Kris Johnson: Danica Patrick already facing growing pains in move to NASCAR
JR Motorsports driver Danica Patrick prepares for an Automobile Racing Club of America Series test at Daytona International Speedway earlier this month. // LaDon George, NASCAR Scene
COMMENTARY
Once the formality of announcing her plans to race for JR Motorsports was complete earlier this month, Danica Patrick realized the real work was about to begin in earnest.
“It’s time to buckle down and learn how to drive these cars, and it’s going to be challenging, but we’re ready, and it’s time to get going,” Patrick said.
Buckling down is one thing, but who knew simply buckling in to a stock car would present such a challenge?
Patrick found out during the first day of testing in the Automobile Racing Club of America Series Dec. 18 at Daytona International Speedway.
“I felt most disoriented with how the heck am I supposed to get my stuff on because I can’t get into the car with all that stuff on,” Patrick said. “I’ve got to buckle my belts, and I can’t do it with my helmet on. So I get in the car, and I’ve got to tuck my hair down the back of my suit, and I can’t do it because I’m strapped in.”
The list of Cup drivers who’ve had to worry about hair entanglements with HANS devices probably begins and ends with Kyle Petty.
That Patrick will begin her NASCAR career in the Nationwide Series matters little; this is foreign territory, with Danica playing the unenviable role of duck in search of water.
Lake Lloyd, stationed inside Daytona’s massive infield, was of no comfort, either.
“I’m just awfully confused. So I decided that I need to put everything on but my helmet and then get in the car. It sounds silly, but it’s logistics and logistics that I’m not used to,” Patrick said.
With that, a stock-car racing career began. Patrick will likely be confused and confounded early in this experimental process. It is to be expected. But there are several factors working in her favor. Solid funding from sponsor GoDaddy.com and good equipment from JR Motorsports should ensure some level of success during the two-year stint Patrick signed up for on a limited basis.
That is no small consideration, either, given Patrick’s previous reluctance to embrace NASCAR because of its unusually long season.
“I think, years ago I wasn’t prepared for the full schedule and also these races because I just hadn’t gone there yet,” Patrick said. “I talked to Mark Martin a few years ago, [and] I was like, ‘Man, how do you do it? How do you drive that many races?’ He said, ‘You get used to it.' And I have no doubt that I will get used to it.”
The luxury of dipping her toe into NASCAR’s roiling waters will afford Patrick a carefully measured chance to see if this sport can be her full-time home in the future.
In a perfect world, for some observers, Patrick will grow comfortable in stock cars the next two years with JR Motorsports - and win the Indy 500 while working her full-time job in the Izod IndyCar Series. Then, she’d be free to singularly pursue a Sprint Cup career in 2012.
Bob Parsons, founder and chief executive officer of GoDaddy.com, revels in the notion of going along for that ride.
“You know, just to think about it makes my eyes twinkle,” Parsons said. “But I can tell you that’s the sort of thing we would have to look at when we got to that point to see how we’ve done, what we’re looking at, and what our other obligations are. Yeah, so it’s a possibility.”
An intriguing one, to be sure, but expect some growing pains for Patrick along the way.
