Notebook: Patrick feeling the effects of inactivity
JOLIET, Ill.—Two weeks ago at New Hampshire, Danica Patrick dismissed the notion that infrequent participation in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series might have a significant adverse effect on her performance.
“I really don’t notice much of a difference between the first time I get in and the second time, or one weekend after another or four months,” Patrick said at the time. “It’s bike riding—a bicycle. You get back in it, the feelings are familiar, and that’s where you really have to trust your instincts in what you really need in a car and don’t make up what’s not there.”
By the time Patrick arrived at Chicagoland Speedway for her fifth Nationwide event, the tune had changed. Patrick pointed out that other drivers in the series had competed in a full complement of 17 races to her four so far.
“Here I am coming back after a couple of weeks,” Patrick said. “It’s harder to be right up to speed with them when they’re in it every week. And just the fact that I still have a lot to learn. I don’t want to make excuses. It’s hard.”
Despite wrecking early at New Hampshire, after contact from Morgan Shepherd’s Chevrolet sent Patrick’s JR Motorsports Chevy spinning into the outside wall, the IndyCar Series’ most popular driver posted her best Nationwide finish to date—30th.
She qualified 28th for Friday night’s Dollar General 300.
Burton appreciates Earnhardt’s win
The significance of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s victory last week at Daytona—in the No. 3 Wrangler Chevrolet, no less—wasn’t lost on Jeff Burton.
“I thought it was cool,” said Burton, who drives for Richard Childress, the car owner who won six Cup titles with Dale Earnhardt Sr. “Any time you see a 3 with an Earnhardt in it at Daytona, I think that has a special meaning. To a lot of fans it meant a great deal to see the 3 car win at Daytona with an Earnhardt driving it.
“That to me was it. It’s no question that he’s the most popular driver, and there is no question that people are looking for him to have success. The buzz that goes around him is incredible. It’s unbelievable. I don’t envy his position at all. I think he handles it pretty well. Any time the most popular driver wins a race, I think it’s a positive thing for those people that are fans of his.”
Edwards: No issue with Kurt Busch
After a last-lap collision with Kurt Busch’s No. 2 Dodge in last week’s Sprint Cup race at Daytona, Carl Edwards and Busch exchanged angry words near Busch’s transporter.
Busch was still blaming Edwards for the crash on Friday at Chicagoland. “I pinched Carl at the line to try and preserve sixth place; he turned right at the finish line to wreck us,” Busch said.
Edwards, however, doesn’t expect the incident to have lasting impact.
“What ended up happening is that I thought Kurt was trying to wreck me, and when I went down to talk to him, it was obvious that he thought I was trying to wreck him,” Edwards said. “I think that’s just restrictor-plate racing.
“We were both just racing hard and ended up running into each other. I don’t foresee there being any lingering issue. I was just trying to figure out what was going on.”
Busch hits his numbers at New Hampshire
LOUDON, N.H.—It was a day of positive numbers for Kyle Busch, winner of Saturday’s New England 200 Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but Danica Patrick rolled snake eyes in her return to stock car racing.
Busch pulled away after a restart on Lap 183, when Joey Logano—in second place at the time—spun his tires and allowed series points leader Brad Keselowski to surge into second place. Busch beat Keselowski to the finish line by .644 seconds.
Thirty-four laps earlier, on Lap 166 of 200, Busch led his 91st lap of the afternoon and passed Mark Martin to become the all-time lap leader in the series with 8,083. By the time he had chalked up his sixth win of the year and the 36th of his career, Busch had led 8,117 laps in 186 Nationwide starts.
Busch, who won at New Hampshire last June, is the first repeat winner in 24 Nationwide races at the 1.058-mile track. Tied with seventh-place finisher Kevin Harvick for second on the Nationwide career wins list, Busch needs 13 more victories to pass Martin for the lead in that category.
“That’s pretty cool, and it comes after beating one of the best,” Busch said of his status as the all-time laps leader. “There’s one more record I’m after, and that’s the win record—to try to beat him and see how many I can set. …
“Hopefully, we can get another next week at Daytona—with the new one.”
The “new one” Busch mentioned is the new Nationwide racecar that will make its competitive debut July 2 at Daytona International Speedway. After that, the new car will be raced three more times this year before becoming the full-time car in 2011.
Carl Edwards finished third Saturday and trails Keselowski by 247 points. Logano ran fourth, followed by Trevor Bayne, who posted his career-best finish. Justin Allgaier came home sixth.
“Driver error—that would be the biggest thing,” Logano said of the restart that cost him two positions. “Under caution, I was trying to spin my tires, trying to clean them up. (I thought) ‘They don’t have much motor in these Nationwide cars; I don’t think I’m going to spin the tires (on the restart) if I just floor it,’ because Kyle beat me the last restart before that. …
“I figured I was going to give it my best shot, and I screwed up and that’s what I get—I finished fourth.”
Patrick’s troubles started earlier when she was racing beside Morgan Shepherd on Lap 6. Shepherd had the inside lane but slid into Patrick’s Chevrolet and spun it, damaging the left side of the car.
Patrick lost a lap on pit road. Ultimately, she finished 30th, five laps down.
“It was definitely a long day,” said Patrick, who showed her frustration by bumping Shepherd’s car lightly on pit road after the race. “It’s always tough when you start from behind like that, and to be a lap down so quickly, but, you know, it was a bummer to get lapped so many times, but it was a learning process.
“We were very tight to start with, and we just kept freeing the car up, and it helped. There’s a lot for me to learn, how to overcome when the car does push and how to drive the car. I felt like by the end of the race, I finally sort of had a couple of things that I knew helped me out there to keep the car under control, to keep the front end underneath me better, and ultimately just have overall faster laps.
“I did learn out there, but it’s frustrating.”
The next Nationwide race on Patrick’s schedule is July 9 at Chicagoland.
Notebook: Fellow open-wheelers give Patrick support
LOUDON, N.H.—After winning the pole for Sunday’s Lenox Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Juan Pablo Montoya dropped by Danica Patrick’s motor coach on Friday.
Montoya, who was amazed at the spirit of cooperation he found in the NASCAR Sprint Cup garage as a rookie, is carrying on the tradition of helpfulness with Patrick, who returned to Nationwide Series racing in Saturday’s New England 200.
“Juan stopped over,” Patrick said after Saturday morning’s qualifying session. “He walked in, and I’d seen that he’d done a good job, and I was like, ‘Where’d you end up finishing in qualifying,’ and he was like, ‘Oh, pole.’ And I’m like ‘Oh, yeah. Whatever.’
“He’s a really nice guy, and I’m really lucky to have so many guys that want to help me out. I talked to Max Papis for a little bit last night, too. He’s obviously a fellow old open-wheel driver—so lots of good help.”
Montoya said Saturday after a post-practice debriefing in his transporter that he was there simply to lend his support.
“It was just chit-chat,” Montoya said, before stopping to sign autographs for a line of waiting fans.
Patrick said eliminating mistakes and trusting her instincts are the two most important keys to her progress in NASCAR racing.
“I think the most important thing for me to do is finish, and the worst thing that I could do would be to go out onto the track and make a mistake or lose it and put it in the wall,” Patrick said. “I mean, that doesn’t look good or help me in any way. It’s going to be really important for me to just make methodical steps forward. …
“I think the most important thing that I was reminded of this weekend is to just trust my instincts and trust what I’m feeling in the car and don’t try to make up a feeling that’s not there, really—I mean to not go out there my first run and say, ‘Maybe I’m not doing a good job; let me go again,’ and then you try a little harder, and then you make a mistake and do something silly.
“So it’s to come in and say, ‘Hey, look, I’m loose. I’m sorry.’ If I can’t brake into the corner, and if I can’t get on the power, I’m not comfortable. So it’s about trusting that instinct and, I mean, it’s been something that’s been groomed for 19 years, so I have to trust that.”
KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY
Ryan Truex, 18, won Friday’s K&N Pro Series East race at New Hampshire to become the third member of his family to win a race in the series at the Magic Mile.
Martin Truex Sr. won a race at Loudon in what was then the Busch North Series in 1994. Ryan’s brother, Martin Truex Jr., who now drives a Cup car for Michael Waltrip Racing, won twice at New Hampshire in Busch North (2000 and 2003) and once in the Nationwide Series (2005).
“It’s cool, and it’s a neat deal that we’re father, son and son to win here—all three of us,” Truex Jr. said after posting the sixth-fastest speed in Saturday’s final Cup practice. “It’s pretty special. I think it’s real special for my dad. He was pretty excited, and it was just fun to watch.”
JOHNSON TOPS SPEED CHART
The only driver to exceed 130 mph in Saturday’s final Cup practice, Jimmie Johnson ran 130.590 mph to outdistance the rest of the field in Happy Hour. Jeff Burton was second quickest at 129.121 mph as the drivers made their final preparations for Sunday’s race.
Polesitter Juan Pablo Montoya was eighth fastest in the hour-long session. Cup points leader Kevin Harvick, who will start 24th, posted the 16th-fastest speed.
Johnson won last Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway to break a winless streak that had reached 10 races.
Earnhardt helps ease Patrick`s return to stock cars
LOUDON, N.H.—An occasional test with crew chief Tony Eury Jr. aside, Danica Patrick hasn’t raced a stock car since Feb. 27 at Las Vegas.
To help prepare her for returning to the Nationwide Series this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Patrick got help from one of her JR Motorsports team owners—Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Patrick paid a surreptitious visit to the racetrack Thursday night and did a ride-around with Earnhardt in a street car in preparation for Saturday’s New England 200.
“Well, Dale Jr. took time out of his schedule last night to go around the track for a couple of laps—I don’t know how secret this stuff is; he’s Dale Jr.; he can go anywhere,” Patrick said Friday after Nationwide Series practice. “He showed me the line and gave me tips about running out here, whether it’s the race or pitting or whatever, or where to go to help your car do different things. It’s incredibly helpful.
“I got in last night after, I don’t know … I’m not big like all these guys, and I don’t have my own jet. So I flew commercial here—and regretted every minute of it, while I sat in Philadelphia during the rainstorm and sat there for a couple of hours. I got into the track at like 8 o’clock last night, and Dale took time to do that. It’s stuff like that that makes a huge difference for me.”
Though Patrick hasn’t raced a stock car for nearly four months, she said the absence from NASCAR competition isn’t what kept her 43rd of 44 cars on the speed chart in Friday’s first practice.
“I really don’t notice much of a difference between the first time I get in and the second time, or one weekend after another or four months,” said Patrick, who was more than six miles per hour slower than Brad Keselowski, who paced the first Nationwide practice session. “It’s bike riding—a bicycle. You get back in it, the feelings are familiar, and that’s where you really have to trust your instincts in what you really need in a car and don’t make up what’s not there.
“It’s going to take time, and I’m going to have to learn a lot of this stuff for myself. Even with everyone’s help, you still have to feel it. You have to feel it in your gut and your butt and your hands and know for yourself.”
In final Nationwide practice Friday afternoon, Patrick improved significantly, to 24th fastest on the speed chart.
Patrick on New Hampshire: ‘I just want to do well’
She’s baaack.
Full-time IndyCar driver Danica Patrick returns to her part-time NASCAR scheduled Saturday when he drives JR Motorsports’ No. 7 Nationwide Series Chevrolet in the New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Patrick ran the first three Nationwide races of the year, then drove in eight IndyCar events. Her venture into NASCAR created quite a stir, though her results were disappointing.
Her best finish was a 31st at Auto Club Speedway, where she ended up three laps down. Patrick crashed out of the other two races at Daytona and Las Vegas.
This weekend, she tackles another type of track, a flat 1-mile oval. She has raced at similar tracks in IndyCars, running at Milwaukee and Phoenix. But driving a bulky, heavy stock car on those tracks is quite different.
“There’s just so much that I’m unfamiliar with,” Patrick said. “That makes me nervous because I care and I want to do well. And I’m not going to know it all the first time I go there, but I hope to do a good job. I know that people are watching, and I want to put on a good show for the fans. I want to give them a reason to cheer for me. I just want to do well. So I’m just nervous for that, as it’s all very unfamiliar.”
Patrick heads to New Hampshire with confidence from three consecutive top-10 IndyCar finishes, though her expectations in the Nationwide race are considerably lower. She says qualifying in the top 20 and finishing in the top 15 “would be great.”
“I think it’s best for my confidence and my morale to set those kinds of expectation levels,” Patrick said.
Patrick and the team tested at Milwaukee recently in preparation for New Hampshire, and she has had some contact with JRM. But since Las Vegas, Patrick has immersed herself in IndyCars, essentially ignoring NASCAR.
“Well, I’ve not been watching anything,” Patrick said. “It’s kind of one weekend at a time for me. I’m home for sort of a day or two here and there. And then it’s off to the next one. So I’ve been very focused on the IndyCar stuff and trying to do a good job and trying to get up there and get a win, and that’s definitely taken—dominated—a lot of my time.
“But I’ve kept in touch, and we’ve tested a little bit, and we’re trying to make sure that I’m ready to go for Loudon and get familiar again.”
Fast facts
What: New England 200
Where: New Hampshire Motor Speedway; Loudon, N.H.
When: Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN, 2:30 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN/Sirius Satellite Ch. 128
Track layout: 1.058-mile oval
Race distance: 200 laps/211.6 miles
Qualifying: Saturday, 10:05 a.m. ET
2009 winner: Kyle Busch
2009 polesitter: Joey Logano
Points leaders: 1. Brad Keselowski, 2,466; 2. Carl Edwards, 2,229; 3. Justin Allgaier, 2,051; 4. Kyle Busch, 1,945; 5. Paul Menard, 1,860; 6. Kevin Harvick, 1,852; 7. Brendan Gaughan, 1,685; 8. Steve Wallace, 1,674; 9. Jason Leffler, 1,597; 10. Joey Logano, 1,593.
IRL: Briscoe holds off Patrick at Texas
FORT WORTH, Texas (Saturday, June 5, 2010) – Ryan Briscoe was denied of firing the six-shooters in Victory Circle at Texas Motor Speedway the past two years. Finally, the Team Penske driver got to have some fun.
“It was pretty crazy out there,” Briscoe said. “There was also a lot of tire management too. I really had to work with the tools in the car to keep a good balance throughout the stint. That really made the race fun.”
Briscoe, who started from the pole, held off Danica Patrick to win the Firestone 550K. Marco Andretti finished third for the second consecutive race and Scott Dixon, the 2008 race winner, finished fourth.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti was fifth, ending the two-year streak of the Indianapolis 500 winner repeating at Texas the same year.
Helio Castroneves, who started fifth in the No. 3 Team Penske car and was the 2009 winner at Texas, exited on Lap 129 when he attempted to overtake the No. 32 KV Racing Technology car driven by Mario Moraes on the frontstretch.
Wheels touched and the cars spun, with Bertrand Baguette in the No. 36 Conquest Racing RACB car having nowhere to go but between the spinning cars. He didn’t fare so well. Castroneves was without radio communication with his spotter and the pit stand.
Simona De Silvestro suffered a minor burn on her right hand when the No. 78 Team Stargate Worlds/HVM Racing car made contact with the wall on the backstretch.
Patrick “very happy” with sixth place finish at Indy 500
Andretti Autosport driver Danica Patrick was none too happy with her qualifying effort or her car after qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 two weeks ago. Patrick qualified 23rd for the 500-mile race at Indianapolis, a career low at the track for the driver, trumping her former career-low effort of tenth in 2006 and 2009.
However, once the race was over, Patrick’s No. 7 GoDaddy.com Honda was listed in sixth place in the race results.
“I’m very happy with the result, and the reasons we got it were that our pit stops rocked and we had a perfect strategy,” Patrick said. “We did struggle a little in the early goings. We almost went a lap down. But we were able to get the GoDaddy.com car into the position it should have been in. I focused on making sure I lifted and got a tow from other cars to save fuel as the laps were winding down.
“I’m really glad that yellow came out at the end because we were cutting it real close on fuel. That’s the roll of the dice, and the team did a perfect job.”
Those comments paled in comparison to the ones she placed on the record just two weeks earlier, when she went on a rant about her ill-handling car that caused her, and the other two cars under the Andretti Autosport banner, to turn in subpar qualifying efforts for IndyCar’s biggest race of the year.
With the sixth place, lead lap finish, Patrick has now turned more laps in the Indy 500 than any other female driver in IndyCar history. Patrick has completed 1,137 laps in the race, overtaking former record holder Lyn St. James, who completed 947 laps in her seven years of IRL racing.
Danica Patrick Showing She is Still Not Ready To Run with the Big Boys
Once the foundation begins to crumble, it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the building comes crashing down.
You can call them words of wisdom, or you can take it for whatever it’s worth and move on.
Either way the consequences are always going to be there, waiting in the midst for just the right time to come out and strike that person dead.
Danica Patrick, who drives the Andretti Autosport Honda GoDaddy.com-sponsored IRL car, has been the poster girl ever since she first entered the series back in 2005.
Patrick, who built her career by overshadowing her less than skillful driving abilities by posing for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition, literally threw her team under the bus during qualifying for next weekends Indianapolis 500.
Patrick, who was close to tears after qualifying 23rd, was heard over the public-address system saying that, “This is the worst car I’ve ever had. There’s no stability or grip. It’s just scary, really scary…It’s awful, really awful. I think I’m still shaking.”
Patrick went on to say that, “I wasn’t flat out the last two laps and I was scared to death flat on the first two. I’ve never been bad here before. I’ve never been outside the top 10 on a finish or qualifying, so, it’s not my fault. The car is not good.”
Right after her comments were broadcast, the fans began expressing their disapproval by booing her because of her displeasure with the team.
For some reason she still thinks she is invincible, and as a driver what she said about her team was wrong, plain and simple.
Is it really that hard for her to take the blame once in a while, instead of telling her team once again that it’s not her fault?
The fans will only put up with so much of a driver’s overzealous attitude, before they move on to one who will put some victories in the win column.
The IRL is full of drivers who have a lot more talent, along with the skills to make them championship contenders.
Good looks will only get a driver so far, and from the way the fans treated Patrick this past weekend they may have grown tired of her less than stellar performances.
“I say one confident thing out there, that it’s not me, and everybody boos me,” said Patrick after hearing the displeasure from the fans. “I don’t know, maybe they were booing me before, but some of them were probably cheering for me before.”
There is no more sugar coating the truth about her so-called driving skills, especially when all she did was complain early in the season about her dislike for the road courses.
So far this season she only has one top-10 in five races while leading zero laps, and is sitting 16th in points out of 29 drivers.
Come to think about it, Patrick has yet to prove she can handle a car she has been racing for the past six years, and within that time frame she has run 13,868 laps which equals 86 races, and she has only led 110 laps to go along with one win, 16 top-five, and 47 top-10 finishes.
Someone also needs to tell her that race car drivers don’t cry, especially ones that like to bully other drivers around unless of course their foundation is beginning to soften and crumble.
The novelty of having Patrick race in the IRL has already begun to wear off, and all you have to do is look at the television ratings along with the empty stands even though she has one victory since coming into the series.
Not even that one victory is enough to classify her as championship material, and the only thing she has going for her is the half dressed commercials she does for her sponsor GoDaddy.com.
Patrick said last week, that she isn’t about to place blame on her part-time gig for the problems she is having in the IRL, while driving in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports.
Patrick is far from being considered a threat to finish in the top-10 of any race, so why would she even go there with that comment?
The schedule that was chosen should have been the first indication that not even Dale Earnhardt Jr. knew she would be able to compete at this level, and the reason he hired her was he needed a sponsor.
Just how much of an impact she will have after her short IRL vacation, probably won’t be as big as when she first entered the series.
Sooner more than later her novelty will wear off if she doesn’t produce decent finishes, and when looking back at her results before she left her chances are almost non-existent.
Patrick needs to make up her mind if she wants to drive stock cars or open wheel cars, and with her going back and forth it is doing nothing but giving the fans more reasons to believe she is only doing this to keep herself in the public eye.
Even if you combine the two series she races in, not even the numbers match up to anything but a mediocre driver at best.
Danica is far from racing with some of NASCAR’s finest, but then again who are we to pass judgment on a driver who has one victory on her resume?
Notebook: Montoya takes on mentoring role with Patrick
LAS VEGAS — Juan Montoya is paying it backward.
During the first two race weekends of the season, Montoya has reached out to IndyCar star Danica Patrick, offering advice from the perspective of a driver who has made a successful transition from open-wheel racing to stock cars.
Montoya’s motivation to help Patrick is driven from the reception he got when he began racing full-time in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series in 2007.
“People were very open to me when I got here,” Montoya said Friday morning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “They were coming to me every week, helping me, giving me tips. It’s really hard at the beginning, as an open-wheel guy, to have, basically, the (courage) to go to somebody and say ‘Can you help me.’
“I know how hard that is, so that’s why I’ve been trying to help her, and I know what she’s going through. I just talk to her about the tracks — you’ve got to be careful of this, you’ve got to be careful of that, you want to do this, you want to do that.”
A portion of Montoya’s advice involves understanding what realistic expectations should be.
“You shouldn’t expect great things right at the beginning,” he said. “In open wheel, if you run bad, you run 10th. Here, if you run bad, you run 30th, and to put that in your mind is really, really hard.”
EDWARDS NOW A FAMILY MAN
For Carl Edwards, one of the hardest parts of racing at Las Vegas this weekend was having to leave his day-old baby. Anne Edwards was born to Carl and wife Kate on Wednesday.
“When I left, I kind of looked back,” Edwards said Friday at LVMS. “I was driving my truck and I thought, ‘Wow, I have a family.’ That’s pretty interesting. So it’s definitely a different emotion than I’ve ever had.
“My one buddy tells me, ‘Oh, you wait. You’re gonna really love racing now.’ I guess that’s because you get to leave when they’re crying, but I’m not to that point yet, so it was different.”
Nevertheless, Edwards said he doesn’t feel guilty about leaving home.
“No, I didn’t feel guilty,” he explained. “We all have jobs and everybody has to go do their job, and, to put it in perspective, one of Kate’s best friends has a baby, and her husband is serving over in Afghanistan and he didn’t see their baby until she was three months old — and he was only home for two weeks and had to leave again for six months.
“So I’ve got a great situation relative to a lot of folks who are out there doing very important jobs.”
HIGH PRAISE FOR JAKE ELDER
Legendary crew chief “Suitcase” Jake Elder, who guided Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip to their first Cup victories, made a lasting impression on those who raced against him.
“He was one of those unbelievable people,” six-time champion car owner Junior Johnson said of Elder, who died Wednesday at age 73.”I think he had a real low education, but you couldn’t outrun the rascal because he had more common sense than most people.
“He was so gifted on what he was doing on the car that I’d put him ahead of about 99 percent of the mechanics who’ve come along since I’ve been in racing.”
Nicknamed “Suitcase Jake” because of his propensity for changing jobs, Elder was crew chief for David Pearson during two of the driver’s three championship seasons (1968 and 1969).
Danica Patrick’s Version Of “The Empresses New Ride”
Most of us might remember when growing up the story of the “The Emperors New Clothes.”
To loosely paraphrase the fable, there was an emperor who simply adored beautiful clothes, and he would go through great lengths along with spending unseen amounts of money to make sure he had the best wardrobe that anyone could ever set their eyes upon.
His passion for having the best wardrobe probably overshadowed some his decision making, and it showed when he hired the two weavers who declared they could make the most magnificent cloth that has ever been seen.
Well as the story goes the two men were not weavers, but instead were swindlers who knew how to market themselves by doing a little “smooth talking,” along with being able to convince the emperor that the cloth would be the most beautiful that anyone had ever seen.
Its no big secret that attendance for the IRL has dropped off in the last few years.
The series biggest star, Danica Patrick, is not attracting the fans any longer like she was in the beginning even though GoDaddy.com has her plastered on just about every commercial during the telecast.
The fans have begun to realize that Patrick is just like any other driver on the track, and they don’t have to pay the price of admission when she is readily available by just clicking on their favorite Internet browser.
In other words the novelty of having her in the series is slowly wearing off, and its beginning to show in the ratings.
So what happens when the IRL’s biggest star begins to lose her star power, and the fans are not watching anymore?
Its easy, you bring her over to NASCAR where the sport is having its problems with fan attendance and popularity, along with the sports most popular driver having trouble finishing in the top 10.
With a little smooth talking by GoDaddy.com , along with convincing the sport’s most recognized owner to give her a chance, and before you know it Patrick is back in the spotlight.
After all marketing is the name of the game, and just like the weavers who spent many nights and days convincing the emperor that when they were finished with the garment he would be the talk of the town, he believed them.
Hmmm does any of this sound familiar? Think about all the money that GoDaddy spent on advertising before Danica took her first laps in a stock car, along with the media hype that has followed her.
Well as the story goes, the day finally came when the emperor was to show off his new clothes.
The weavers spent the better part of the morning pretending to dress the emperor, while convincing him that with each piece of clothing he was looking more and more magnificent.
The emperor himself looked from side to side admiring the work of the weavers, even though deep down inside he was doubting that the cloth even existed. Many of the NASCAR faithful are saying that Danica is good for the sport, and that she will bring more fans.
The ratings for the Nationwide race were up a significant amount for the race at Daytona, along with this past weekends race at Auto Club Speedway.
Television revenue is one thing, but how about the revenue at the track where it really counts?
Besides, where does all the revenue go? When it goes back into the pockets of NASCAR it does the fans absolutely no good.
The seats were still empty for both the Nationwide and the Cup race this past weekend at Auto Club Speedway.
Where were the fans that she was supposed to attract? Probably at home watching on T.V. while saving their money instead of spending it at the track, that’s where.
What NASCAR needs to do is bring the fans out to the track, instead of keeping them at home.
Another thing that crossed my mind was what good is Danica to the Cup Series when she doesn’t participate in it?
The Cup Series is where NASCAR needs to attract the fans, since this is their bread and butter.
Unlike the emperor who was made to believe he was getting the best material, Danica was given the best equipment and so far she has done nothing with it.
With 10 races left on her schedule, and NASCAR not allowing the teams to test, how can anyone think she can improve under those circumstances?
When do the fans get tired of all the hype, and when does the novelty of her existence also wear off?
Her NASCAR career is just getting started, and she has already dug herself a deep hole with her past performances. Kyle Petty watched her come down the aisle just like the boy in the fable, and as the story goes he called out, “He has no clothes.” How many more fans as the weeks go by will do just as the town did, and realize that maybe Petty was right?
Notebook: Kenseth said spark was missing
FONTANA, Calif. — Matt Kenseth couldn’t define it precisely, but there was something missing on his No. 17 Ford team when the transporter took off for Daytona earlier this month.
That, more than anything else, explains the sudden crew chief change that brought veteran Todd Parrott to the top of Kenseth’s pit box one race into the 2010 season.
Parrott replaced Drew Blickensderfer in a move that owner Jack Roush described simply as a job trade. Blickensderfer has been reassigned to Roush Fenway Racing’s research-and-development department.
“You didn’t feel like everybody came in the truck fired up to go win races,” Kenseth said Friday at Auto Club Speedway. “It’s probably not the case, but you almost felt like they’d come in, and they were just kind of going through the motions.
“I was like, ‘We need to get some spark into the group and get everybody back to what this is about.’”
Blickersderfer took over from Chip Bolin to start the 2009 season, and he and Kenseth won the first two events together, the Daytona 500 and the Auto Club 500. Kenseth hasn’t won since, and in 2009 he failed to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup for the first time in his career.
“Jack talked to me in November and asked if we thought we were OK with everything we had going on, and I really did,” Kenseth said. “I felt like we needed to give Drew a full year and a full offseason.
“We knew there were some things to work on, and he was working on some things to try and make it better, so it’s really hard to explain the timing of the change. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s not really good for anybody, but it’s just kind of the way it went down. I thought, instead of dragging it out, it was just something that needed to be done.”
PHILOSOPHICAL CHAMPION
Jimmie Johnson finished 39th, 27th and 31st, respectively, in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Daytona 500s. In each year, he rallied to win the Cup championship.
With that in mind, Johnson’s mindset after Sunday’s 35th-place run at Daytona is entirely predictable.
“In my crazy mind, I’m trying to find a way I can win a fifth (title), because the last four we’ve finished terrible at Daytona, and I’m buying into it and finding some silver lining in this, saying it’s a good sign,” said Johnson, who, uncharacteristically, won his first championship in 2006 after winning the 500.
Tire problems, one caused by running over the now-infamous pothole near the transition between Turns 1 and 2 at Daytona, ruined Johnson’s chances to reverse his recent trend in the Great American Race.
“I think we were in position to have a shot at winning,” Johnson said. “I was running with the No. 1 car (race winner Jamie McMurray) and the No. 42 (Juan Pablo Montoya) when we had our failure. Those guys both were up front shortly after we went out of the race.”
IGNORANCE ISN’T BLISS FOR PATRICK
Danica Patrick posted the 37th fastest time in the opening Nationwide Series practice Friday and improved 10 positions in the second session. The most difficult aspect of learning the performance characteristics of stock cars, Patrick says, is the lack of a frame of reference.
“The tough thing for me is I don’t know how it’s supposed to feel, so until the car is right, I can’t have an expectation level,” Patrick said. “I’m just like, ‘Do I deal with this? Do I not? Does it have to feel like this? I don’t like this. Does it have to be like that?’ …
“So I really don’t have any of those answers at this point. It’s only going to come from, in my experience, having something good to go, ‘Oh, yes. I want that again. I know I can achieve it.’”
Notebook: No baby news yet for Edwards
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Carl Edwards always has his cell phone handy, given that wife Kate’s due date for the couple’s first child is Wednesday.
The phone didn’t ring on Saturday, when Edwards finished second to Tony Stewart in the DRIVE4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
“Haven’t talked to my wife yet, no,” Edwards said after the race. “No news is good news, I guess. I should be hoping for a childbirth, but … Monday would be great. She’s got her legs crossed and I’ve got my fingers crossed.”
Edwards smiled. “Please — don’t print that,” he said.
Sorry, Carl. Too late.
LOOK OUT FOR HARVICK
Kevin Harvick, owner of Stewart’s winning car, finished third Saturday. In Sunday’s Daytona 500, he feels the top spot is within reach.
“I feel good about our track position,” said Harvick, who will start fifth in the Great American Race. “I’ve felt good about our cars all week. We’ve had a chance to win every race we’ve been in so far.
“(Sunday) isn’t going to be any different. I’m looking forward to it. You go and race as hard as you can. You can’t control the circumstances, but you can race hard all day. That’s what we’re going to do.”
Harvick hasn’t won a Sprint Cup points race since he edged Mark Martin by .02 seconds to win the 2007 Daytona 500, but he has taken the checkered flag in the 2007 Sprint All-Star race and the 2009 and 2010 Budweiser Shootouts. The latter two races were held at Daytona.
DANICA MANIA NOT LOST ON CUP DRIVERS
Lest you think the attention paid to Danica Patrick in the ARCA and Nationwide Series is lost on Cup-only drivers, Kurt Busch is proof otherwise.
Busch appeared at a Friday question-and-answer session at Daytona’s infield media center. Shortly after he sat down behind the microphone, a reporter asked, “Is this being transcribed?”
Busch had a nimble response to the question. “If I were Danica Patrick, would this be transcribed?” he asked.
Touche.
KAHNE DISAPPOINTED
Kasey Kahne, one of the favorites in the Daytona 500, would just as soon forget Saturday’s Nationwide race — even though he finished ninth in the No. 38 Toyota.
“We avoided a couple of wrecks, and we ran top 10 throughout much of the race,” Kahne said. “I’m just kind of disappointed. It wasn’t nowhere near as fast as it was in July (when Kahne finished fifth at Daytona).
“We came down here with high expectations and got let down. The car didn’t do anything. It drove good — and that was it.”
Stewart wins at Daytona; Patrick victim of early wreck
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — It was Tony Stewart’s good fortune to lead much of Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway — because all hell kept breaking loose behind him.
In a race widely trumpeted as Danica Patrick’s NASCAR debut, Stewart took the checkered flag .309 seconds ahead of 2008 series champion Carl Edwards.
In winning the season opener, Stewart achieved several milestones: he won the February Nationwide race at Daytona for the third straight time and fifth overall, and he claimed his sixth victory in the series on restrictor-plate superspeedways, tying Dale Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the career lead in that category.
“There were some really good cars that got mangled up today,” Stewart said, referring to crashes that damaged the cars of Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, among others. “We were just lucky to be in front when it happened.”
Stewart led the final 20 laps under green after a restart on Lap 101.
Kevin Harvick, who owns the No. 4 Chevrolet that Stewart was driving in his only scheduled Nationwide appearance of the year, finished third in his own No. 33 Chevy. Justin Allgaier came home fourth and Brian Vickers fifth.
Patrick lasted a little more than half the race. Just as she appeared to be getting comfortable while running with the lead draft, her No. 7 Chevrolet was damaged beyond repair on Lap 68 of 120 in a 12-car wreck off Turn 4 that began with contact between the No. 16 Ford of Colin Braun and the No. 61 Ford of Josh Wise.
“There’s nothing you can do — you can’t see anything,” Patrick radioed to crew chief Tony Eury Jr. after sliding into a pack of cars turned sideways in front of her. “I was just starting to get it, too, man.”
Patrick was credited with a 35th-place finish.
Earnhardt had a strong car, but his No. 88 Chevrolet was an innocent victim of a backstretch wreck on Lap 92, which started when Edwards tried to squeeze into a small space in the outside lane. Contact between Edwards’ Ford and Brad Keselowski’s Dodge sent Keselowski’s car spinning into Earnhardt’s Chevrolet, which turned upside-down and slid on its roof before righting itself in the infield.
“We were having a real good run, and I felt good about our chances,” said Earnhardt, whose company, JR Motorsports, also owns the car Patrick will drive in selected races this season. “I’ll have to go back and balance the books — it was an expensive day for JR Motorsports.”
Notebook: Patrick to start 15th after qualifying rainout
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Danica Patrick will start 15th in Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race, after rain forced cancellation of Friday afternoon’s scheduled qualifying session.
Patrick gets the 15th starting spot by virtue of an owner points deal between JR Motorsports, which fields her No. 7 Chevrolet, and CJM Racing, which ran the No. 11 Toyota in 2009 but is not competing in the series this year.
Kyle Busch, the 2009 Nationwide champion, will start from the pole, with 2009 series runner-up Carl Edwards beside him. Busch said he would be willing to partner with Patrick in the draft, provided she proves herself throughout the race.
“If it comes down to the end of the race and she’s good, and she’s been doing fine all day and nobody has had any issues with her then, yeah, I would work with her,” Busch said. “If she’s got a fast car, certainly.
“If she’s been kind of erratic and all over the place or if she’s had a slow car or something like that, then no it wouldn’t be in my best interest to work with her. I don’t have any problem — her in general wouldn’t be the problem — it would just be whether the car could do it and whether she can handle it, I guess. The name doesn’t matter to me.”
BONUS FOR EARLY WITHDRAWAL
Paul Menard, slated to run full schedules in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series, will race in Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 — thanks to the sudden withdrawal of five cars that would have made the field ahead of him under NASCAR’s rainout rules.
When rain cancels qualifying for the season-opening race, the top 30 in 2009 Nationwide owner points, along with race winners from the previous year and all past champions who participated in the series last year are exempt into the field.
The remainder of the field is set according to qualifying draw, and Menard (who would have been the 48th driver to take make a qualifying run) wasn’t promoted into 43rd starting spot until Jeff Fuller, Donnie Neuenberger, Dennis Setzer, Mark Green and rookie Parker Kligerman — all of whom were ahead of Menard in the qualifying draw — withdrew from the event.
Menard’s father, John Menard, is one of the wealthiest men in the garage, and word has it that those who pulled out of the race left the track with bulging wallets.
KURT IS NO MARRIAGE COUNSELOR
Kyle Busch’s engagement to girlfriend Samantha Sarcinella gave brother Kurt Busch a nervous moment.
“Kyle’s grown up and he got engaged all by himself,” Kurt said when asked if he had provided any insights into married life. “He made the call. I’m not there to give brotherly advice about marriage situations. I could have given advice on where to buy a ring, but he had that taken care of.
“He texted me at 11 p.m. last Thursday and said, ‘Come on over. I’ve got something to tell you.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, boy — he’s either getting married or she’s pregnant,’ so I’m glad that he’s doing it in the right order.”
Notebook: Waltrip owes debt of gratitude to Scott Speed
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Thanks to Scott Speed, Michael Waltrip will start the Daytona 500 for the 24th consecutive year.
By claiming the second of two transfer positions in the second of Thursday’s Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying races, Speed promoted Waltrip into the 43rd starting position in Sunday’s race—less than two hours after a hard crash in the first Duel had put Waltrip in jeopardy of failing to make the field.
Waltrip, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, had posted the fifth fastest time of drivers required to qualify on speed and needed either Speed or Bobby Labonte (who were second- and fourth-fastest in time trials among drivers not guaranteed a spot in the 500 field) to transfer via the Duel in order to salvage a spot in the race.
“I figured when I woke up this morning I’d be crying before the day was over,” Waltrip said. “I just didn’t know if it would be because I was happy or because I was sad. And then I damn sure didn’t know it would be both within an hour of each other.”
Both Waltrip and Speed, a former Formula One competitor, drive Toyotas, but Waltrip said they are kindred spirits in other respects.
“We’ve golfed and goofed off together before,” Waltrip said. “You know, people don’t think I’m that bright at times, and I couldn’t care less. People think he’s weird, and he don’t care, too. That’s how we formed our relationship. Two people that are comfortable with who they are and don’t really care a whole bunch about what other people think about that.
“And, you know, I’ve never got my toenails done (Speed has been known to have his painted), but if that’s what makes him happy, I’m going to support him. I did get a pedicure the other day, so maybe I’m heading that direction.”
And now, thanks to Speed, Waltrip is heading to the grid of NASCAR’s most important race.
Jeff Gordon goes to his backup car
After catching a piece of the wreck that started with contact between Waltrip and Regan Smith on Lap 53 for the first Duel, Jeff Gordon will go to a backup car for the Daytona 500—despite finishing 10th in the qualifying race.
“We got a little bit loose that second half of the race and made an adjustment and freed the car up a little too much,” said Gordon, a three-time winner of the 500. “I felt like we learned a lot. Unfortunately, we tore up the car when Michael and Regan got together.”
Patrick won’t pick her favorite speed sport
Clearly enthusiastic after her sixth-place run in last Saturday’s ARCA race, Danica Patrick nevertheless isn’t ready to stake her fortune on a career in stock cars—at least not yet. She’ll start her IndyCar season in March, and she’s not ready to choose one form of racing over the other.
“I can’t deny I really like driving the car,” Patrick said Thursday after posting the fifth-fastest practice time in the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevy she’ll drive Saturday in her NASCAR Nationwide Series debut. “I can’t deny that it’s really fun racing. … Originally, my big reason for wanting to come and drive stock cars was because I think the racing looked fun—and now I know it is.
“IndyCars are very much performance cars. They do what you ask when you ask them to. These (Nationwide cars) are a little bigger. But the racing is very fun. I haven’t made any decisions regarding which is my favorite or not.
“It’s like having two kids—I can’t pick.”
