Paul Menard

After years of rolled eyeballs and harrumphs of disdain, NASCAR Nation could only shake its collective head and watch the scene unfold – Jeff Gordon scrambling after a late fuel stop in an attempt to catch the No. 27 Chevrolet of Paul Menard as the laps wound down in the Brickyard 400. With three laps remaining, Menard roared past defending winner Jamie McMurray and went on to cross the line of bricks to end what had become a better-than-thirty-year family quest to win at Indianapolis. The tears shed by Paul Menard’s father – the billionaire, John Menard, who owns a chain of Midwest-based home-improvement stores – said it all: all good things come to those who wait – despite what assumptions we in the grandstands (and the garage area, and the media center) had.

And don’t forget to add that good things come to those who work hard, as well, because getting to Victory Lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has not been easy, regardless of the vast Menard fortune