February 26, 2010
By Rebecca Gladden
She's been called a driver, a diva, a celebrity, and a sex symbol.
Like it or not, Danica Patrick has arrived in NASCAR, and the powers-that-be couldn't be happier.
Numerous factual and anecdotal reports indicate that The Danica Effect is already reverberating through coffers at racetrack souvenir haulers and ticket booths, and that TV ratings for the races she's been in are higher than the networks and advertisers could have hoped.
In fact, if you have any vested interest in NASCAR from a financial perspective, you are probably beside yourself with glee.
Still, not everyone is overjoyed about Danica Mania.
Many fans are exasperated (even outraged) over the media fawning that's taking place in her presence - particularly the obsessive focus on her every move during television coverage of her races. Although she's only made two starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, with finishes of 35th and 31st respectively, both TV broadcasts were marked by frequent, 'let's check in on Danica' segments. This was evident even during her recent Fontana race, when she was running 40th for much of the race, three laps down.
The fans' frustration with this frenzy may be fleeting, but that of the competitors is not. A source in the Fontana garage last weekend told me that some drivers and team members were annoyed with, if not angered by, her sudden anointing as the media darling, diverting attention from teams and sponsors who've paid their dues to get where they are - and do not appreciate being ignored.
In a column this week, 'The NASCAR Insiders' - one a current member of an unnamed NASCAR team - discussed the impact of Danica Mania on others in the garage: "… it's making the job for those who work in the sport that much more difficult. The poor teams that are parked next to her in the garage or on pit road (not to mention her own team) have to fight past (even larger) throngs of reporters and fans to do their job. In the case of her own team they now have to wait even longer to load their hauler and leave. Already difficult tasks now take a little longer."
But, setting all that aside - even if you're totally on board the Danica Express, if you can quote the stats on improved TV ratings and ticket sales verbatim and you think she's the best thing that ever happened to NASCAR - there's one little detail that I never hear the Danica devotees discuss.
What happens when the whirlwind winds down?
What happens when all those fair-weather fans, tuning into NASCAR perhaps for the first time ever, decide that the novelty is over for them? What happens when next year's TV ratings are contrasted with this year's artificially boosted ones, and look that much worse by comparison? What if, quite possibly, Danica never wins a NASCAR race and struggles to be competitive, as has been the case with many other drivers who've tried to make the transition from open wheel to stock car racing?
You might think this is worst-case-scenario thinking, and maybe you're right.
But I believe NASCAR and the media (TV particularly) need to exercise extreme caution in casting Danica in the role of savior of the sport.
It's unfair to the fans, the competitors, the sponsors, and - most of all - to Danica herself.
As one media pundit put it, "They're setting her up for a really big fall."
And that is unacceptable.
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