Posted on Thu, Oct. 06, 2011 03:34 PM
Danica Patrick to race a NASCAR car at Kansas Speedway for first time
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
Danica Patrick is venturing into the unknown at Kansas Speedway this weekend.
Shes raced six times on the track in the IndyCar Series, winning a pole in 2005, and finishing in the top 10 four times, including a fifth-place finish in 2009.
What will that mean for Patrick when she gets behind the wheel of her GoDaddy.com Chevrolet and makes her first start at Kansas Speedway in a stock car in Saturdays Kansas Lottery 300 NASCAR Nationwide race?
"I have absolutely no idea, Patrick said Thursday while relaxing in her suite at the Westin Crown Center. Everything is very different between and IndyCar and a stock car, so its a learning experience.
Im not sure how much it even helps to have been to a track before in an Indy Car and come back in a stock car. But familiarity cant be bad.
In August, Patrick made the long-awaited announcement that she was leaving her role as the IndyCar series most marketable and recognizable driver and joining Dale Earnhardt Jr.s JR Motorsports Nationwide team on a fulltime basis in 2012.
She has spent the past two seasons running fulltime in the IndyCar series and part-time in the Nationwide series with mixed results.
In eight Nationwide starts this year, shes had two top 10s, with a best finish of fourth at Las Vegas, the best finish ever for a woman in a NASCAR national race. In 17 IndyCar starts this season, her best was a fifth at Milwaukee, and she is 10th in the standings.
But what Patrick brings to NASCAR is box office. The Nationwide series is NASCARs stepchild series, dominated by Sprint Cup drivers who parachute it on Saturdays for an extra pay day. Patrick will give fans a reason to pay attention to Nationwide races at least for a couple of years and could open doors to a sport that has few women racers.
She also plans to enter eight-to-10 Sprint Cup races, mostly at tracks where the Nationwide series runs on the same weekend.
For the moment, though, Patrick, 29, has conflicting emotions as shell conclude her IndyCar career next week at Las Vegas before giving her NASCAR career her undivided attention starting Nov. 5 at Texas.
There is definitely going to be some sadness about some things, she said about departing IndyCar racing after seven seasons, including her historic win in Japan in 2008, the only win by a woman in a major closed-course auto race, and her only win in 116 starts.
Its going to be a little bit bittersweet, and somewhat of a relief, and its going to be exciting, Patrick said. Its going to be everything. Its the end of something. There are always some things youre going to miss, but its the beginning of something else, so there is the reason for excitement as well.
During her Indy Car career, Patricks teams at Andretti Autosport and Rahal Letterman were not the powerhouses of Penske Racing or Target Chip Ganassi and didnt have the best equipment.
But racing for JR Motorsports, with Hendrick horsepower under the hood, puts her in a position where she cannot afford to fail.
Its a good opportunity, she said. I like working with (crew chief) Tony Eury Jr. Im lucky to work with him. Good cars especially on the speedways. I was good at Daytona, which is always good and its always nice when you have an opportunity to win with a car.
There are some areas we can improve on, but overall, Im very lucky to be in a good ride. Every weekend you can go out there and have successes and failures according to everyone. Everyone has their own opinion on what you think you should or shouldnt do, but the most important thing is myself and the people closest to me as long as we think its a success, and Ive made the most of the equipment Ive been given, thats a success.
Defining success in 2012 could be a moving target. Winning a race with all those Cup guys in the field? Winning a championship against the eligible Nationwide contenders? Somewhere in between?
It would be great to win one or more, she said. That would be great. Its hard racing against a lot of Cup drivers. Running up front on a consistent basis is always good it would be great to run for the championship, but top five in points is pretty good.
Its tough to really know where you fit in and where youre expectation level should be unless you get going and get into the rhythm of it.
Patrick, the first woman to lead laps in the Indianapolis 500 when she finished fourth in 2005 the best finish by a female still has hopes of running the Indy 500 again. The 2012 Nationwide schedule has not been announced, but the Nationwide race at Iowa this year took place the weekend of Indy qualifying this year.
But Patrick has no regrets about her decision to leave open-wheel racing and will look back fondly on the experience.
It was great, she said. It put me where I am today. Ive been lucky to have great press and great things written about me. Great teammates along the way great cars that allowed me to perform, and every time I went to Indy was an experience and a pretty good race for me.
Winning was great, and we still have one more left, so I have one more shot. There were a couple of opportunities to win Indy but its one of those races. I dont think anything should have gone differently, I dont think anything should be changed, because if you change one thing in the past, it changes your future, and Im happy where I am.
Patrick spent Thursday speaking on behalf of her Drive 4 COPD campaign to defeat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a serious lung illness that robs people of their ability to breathe. Patricks grandmother died of emphysema, a form of the disease at age 61 in 2005, and shes encouraging people to be screened for it.
An orange and blue RV will be set up outside Kansas Speedway for fans to undergo a simple screening to access whether fans should consult a doctor.
We had a goal of screening a million people the first year, she said of the campaign that began in 2010, and now we just reached another million this year, and its just October.
To reach Randy Covitz, sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4796 or send e-mail to rcovitz@kcstar.com.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/06/3191383/danica-patrick-to-race-a-nascar.html#ixzz1a34Ni4V4
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM