Danica Patrick's father is exploring the possibility of the popular Indy Racing League driver moving to NASCAR as soon as next year, the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday.
Yeah, that might boost NASCAR ratings - and kill the fledgling popularity and support for IRL on TV.
Gee, I wonder why it might be a good move for NASCAR? 
Or a good move for Danica. 
Wait, I'm sure I'll think of a good reason. 
More pics here. Official Danica website here.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Rolling out of the pits
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3 comments:
Danica probably ends up in Nascar within 1-3 years. There's so much money and fame there now that it's hard to say no. But the question is, does she want to go with zero track record to fall back on? Far better open-wheelers than her have tried before (Tracy, Vasser, Fittipaldi, Pruett) and pretty much been "fender failures." Remember, Danica still hasn't won an IRL race and with Rahal/Letterman being slow this year, she's probably not going to do it in 2006. Plus I'm not sure she's ready to go from a light 16 race IRL schedule to a 36 race Cup one. And she'd have to give up dreams of winning Indy. With the new start time, doing the double duty a la Tony Stewart is not possible anymore.
Bottom line: Danica probably tries it. Childress has wooed a female driver before in Sarah Fisher so that might be a good fit. She'll sell a lot of gear and look great in it too. She is good so I think she could be competitive for a good team, but I don't see it as a wise career move.
The first really good female Nascar driver will probably come up through their own feeder divisions if she gets a good ride.
BTW, Indy racing will survive losing Danica. The month of May and 400,000 people who attend the Indy 500 assure that. Look for the IRL to merge with Champ Car in the near future which will put the sport on track to regain much of its popularity sometime down the road. These things go in trends.
I sure did say the word "good" a lot. Yikes. I guess my creativity declines with the more blog posts I write in a day.
HEr "appeal" is about the only thing to fall back on, because SHE HASN'T WON A RACE.
Juan Montoya is moving to NASCAR and is one of the racing's winningest drivers, but you barely hear a peep about it.
Danica's highest finish is 4th at the Indy 500, yet there's much more talk of her moving than Montoya despite the lesser track record.
The difference? It's not because of talent. It's because of "talent".
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