Danica Patrick's journey begins; is Sprint Cup her destination?

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Danica Patrick will run a partial NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule with JR Motorsports in 2010.

Joshua Lott
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Danica Patrick is going Nationwide Series racing next year, and there really is only one main reason people go Nationwide Series racing – to get ready to go Sprint Cup racing.

But for both the Izod IndyCar Series driver and for JR Motorsports, the team she will drive for, that’s talk for down the road, and the first step is to be successful over the next two seasons with Patrick running a partial Nationwide Series schedule along with a full IndyCar schedule.

Her number of Nationwide races was not announced Tuesday when Patrick’s plans were formally announced, but it likely will be a dozen or fewer each year because of the IndyCar schedule, which has 17 races in 2010. Whether 20-30 races over two years would be enough to get her ready for a Cup schedule is questionable as Patrick – a 27-year-old with one career victory and a fifth-place finish in the IndyCar Series last year – embarks on her NASCAR career.

“It would be very nice to have the option,” Patrick said about a Cup opportunity. “It would be nice to do well enough to have the opportunity, and then we’ll go from there.”

JR Motorsports, which opened in 2005, has not competed on the Cup level but has flirted with the possibility for the last few years. If Patrick does well, the sponsorship could come for the organization to make the jump with her.

“That would certainly be nice, but I don’t think any of us would know that now,” JRM Vice President and general manager Kelley Earnhardt said. “We talked about entering the Cup series before, and it is something that we look to do. If this is the right fit, it’s the right fit. We’ll find that out.”

With sponsor GoDaddy.com already in Cup with Mark Martin for 2010 and 2011, there’s no rush from a sponsor perspective.

“Just to think about [Patrick in Cup], that makes my eyes twinkle,” said GoDaddy.com Chief Executive Officer Bob Parsons. “But I can tell you that’s the sort of thing we’d have to look at when we got to that point and see how we’ve done and see what her other obligations are. So yeah, it’s a possibility.”

First, Patrick needs to find out if she really wants to race stock cars. While admitting she wants to test the waters, she also admits that she isn’t ready to jump in with both feet. Not only are there more IndyCar races to be won (and more specifically, the Indianapolis 500), she doesn’t know if she will enjoy stock cars.

How will she know if she wants to jump in with both feet?

“There’s no real easy answer,” Patrick said. “The first step in this whole process is to get out there and get going, see how it goes, see if I like the car. There really are no extended plans at this point.

“It’s to give it a try and hopefully be competitive and have fun. And beyond that, we’ll explore from there. But obviously, being competitive is an important element.”

Getting competitive won’t be easy. Former open-wheel champions have not found NASCAR an easy go. Tony Stewart is the only Indy Racing League driver who has found consistent success in NASCAR. Juan Pablo Montoya appears on the brink of becoming a championship contender while Sam Hornish Jr. has struggled with inconsistency despite having two full seasons on the circuit.

Dario Franchitti drove for team owner Chip Ganassi in Cup last year, lost his ride because of the lack of sponsorship and then returned to the IRL with Ganassi and won the IndyCar Series title this year.

“I did ask him a few questions, for sure,” Patrick said of Franchitti. “He said he had fun, he said he enjoyed it. I think there were some things that could be learned from his experience. But you kind of have to find out for yourself as well. I don’t think you can always expect the same issues.”

Patrick said the obvious part of the transition will be learning how the car is supposed to feel. She will be locked into races – although Earnhardt refused to specifically state whether Patrick would get the points earned by Brad Keselowski in 2009 or the team would make a deal with another locked-in team – so she won’t have to worry about qualifying. Her test schedule will be determined after a Dec. 18-20 Automobile Racing Club of America test at Daytona International Speedway. Tony Eury Jr., a JR Motorsports co-owner and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports on the Cup side until being replaced last May, will be her crew chief.

“There’s the adequate and proper support, and [while] I do get nervous before anything that I do, I do believe in myself,” Patrick said. “That’s important. You have to be there. It’s easy to get down sometimes if things aren’t going well, but I try to stay positive and know that I can do the job.”

Despite a persona that some people might consider confrontational, Patrick said she will do her best to earn respect on the track.

“I’m the new kid on campus,” Patrick said. “I will respect them completely, all of them. And we’ll go from there. I’m going to start with giving them all respect, and if they don’t play fair out there, then we’ll address it as needed.

“But in IndyCar when I started, I started off not even really talking to anyone because I was just quiet and just observing. I have so much respect for all these drivers that I’m not going to come in and try and pretend that I haven’t yet proven to be. I’m just going to play cool and just play fair out there and have fun.”

Kelley Earnhardt said she wasn’t worried about Patrick being respected by the other drivers.

“I expect for her to be eaten up by the wolves,” Earnhardt quipped. “No, I expect her to be respected right off the bat. I’ve already talked to a lot of different drivers and team owners and got congratulations on this deal from various people, and I think everybody is excited about her entering the sport.

“It’s good for our sport. It’s good for NASCAR. It’s good for our fans. She’ll be welcomed, and I think people will want to help her succeed and see that it’s really good for everybody.”