SIRIUS Satellite radio, NASCAR channel 128 is live grilling Danica Patrick and the gang at JR Motorsports about her upcoming part-time stint in the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Her first races she’s be qualifying for will be at CA and Las Vegas. That makes perfect sense to Bruce’s NBaP. She’s raced there before.
She completely understands the scenario she’s getting herself into and has realistic expectations.
She’s already shown more skill behind the wheel at the Orlando test than the JR Motorsports team was actually expecting.
Knowing what a good handling car is, is a definite advantage when coming into NASCAR, as opposed to drivers coming in and not understanding a potential they’ve never experienced.
And it’s fully understood that she’ll have some adversity that she needs to get over to make this work.
Patrick also noted that with all the hoopla and publicity, that she’s looking at making the driving a success and everything else will fall into place.
(It must be odd for Dale Earnhardt Jr. being in a press conference and having everyone NOT pay attention to him. Probably refreshing.)
As far as having skeptics, she’s not worried about them. In fact, she doesn’t address them… she addresses the issues at hand.
JR Motorsports is super thrilled with this endeavor and looked at getting Danica under their roof as a no-brainer. (That would be a ‘dUh!’) Anyone getting her in their camp, gets a massive media and fan focus on their organization and that means sponsor dollars.
It’s good for the team, and it’s good for the sport of NASCAR… plain and simple.
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Danica represented herself very well today and I think she probably converted some skeptics over to her camp. I’m a hard one to convert so I’m still looking with a steely squint in her direction, but it’s more of the “It’s a new driver, let’s see if the hype gets fulfilled.” kind of look.
Its true, I’ve not been a fan of her tossing out NASCAR as an option in her past contract negotiations. I felt like it was cheap. If this is just a one time deal to put her money where her mouth is and goes away, then I’ll be pretty ticked. If it turns into something more, then this will be an awesome deal.
I for one, do not want to hear a single comment about a girl being competitive. Gender has not bearing on talent. It’s really just a matter of the right lady busting through the ”ol boys” system (That’s a generic reference, not a NASCAR reference) and getting the right opportunity in the right team.
This just might be that.
-Bruce Simmons (Bruce’s NASCAR Bits & Pieces [NB&P])
