Go to NASCAR or Stay in IndyCar?
A published today leaked information that Danica Patrick, the Queen of IndyCar Racing, has supposedly agreed to a three-year extension to her current Andretti Green Racing contract which was set to expire at the end of this year’s racing season.
So far Ms. Patrick has been staying silent about the details and not answering any questions as to whether or not this is true. About a month ago it was widely reported that Ms. Patrick had been speaking with and seeking guidance from NASCAR driver Tony Stewart about making the long rumored jump to the stock cars.
If this rumor about the contract extension is true, then what does that mean for Danica Patrick and her interest in making the switch to NASCAR?
For starters, we do not know any details about this agreement and extension of her contract with Andretti Green Racing.
I would be very surprised if there wasn’t a way for her to get out of the contract should there be an opportunity to switch and become a full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series.
My own belief that this extension of her contract is her own way of keeping her job as an IndyCar driver with one of the top teams in the racing series. I believe that Danica is still going to find a way to participate in the Truck and/or Nationwide Series in NASCAR as she needs the experience on that level if she expects to see any success in the Cup Series. She’s going to need that experience, and whether she races full-time or only part-time, it’ll give her some experience in those vehicles while she still races the full 2010 IndyCar schedule.
If her racing goes well in the Truck and/or Nationwide Series, then Danica will have a ride with one of the Cup Series teams starting in the 2011 season at the earliest. Again, I believe that it’ll be on a third car added to Stewart-Haas Racing. It’s just too convenient that Tony has been mentoring her and he has expressed interest in adding a third car to his race team. He would also enjoy the additional publicity and, more importantly, money.
Despite Danica Patrick’s inability to consistently race hard with the leaders throughout entire races, she still draws a lot of attention from the media.
Let’s face it, even though Ms. Patrick is currently in fifth place going into the final race of the 2009 IndyCar schedule, she hasn’t exactly seen any success. Out of 18 drivers who regularly appeared at the 16 out of 17 races, Danica Patrick only had five top-five finishes with a third place finish at Indy being her best finish during the 2009 season. She has not had a pole position, held the fastest lap of the race or even led the most laps during a race this year.
The sad truth is that for the vast majority of races, Danica Patrick cannot race against the top drivers in the IndyCar Series, and there aren’t that many good drivers period. She mainly races on fuel economy, skipping a pit stop near the end of the race to sneak away with a decent finish. That’s how she managed to get her win last year in Japan and that win wasn’t even against a full field of cars.
If it wasn’t for the fact that Danica Patrick is a woman she would have never made it this far in racing. She would have never been signed by Andretti Green Racing and become the constant focus on the media and her sponsors, appearing at least once in every commercial break during the IndyCar races (at least, that’s from what I’ve seen before DIRECTV dropped the Versus Channel!!!!).
Personally, I do not believe that Ms. Patrick will see any success in NASCAR. That doesn’t mean that she still can’t race in the series and keep collecting paychecks, but we’ll never see her win a race during normal circumstances and she’ll certainly never win a championship (she won’t earn one in IndyCar either). The media is going to push her bigtime if/when she makes the move to driving in the NASCAR Cup Series, but it’s just going to led to even more disappointment when she fails to produce positive results.
No, she’s not going to go out there and show the “boys” who is boss. She may get mad and yell at them after she gets bump drafted and knocked into the walls a few times, but the other drivers will ignore her and keep on racing.
Danica Patrick is nothing more than a publicity stunt and has certainly never appeared to be a “skilled driver” as claimed by others. The real skilled drivers may have bad seasons but they still manage to win races. More importantly, the skilled drivers also admit when they screw up out there on the track. Whenever Danica Patrick finishes poorly or doesn’t win a race, remember that it’s never her fault for doing poorly or not winning. It’s always her car’s fault or fault of one of the other drivers. Her post race interviews are usually good for a few laughs.
As far as the rumored extension to her Andretti Green contract, I easily see that as being true as long as she has an escape clause to make the switch to being a full-time NASCAR. The three-year part of the contract is there to guarantee her a job in IndyCar should early racing in NASCAR (doing both racing simultaneously) turn out to be a dud.
We should be hearing official news from NASCAR relatively soon if Danica Patrick is going to start racing in the Truck and/or Nationwide Series next year. Until then, we’ll have to just wait and see what happens next.