Danica Patrick gets new pair of shoes, but hasn’t gotten the feel of New Hampshire track yet
Danica Patrick shows off her new shoes, a gift from New Hampshire Motor Speedway Executive VP and General Manager Jerry Gappens. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
LOUDON, N.H. – Danica Patrick is having trouble negotiating the flat, 1.058-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway track.
Whether she can figure out the proper braking zones remains to be seen – she was 42nd in the first Nationwide Series practice session Friday. But at least she can exit the track in style after track officials gave her a $1,000 pair of shoes as a thank you for racing at New Hampshire.
While Patrick knows she is in demand by tracks looking to sell tickets, she doesn’t know yet how well she will perform in her fourth career Nationwide race for JR Motorsports.
“I don’t know where the limit necessarily is,” said the 28-year-old IndyCar Series driver, who will drive in 13 races in each of the next two years for JRM. “The two times I’ve crossed that line, you don’t know when that’s coming. … The times that it goes, there’s really not a lot of warning.
“It’s a bit of an intimidating thing. They tell me I look good [in the middle] off the corner and for me it’s about braking later, deeper, harder, shorter, getting off the brake, carrying speed. At this point in time, the rear just doesn’t feel comfortable enough for me to do that.”
Patrick had tested at tracks in Milwaukee and Cicero, Ill. in preparation for New Hampshire as she had not been in a stock car since racing at Daytona, California and Las Vegas in February.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of my years in racing, and especially at a top level of racing, is that if you don’t feel it, don’t do it,” Patrick said. “If it’s not there, you need to make it [right] for you.
“This is our first race on a short oval. We have learning to do. … What I need to remember is, I am a confident driver. I know what I need. If I can’t feel it, it’s not there, don’t make it up in your head.”
Team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. took Patrick for a ride around the track in a street car Thursday night. Patrick wondered whether she was telling a “secret” by revealing that information, although it is typical for young drivers to get rides around tracks from veterans.
“It’s Dale Jr., he can go anywhere,” Patrick said. “He showed me the line, he gave me tips running out here, whether it’s the race or pitting and where to go to help your car do different things.”
Earnhardt Jr. said the track is not one of the more difficult ones to understand and he has confidence in crew chief Tony Eury Jr. and competition director Tony Eury Sr., both co-owners of JRM, to guide Patrick's team.
“She just wanted me to show her what was going on with the track and how some of the corners are and stuff,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “The corners are pretty self-explanatory. I’m just worrying about what I’m doing. Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. have got that under control over there and I just sit back and watch and work on my [Cup] car."
Patrick said she and Eury Jr. had a discussion about how to set up the car to help her learn without wrecking.
“You can’t set the car up for me perfect,” Patrick said. “I won’t be able to take that to the limit. You have to set it up really, really tight for me so I can build confidence and we’re going to end up working backwards and get the car to rotate more and more every session. … It’s not like I’m going to come out to all these tracks and be right on it.
“It’s not going to be able to be a winning car because of me, because I have so much to learn.”
Patrick said it wouldn’t do her any good to make a mistake, wreck the car and cut her practice time short. Her 35 laps in practice was the most of any driver during the session.
With two crashes and a finish of 31st, three laps down, at Auto Club Speedway, she said she would like to finish in the top 15 or 20 at New Hampshire.
Patrick didn’t think there was much rust from her time away from stock cars, or from racing open-wheel cars the past three months. She just doesn’t know the cars all that well yet.
“It’s like riding a bicycle,” Patrick said. “You get back in it. The feelings are familiar and that’s where you really have to trust your instincts and what you need in the car and you don’t make up what’s not there.”
After about 15 minutes of addressing the media, Patrick took part in a more lighthearted moment when track general manager Jerry Gappens gave her a new pair of shoes. He joked that during the shopping excursion, he also bought a pair for his wife.
Patrick was appreciative for the gift.
“If you’re going to buy a pair of shoes for another woman, you probably need to buy your wife a pair, too,” Patrick quipped.
