Danica debate: Marketing machine or racer?
Danica Patrick at ARCA testing in Daytona Beach in December 2009. // LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
If the first media availability with NASCAR drivers and personalities is any indication, Danica Patrick’s foray into NASCAR likely will be a big part of the conversation when talking about the 2010 season.
And the response will probably be similar to what was heard Saturday at the Sprint Sound and Speed event in Nashville that raised funds for charity: It’ll be good for the sport, but whether she will be successful on the track remains to be determined.
Former driver and TNT analyst Kyle Petty probably had the most critical comments about Patrick, whose resume includes one IndyCar Series win in her career and a fifth-place finish in the standings in 2009. Patrick plans to run a full IndyCar season along with 13 Nationwide Series races for JR Motorsports in 2010.
“She has not really … won races and done the stuff over there, numbers‑wise,” Petty said Saturday. “She’s just a marketing machine. So when you look at it like that, from what she does on the race track, I hope she’s successful.
“But let’s look at the facts and be blunt about it: She’s going to help the sport. She’s going to help the publicity of the sport. She’s going to help a lot of that stuff. But in the end, will she perform on the right side? It’s going to be all on her shoulders to do that.”
JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he can’t predict how Patrick will do, but he’s been happy with her tests so far.
“She’s a race-car driver,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “She should be able to adapt and do whatever she needs to do. … We’ll just do the best we can for her. She has been in a car, [and we’re] pretty happy with how that’s gone, pretty happy with what we’ve seen.
“I love her attitude. She gets along great with [crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. All that stuff is going better than planned.”
Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards said her presence will bring attention to the Nationwide Series.
“For her to be successful over here will be a huge benefit to not only her and her sponsors but our whole sport,” Edwards said. “So I hope she does well – not any better than me – but I hope she does really well.
“But I think it’s going to be tough, just like it is for everyone.”
JR Motorsports won four races last year with Brad Keselowski, which may affect expectations for Patrick.
“If she gets in that car and doesn’t win races, it’s not the car, it’s not the engines, the team,” Petty said. “They only changed one thing. You know what I mean? … Initially she will have an impact on the sport. Will she have a long‑term impact on the sport?
“If she’s successful, she’ll have a huge long‑term impact on the sport. If she’s not successful, the only impact she’ll have on the sport, she wasted two or three years on a car that a good driver could have been in and developing.”
Earnhardt Jr. said that at one test, JR Motorsports driver Kelly Bires “had a hard time really kind of hanging on her bumper there for a while” and thought that showed Patrick’s potential for success. Whether she will be successful, though, even he can’t predict without watching her race.
“I feel pretty good about it,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “I don’t know what she’ll do. I wouldn’t even know where to begin to sort of guess on how her performance will be or what her stats will look like. We’ll just have to see.”
Petty said while Patrick was fast during her test sessions, that doesn’t always translate into success.
“Going fast and racing are two totally different things,” Petty said. “That’s like being a fastball pitcher and pitching. … There are guys that run Cup right now that are just fast, but they can’t drive.”
