Lee Montgomery: Analyzing the news this Christmas week
Hendrick Motorsports' Jimmie Johnson won AP's Male Athlete of the Year, JR Motorsports' Danica Patrick tested at Daytona and Road America was announced as Milwaukee's replacement. // SceneDaily Illustration, Mark Sluder; LaDon George
COMMENTARY
The week before Christmas is usually a slow time for news in the NASCAR world, but not this week. So let’s take an analytical view of what’s happened the past few days:
Jimmie Johnson named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year
This may not seem like a big deal to some of you, especially you Jimmie Haters (and you know who you are), but this is an extraordinary event. For starters, it’s the first time the AP has ever honored a race driver in such a way.
Editors of daily newspapers in this country are usually an old-school bunch, meaning baseball, football and basketball are all that matters. NASCAR? That’s something only people in the Deep South care about.
Well, the editors of those papers proved once and for all that NASCAR is truly a national sport, and its drivers are respected on a national level. And Johnson deserves the respect of a four-time champion.
Now, if only we could get our fans to respect him in the same way.
Road America to replace Milwaukee on 2010 Nationwide Series schedule
The early rumors had the Nationwide Series going back to Iowa Speedway, but I’m glad NASCAR didn’t go that route. Nothing against Iowa, for it’s a great track and has great fans, but a second race there so close to the first one (the dates are separated by less than two months) wouldn’t do anyone any good.
Road America may be the country’s top road course, with apologies to Watkins Glen. It’s long, it’s fast, it’s challenging, and it’s in America’s Heartland. What’s not to like?
I’m not sure how many fans who would have gone to Milwaukee will make the drive to Elkhart Lake for the Road America event, but Wisconsin race fans are a hardy lot, and they deserve to have a national series race in their state.
To me, the Nationwide Series has a more representative selection of tracks than the other two national series. The Nationwide schedule has three road course races, three superspeedway races, three 2-mile races, five 1.5-mile “quad-oval” races, five races on other 1.5-mile tracks, 10 races on tracks 1 mile to 1.33-miles and six short-track races.
Danica Patrick learning nuance of drafting during second day of testing with the Automobile Racing Club of America at Daytona
The IndyCar star is serious about her move to NASCAR, and she has gotten off to quick start, testing at Walt Disney World Speedway and Daytona International Speedway in recent weeks.
The Daytona test was for ARCA, a series that usually receives about zero attention for its preseason test sessions. But because of Patrick, there was considerable coverage.
I’ve been fairly impressed with the seriousness Patrick is taking her NASCAR effort. To some, she may come across as a bit of a spoiled brat, but I’ve heard no indications of such behavior in her tests of a stock car.
She has come in with an open mind, prepared to learn all she can about these beastly stock cars. That attitude can only serve her well in her part-time Nationwide schedule in 2010.
Will it be enough to help her impress her doubters? We’ll see.
