Defy The Odds: How Paul Menard Overcame Foot Injury To Race At Charlotte

On the day after last season’s NASCAR All-Star Race, Paul Menard was enjoying the early summer weather at his North Carolina home when things suddenly went wrong.

Menard, walking down by the lake that backs up to his house, stepped on a piece of metal and cut his right foot wide open.

When he arrived at the emergency room of a local hospital, the doctor told him there was no way he’d be able to race in the Coca-Cola 600 – which was just six days away.

But despite a whopping 22 stitches in his foot, Menard defied the odds to race in NASCAR’s longest event of the year – and it took more than a typical week of preparation to make it happen.

Menard’s doctors were worried the stitches would somehow be pulled out as the driver put pressure on the pedals during the race, so the team designed a carbon fiber inlay to fit inside an oversized shoe.

Next, they drilled holes in the shoe and placed a blower at Menard’s feet. The fear was if Menard’s skin got too moist, the stitches might come out; the air flowing into the shoe would theoretically keep that from happening.

“We tried a lot of different bandages to keep it dry,” Menard said recently, looking back on the ordeal. “Obviously, 600 miles in Charlotte at the end of May, you’re going to sweat a lot.”

Though the E.R. doctor said Menard wouldn’t be able to race, the driver saw a foot specialist a few days later. The second doctor was also “pretty reluctant” about letting him race, Menard said.

“But I had him sign a note,” he added with a grin.

The foot didn’t hurt Menard during the event, but he could feel the skin tighten when he pressed the pedals. There was enough concern about the stitches coming out that the team formulated a plan: Should Menard’s foot start to feel wet, a crew member would lean into the car and shine a flashlight at the driver’s feet to see if any blood was seeping out of the shoe.

“It was in the back of your mind, like, ‘Are my stitches going to pull out? Am I going to start bleeding and the pedals get slippery?’” Menard said. “Thankfully, that never happened.”

Unfortunately for Menard, the effort to get him ready to race only partially paid off: Halfway through the 600 miles, he got loose and spun out, making contact with the wall. With damage to the rear of the car, he finished 29th.

As for the foot, the stitches stayed in for another few weeks and it didn’t fully heal until the week before the Brickyard 400.

It was then when Menard broke through and drove to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.