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Sprint Cup
CUP: Will Stewart’s Tough Love Pay Off For Danica?
Tony Stewart is trying to get Danica Patrick ready for 2013…
Danica Patrick contemplates entering the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on a full-time basis in 2013. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Danica Patrick’s foray into the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series so far has been, to put it politely, a huge challenge.
The question is, will car owner Tony Stewart’s tough love make Patrick a much better driver in 2013, when she races full time in the Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing, or will she continue to struggle mightily?
At this point, the jury’s still out.
When Stewart planned out Patrick’s part-time Cup schedule for 2012, he deliberately chose some of the toughest tracks and races for the former IndyCar star to run. The logic was that it was far better to expose her to the most challenging tracks so she’ll have a good baseline for next year than to let her pad her statistics at the easier courses.
The results have been underwhelming.
In six Cup starts this year, Patrick has not led a lap and has an average finish of 28.17. While she has been clear that her goal has been to learn the tracks first, rather than aggressively race for positions, the numbers are still disappointing.
“I get frustrated when I think about how I’m doing out there in Cup sometimes in practice,” Patrick said Friday at Kansas Speedway. “Then I remember back to Nationwide and I remember it didn’t go so great there either … each time I get to a new track it’s always the same. I’ve got to build up my confidence.”
Unlike some of her rivals, Patrick does not attack new tracks, which is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, she doesn’t make a lot of dumb mistakes by driving over her head; on the other, it takes her time to get up to speed.
“I’m not the kind of driver that goes out there and goes past it (the limits of her car) to figure out where it is,” she said. “I build up to it. Another thing I’m not very good at doing early on is take a car that’s not right and make it decent. I just don’t have the confidence to do that yet. When they make a change that’s right all of a sudden a bunch of time comes off.
“Plus the fact that I’m methodical … Being methodical is also what helps me be able to repeat it time and time again. I know that the team has been really encouraged in the races where a lot of times through the middle or the end of the race my pace is really good and they’re really happy with it.”
Despite the ups and downs of the season, Stewart said Friday that he’s sticking by his plans for Patrick.
“We picked races that were going to be hard,” Stewart said. “They are not supposed to be easy. Her scenario is a little different than a lot of other drivers. She has been very eager to get to the Cup series and I still think more so than some people do that she has the ability to be successful at this level. The learning curve that she is going through has been a lot shorter than what it probably should have been. But with that, that is why Ryan (Newman) and I are here as a support system to her, why Greg (Zipadelli) was chosen as her crew chief for this year.”
Stewart said picking challenging tracks would accelerate Patrick’s learning curve.
“There wasn’t anything to learn by going to easy tracks this year on a partial schedule,” Stewart said. “The schedule she is going to have next year she is going to have to go to these hard tracks. Being able to just have the experience of going the year before even if it’s a rough experience you at least learn and get a base of that track anytime you do something for the first time it’s tough. The second time is always easier. I don’t care what it is.”
Compounding Patrick’s challenges is the fact that she’s also has been on the periphery of several mini-maelstroms not of her own making.
JR Motorsports, the team she drives for in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, fired competition director Tony Eury Sr. earlier this year and parted ways with Tony Eury Jr., who was Patrick’s crew chief.
In 29 NNS starts this season, Patrick has just two top-10 finishes and no top fives. This in a year where the goal in February was to race for the series championship.
In 54 career series starts, Patrick has a single top five and five top 10s.
There’s also the fact that her long-time sponsor, GoDaddy.com is backing away from the titillating, if occasionally sophomoric, TV ads that Patrick has starred in for several years.
“It’s just how it goes,” Patrick said of reports that GoDaddy.com will drop her from their upcoming Super Bowl ads. “It’s really not a problem. I know they were saying sorry for the drama, but I just drive the car.”
And so it goes.
Two weeks from now at Texas Motor Speedway, Tony Gibson will move from Ryan Newman’s No. 39 SHR car to become Patrick’s new Sprint Cup crew chief.
Stewart remained confident about Patrick’s 2013 prospects, and the fact that she’ll appreciate what happened this year.
“Next year she will see the benefits of that,” said Stewart. “It is hard because she is running against top-notch guys, top-notch teams. There is not enough time to allow her to get caught up at this point, but she is still learning. She will realize that next year and she is a confident person and part of my job as a car owner is to say ‘Hey I know it’s frustrating at times, but trust me there is a benefit to what we are doing. I’ve been there before I know’. Though she may not see the benefit of it right now she will next year.”
As for Patrick, she managed to be philosophical about.
“What doesn’t kill you makes your stronger right?” she said.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
The question is, will car owner Tony Stewart’s tough love make Patrick a much better driver in 2013, when she races full time in the Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing, or will she continue to struggle mightily?
At this point, the jury’s still out.
When Stewart planned out Patrick’s part-time Cup schedule for 2012, he deliberately chose some of the toughest tracks and races for the former IndyCar star to run. The logic was that it was far better to expose her to the most challenging tracks so she’ll have a good baseline for next year than to let her pad her statistics at the easier courses.
The results have been underwhelming.
In six Cup starts this year, Patrick has not led a lap and has an average finish of 28.17. While she has been clear that her goal has been to learn the tracks first, rather than aggressively race for positions, the numbers are still disappointing.
“I get frustrated when I think about how I’m doing out there in Cup sometimes in practice,” Patrick said Friday at Kansas Speedway. “Then I remember back to Nationwide and I remember it didn’t go so great there either … each time I get to a new track it’s always the same. I’ve got to build up my confidence.”
Unlike some of her rivals, Patrick does not attack new tracks, which is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, she doesn’t make a lot of dumb mistakes by driving over her head; on the other, it takes her time to get up to speed.
“I’m not the kind of driver that goes out there and goes past it (the limits of her car) to figure out where it is,” she said. “I build up to it. Another thing I’m not very good at doing early on is take a car that’s not right and make it decent. I just don’t have the confidence to do that yet. When they make a change that’s right all of a sudden a bunch of time comes off.
“Plus the fact that I’m methodical … Being methodical is also what helps me be able to repeat it time and time again. I know that the team has been really encouraged in the races where a lot of times through the middle or the end of the race my pace is really good and they’re really happy with it.”
Despite the ups and downs of the season, Stewart said Friday that he’s sticking by his plans for Patrick.
“We picked races that were going to be hard,” Stewart said. “They are not supposed to be easy. Her scenario is a little different than a lot of other drivers. She has been very eager to get to the Cup series and I still think more so than some people do that she has the ability to be successful at this level. The learning curve that she is going through has been a lot shorter than what it probably should have been. But with that, that is why Ryan (Newman) and I are here as a support system to her, why Greg (Zipadelli) was chosen as her crew chief for this year.”
Stewart said picking challenging tracks would accelerate Patrick’s learning curve.
“There wasn’t anything to learn by going to easy tracks this year on a partial schedule,” Stewart said. “The schedule she is going to have next year she is going to have to go to these hard tracks. Being able to just have the experience of going the year before even if it’s a rough experience you at least learn and get a base of that track anytime you do something for the first time it’s tough. The second time is always easier. I don’t care what it is.”
Compounding Patrick’s challenges is the fact that she’s also has been on the periphery of several mini-maelstroms not of her own making.
JR Motorsports, the team she drives for in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, fired competition director Tony Eury Sr. earlier this year and parted ways with Tony Eury Jr., who was Patrick’s crew chief.
In 29 NNS starts this season, Patrick has just two top-10 finishes and no top fives. This in a year where the goal in February was to race for the series championship.
In 54 career series starts, Patrick has a single top five and five top 10s.
There’s also the fact that her long-time sponsor, GoDaddy.com is backing away from the titillating, if occasionally sophomoric, TV ads that Patrick has starred in for several years.
“It’s just how it goes,” Patrick said of reports that GoDaddy.com will drop her from their upcoming Super Bowl ads. “It’s really not a problem. I know they were saying sorry for the drama, but I just drive the car.”
And so it goes.
Two weeks from now at Texas Motor Speedway, Tony Gibson will move from Ryan Newman’s No. 39 SHR car to become Patrick’s new Sprint Cup crew chief.
Stewart remained confident about Patrick’s 2013 prospects, and the fact that she’ll appreciate what happened this year.
“Next year she will see the benefits of that,” said Stewart. “It is hard because she is running against top-notch guys, top-notch teams. There is not enough time to allow her to get caught up at this point, but she is still learning. She will realize that next year and she is a confident person and part of my job as a car owner is to say ‘Hey I know it’s frustrating at times, but trust me there is a benefit to what we are doing. I’ve been there before I know’. Though she may not see the benefit of it right now she will next year.”
As for Patrick, she managed to be philosophical about.
“What doesn’t kill you makes your stronger right?” she said.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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