March 1, 2010
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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When the rumor mill first began turning last season with hints that Danica Patrick might be interested in NASCAR, many dismissed it a negotiating ploy in a strategy to increase the Indycar contract that she was negotiating with Andretti Autosport.
To the delight of NASCAR officials and most fans, those rumors became reality when she signed with JR Motorsports to run a part-time ARCA and Nationwide schedule.
Her first ARCA race showed a 65% increase in television ratings over the same race last season; and in terms of merchandise sales at the race tracks, she is behind only Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart.
Danica mania is running wild on NASCAR.
Her popularity level has many crying foul, due mostly to the fact that most people see her as undeserving of being so popular and claim that she hasn't paid her dues. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just because Patrick didn't take the traditional route to get to NASCAR, doesn't mean that she doesn't deserve to be there.
Tony Stewart arrived in NASCAR through open wheel racing and no one says the same about him. Stewart is proof that a successful transition can be made, as he is a two-time NASCAR Champion.
Patrick's first three Nationwide races are considered by most pundits to be disappointments. At Daytona, she was running decently until a crash that wasn't her fault ended her day prematurely, and at California, she finished the race three laps down. Then at Las Vegas, Patrick started 37th and ran competitively until a racing accident ended her race early.
For someone with very little seat time in a stock car, how can those results be considered disappointing? There are drivers who have spent their entire careers racing stock cars who finish no better in Nationwide competition. Until this point in her career, open wheel racing is pretty much all she has known.
Patrick is making the transition the right way, by getting her feet wet a little at a time and learning the ropes before committing to a full time schedule. So far, her time spent in stock cars should be considered a learning experience, not a disappointment, even though Patrick herself may consider her first two race results disappointing.
"I'm a competitor, and I'm used to running up front," Patrick was quoted as saying in a David Caraviello article for nascar.com. "It's shocking when you get that far back. But you know what? This is a whole new ball of wax for me, and it's all different, and I have to disconnect from the result for quite some time I think, because they're probably not going to be what I'm used to."
At least, she is not expecting too much since she knows that there is going to be a learning curve, something that most fans also realize.
One side effect of Danica mania is the media frenzy that surrounds her. If her first ARCA race showed a 65% increase in ratings, then it goes without saying that people are tuning in to watch her race. One can't fault the network for showing footage of her car and talking about her performance. They are simply giving the fans what they want.
The throng of reporters that follow her every moment through the garage is going to have to be accepted, at least until some of the novelty wears off, because that's just another side effect.
Her current contract with Andretti Autosport has her competing in the IZOD Indycar Series full time for the next three years, so it should be at least that long before NASCAR fans see her run a full Nationwide or Cup schedule, if she even decides to make the stock car transition.
After the Las Vegas race, Patrick will take a four month hiatus from the world of NASCAR and will focus her Indycar commitments. So, Danica mania isn't going anywhere for a quite some time. Everyone might as well get used to it.
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