BROOKLYN, Mich. -- The rolling Irish Hills of Brooklyn, Michigan, offer the sort of charm that the Midwestern United States promises in storybooks. Simple and calm, the area is decorated with restaurants, antique stores and ice cream shops that offer local flavors to NASCAR tourists in town for the race.
For Midwestern native and driver of the No. 27 Chevrolet, Paul Menard, racing at Michigan International Speedway brings a sense of nostalgia, as his hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is a little over eight hours west of the two-mile track.
"We always like coming to Michigan because it's fairly close to home," Menard said in his hauler Friday morning. "... Looking forward to going to the Friday night fish fry tonight. That's something I miss from Wisconsin is the Friday night fish frys and Michigan has them, so I'm going back to my roots a little bit."
The return to his Midwestern roots also seems to transition to the race track: In Menard's last five Sprint Cup starts at Michigan, he has recorded four top-10 results, with three fourth-place finishes in that stretch. The Richard Childress Racing driver credits his team for the strong finishes.
"(We bring) good cars for one, our aero program is pretty strong," Menard said. "ECR brings good horsepower. We just balance out the cars around that. Michigan is a groove-and-a-half track, so the line doesn't change much since the repave. But it's getting older and it's weathering, you can start to search around a little bit, but it still all comes down to fast cars and track position."
The extra laps in the XFINITY Series car don't hurt, either. Menard also ran Saturday afternoon's Menards 250 presented by Valvoline in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, a race sponsored by his primary backer Menards and Grand Marshaled by his father/Menards founder John Menard. Menard ultimately finished third, but will the additional seat time help for Sunday's FireKeepers Casino 400 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – and ultimately the rest of the season?
The members of the Paul Menard Empire certainly hope so.
A force to reckon with
"Determined. Resilient. Focused. Ridiculously good looking. All proper descriptors of who the Empire is," The Paul Menard Empire Twitter handle tweeted out Friday evening. "This weekend in Michigan is where we start to claim what is ours. To find that edge, push beyond it and claim the success on the other side.
"When you have the power of neon you can do anything. And we will do everything."
The Paul Menard Empire: A quirky and eccentric Twitter handle dedicated to Twitter-less Menard. Started in 2010 by pharmacist Jory Fleischauer, the account offers a gathering pond for the eclectic No. 27 fans to express their neon pride.
"(When I first started this) someone was like, this is like a movement and I was like no, it's not a movement -- it's an empire," Fleischauer said in an interview on Saturday morning. "I initially started a Facebook page ... and for the longest time it was just kind of our circle of friends, people we knew here and there. And then when he went to RCR the next year and really started running well ... We all support him now, mainly because what's happened over the last few years, but it's weird, it's weird to explain to people."
A fellow Wisconsin native, Fleischauer's daily tweets pick up on all the attributes that No. 27 fans cherish: His car's bright neon coloring, his quiet nature, that full beard.
Goodness, they love that beard.
"Paul Menard may have won the trophy for the race but he really deserves one for that beard," said one NASCAR fan via Twitter after Menard's Road America win in 2015.
Their neon knight
With more than 2,000 followers now, the Paul Menard Empire seems to have encouraged the Menard brand in recent years. Fleischauer attends races, passes out lanyards to fans and even had shirts made for the No. 27 pit crew, reading "Paul Menard is my homeboy."
"I think it might have had a small part in it," Fleischauer said, regarding his impact on the growth and shaping of the fans. "(Menard) doesn't do any social media things, Menards in general doesn't do any social media things ... so it's kind of like a vacuum out there compared to most drivers and most sponsors where they're heavily involved in stuff. When I started doing my thing, I kind of stepped into that vacuum and filled that void a little bit.
"My thing is, I try to have as much fun with stuff as I can ... Paul's a good guy for something like this because he is so quiet and you can play with it and you have so many different angles you can go off. Prior to that, I don't think there was any centralized place for fans to unite over him and his abilities and his success. From a small scale, I kind of started putting that together and giving people something to gravitate to."
While Menard himself -- whom Fleischauer calls the Empire Emperor -- doesn't partake in any social media himself, he's well aware of the Empire and its impact.
"They're dedicated, I dig it," Menard said. "They like the neon, they like the facial hair. I'm kind of clean-shaven right now for me anyway. But it's a loyal fan base and (I'll) try to get them some results."
And when he does put together another win, the Empire will be ready for a celebration rivaling Mardi Gras.
"Whenever Paul wins, we have a Menard-i Gras celebration," Fleischauer said. "They usually last a whole week."
Call the Empire eclectic, call it strange – but you can't call it dispassionate.
Call it neon pride.