serious challenger for a fifth championship, and earned the veteran driver two of Hendrick Motorsports’ three post-race contingency awards.

Gordon, who started the event in eighth, led four times for a total of 36 laps around the famed 2.5-mile track. Charging from 16th position to second in the final 20 laps, Gordon wheeled his No. 24 Drive To End Hunger Chevrolet to a solid second-place finish. He has scored top-10 finishes in 14 of the 18 races held at Indianapolis, the most by any driver.

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Paul Menard stretches fuel to win Brickyard 400

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

(July 31, 2011)

INDIANAPOLIS — Years ago, as a garage rat at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Paul Menard dreamed of winning a race at the vaunted Brickyard.

On Sunday, the dream came true. In a season full of improbable first-time winners in NASCAR’s foremost races, Menard, 30, stretched his fuel mileage and held off charging Jeff Gordon to win the Brickyard 400 at the 2.5-mile track.

The victory was Menard’s first as a Sprint Cup driver, and it catapulted him into the conversation for a wild-card berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Gordon, who closed rapidly over the final five laps, crossed the finish line .725 seconds behind the season’s fourth first-time winner.

“My first year here was 1989, that I can remember anyway—I think I was here when I was 3 or 4 years old, too,” said Menard, whose father, John Menard, has fielded IndyCars for a variety of drivers. “I just spent a lot of time in the garage area. I didn’t miss an Indy 500 from 1989 to 2003.

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