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Danicamania Flares Up Again

An Opinion




May 30, 2011

By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato



Danica Patrick is not even currently racing in NASCAR and still managed to grab headlines in the stock car world over the past week.

Patrick is not due back in the Nationwide Series until next weekend's Nationwide race June 4th at Chicagoland Speedway.

Last Tuesday, ESPN.com broke the news that Patrick is planning on running NASCAR full time next season.

According to "sources", Patrick would run a full Nationwide schedule next season along with a few Sprint Cup races before transitioning to the Cup Series full-time in 2013. There was even speculation that her NASCAR contract would allow her to run the Indianapolis 500 next year.

Yet according to Danica Patrick, there was no truth to the report.

"I'm watching TV and see it scroll across the bottom of the screen. I don't know where it came from but it's all speculation," Patrick said in an interview with SI.com writer Bruce Martin. "Anybody can speculate that and write that. I don't know where it came from but there is no truth to it; it's just speculation. It's no different than it was last month or even last year. There is nothing new in it."

Patrick is only in the midst of her second part-time season in the Nationwide Series with JR Motorsports. While her results haven't exactly been monumental, she has shown improvement over last season. Her fourth place finish at Las Vegas was the highest for a woman in a national NASCAR event.

However, it is her current media stature and the popularity she enjoys as the face of the IndyCar Series that would be a huge boost for NASCAR if she chooses to make the transition.

She would probably be the only other driver capable of challenging Dale Earnhardt Jr., for the Most Popular Driver Award.

At a press conference this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Earnhardt was asked for his opinion on Patrick making the move to NASCAR full-time next season.

"We’ll just see what she decides to do. I think she wants to have more success and doing it all the time would be a good move. She just has to choose what she wants to do. What is right for her. What she thinks she will be happy doing. Just make the right choice for herself, that is what is important.

"She has been racing with us enough to know whether she is ready or not. It is really up to her. It is really not up to anybody else. My opinion on that deal really doesn’t matter. She is the one who knows the truth and she’ll make the decision I think she needs to make and that will be that."

Rumors have been circulating for the past couple of seasons as to whether or not she would be going NASCAR racing full-time.

However, the contract that she has with Andretti Autosports in IndyCar as well as the one with JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series expire at the end of this season, so the time is ripe for Patrick to make a move.



If you would like to learn more about Matthew, please check out his web site at matthew-pizzolato.com.



You can contact Matthew Pizzolato at .. Insider Racing News

You Can Read Other Articles By Matthew Pizzolato

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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