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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Patrick Getting Comfortable In Car, With Zipadelli
Danica Patrick will make her Sprint Cup debut in the Daytona 500 with Stewart-Haas Racing...
Kenny Bruce  | http://www.scenedaily.com  |  Posted January 12, 2012   Daytona Beach, FL
Danica Patrick stands by in the garage area during Daytona Preseason Thunder on Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)
The biggest difference between Danica Patrick’s two crew chiefs – Greg Zipadelli in Sprint Cup and Tony Eury Jr. in the Nationwide Series?

“His accent is not as thick as Tony Jr.’s,” Patrick said of Zipadelli Thursday during a break in testing at Daytona International Speedway. “I understand every word he says.”

Patrick will compete for the Nationwide Series title, running her first full season with JR Motorsports and Eury Jr., a North Carolina native and longtime NASCAR crewman and crew chief. At the same time, she will run a limited Cup schedule for Stewart-Haas Racing, including her expected debut in the season-opening Daytona 500.

For now, Zipadelli, a native of Berlin, Conn. and the competition director at SHR, will handle the crew chief duties for her Cup effort.

“I feel really comfortable with him so far,” Patrick said of working with Zipadelli. “I feel respected, and I feel like he's been very patient.

“Even the little things, getting here this morning and just kind of adjusting a belt a little bit and adjusting a throttle a little bit, he doesn't look at me like I'm inexperienced and I should be comfortable right away or it should be right or the throttle doesn't feel right or I should get used to it and be used to it. He investigates and says, ‘no problem, let's get it right,’ and makes me comfortable with that kind of stuff.”

Patrick was eighth in the morning practice session, her first on-track run at Daytona in a Cup car. Except for a small miscue – missing the entrance to pit road at one point – it was an uneventful first run for the 29-year-old former IndyCar star.

“Obviously we haven’t worked together with ... how the car feels and how we’re going to change it and that kind of stuff,” Patrick said. “And especially here at Daytona ... we’re probably not going to get a lot of that. It’s not that kind of track.

“But I can say so far I feel very comfortable and I feel very fortunate to have him to work with to have that experience.”

Zipadelli served as Tony Stewart’s crew chief for 10 seasons at Joe Gibbs Racing, winning a pair of Cup titles (2002, ’05) and 33 races. He rejoined his former driver at the end of 2011, taking on the competition director’s role and picking up the crew chief duties for Patrick by default.

“I think for us it was a scenario where we were trying to get Zippy hired as a competition director, but it really was a perfect opportunity for us because it's hard to get a really good crew chief hired to only run ten races a year in the first year,” Stewart said. “So to have somebody like Greg that has been working with Joey [Logano] and has been a crew chief for the last 13 straight years, he can come into this scenario. The last two guys he had were both were rookies when they came in. So he's familiar with this and the process of getting a rookie adapted to the car and knowing what to do to make them comfortable.”

Putting Zipadelli in charge of Patrick’s team, Stewart said, “made sense.”

“The practicality of it, of him having that experience of working with new drivers, makes it a smart decision for us to have somebody like him that can work with Danica and know ... how to go through those learning processes and how to help with that. So ... we get the best of both worlds with it.”

Because it is a new team, Patrick’s No. 10 entry has no owner points, meaning she might have to race her way into the field through the first five races. However, if officials moved Stewart’s owner points from 2011 to the team, she would be guaranteed a starting spot.

If that happened, Stewart could qualify either based on his qualifying speed or, if necessary, use his champion’s provisional to earn a starting spot.

Stewart said SHR officials are “still trying to figure out the equation, but the good thing is, looking on the [timing] sheet today, the cars seems to have good speed right off the bat.

“I've got the utmost confidence that even in the worst-case scenario that we've got the right driver that can get this car in the race, no problem. But we're working through that and trying to get that finalized and trying to figure out our options to make sure we give her the best opportunity to get in the Daytona 500 and get her all the experience that we can get her.”

SceneDaily.com • Kasey Kahne to Hendrick, bevy of new crew chiefs highlight list of best offseason moves

DAYTONA PRESEASON THUNDER TESTING: During the Jan. 12-14 test sessions at Daytona International Speedway, fans can submit questions and comments through Twitter @SPEED (http://www.twitter.com/speed) using the #daytonatesting hashtag.
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