Private company

Team Menard

IndyCar Series team

Team Menard was an auto racing team that competed in the Indianapolis 500, CART, Indy Racing League, NASCAR Cup Series, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team was owned by Menards founder, John Menard Jr. Founded in 1980 to compete in CART, from 1991 to 1996 they modified their own Buick V6 engines for racing. This combination won pole for the 500 with Scott Brayton in 1995 and 1996; Tony Stewart used this combination for the first part of his 1996–97 IRL Championship.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1980Founded1
Paul Menard 2008 Menards Peak Chevy Impala
Photo: Freewheeling Daredevil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons4

Team Menard was an auto racing team that competed in the Indianapolis 500, CART, Indy Racing League, NASCAR Cup Series, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team was owned by Menards founder, John Menard Jr. Founded in 1980 to compete in CART, from 1991 to 1996 they modified their own Buick V6 engines for racing. This combination won pole for the 500 with Scott Brayton in 1995 and 1996; Tony Stewart used this combination for the first part of his 1996–97 IRL Championship. With more stringent regulations, the team continued to shine, winning the 1999 championship with Greg Ray. However, with the influx of former CART teams to the IRL in the early 2000s, Team Menard struggled to compete for wins and the team merged in 2004 with Panther Racing, although their car continued to carry Menard's colors and be driven first by Mark Taylor, who was then replaced by Townsend Bell. In 2005, Menard's was an associate sponsor for another team and the former Menard No. 2 car driven by Tomáš Enge carried no identification to its Menard lineage. For 2006, the No. 2 car was dropped by Panther and all vestiges of the once dominant Team Menard lineage disappeared until the spring of 2008 when Menards became a primary sponsor on the No. 20 Vision Racing Dallara driven by Ed Carpenter in the IndyCar Series.2

The story

CART (1980–1995)

Herm Johnson (1980–1986)

Jim Crawford (1990)

Gary Bettenhausen (1990–1993)

Kevin Cogan (1991)

Tom Sneva (1991–1992)

Al Unser (1992)

Nelson Piquet (1993)

Eddie Cheever (1993, 1994)

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Geoff Brabham (1993–1994)

Scott Brayton (1994–1995)

Buddy Lazier (1995)

Arie Luyendyk (1995)

IRL/IndyCar Series (1996–2003)

Scott Brayton (1996)

Eddie Cheever (1996)

Danny Ongais (1996)

Mark Dismore (1996–1997, 2002)

Tony Stewart (1996–1998)

Robbie Buhl (1997–1998)

Robby Gordon (1999–2000, 2002)

Greg Ray (1999–2001)

Jaques Lazier (2001–2003)

Raul Boesel (2002)

Vítor Meira (2002–2003)

P. J. Jones (2002)

Richie Hearn (2003)

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (2000–2001)

Bryan Reffner (2000–2001)

David Starr (2001)

From Wikipedia’s article on Team Menard, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1980Founded Founded1

Sources

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