NNS: Danica Patrick’s NASCAR Dance Continues

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NNS: Danica Patrick’s NASCAR Dance Continues

Danica Patrick drove record ARCA and NASCAR Nationwide Series ratings last year...

Tom Jensen | Posted January 13, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Danica Patrick returns for another part-time Nationwide Series schedule at JR Motorsports in 2011. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Year one of Danica Patrick’s flirtation with NASCAR has come and gone, with wholly predictable results: In terms of television ratings, Patrick was a sensation. In terms of race finishes, not so much.

And as for her future, well, that’s still every bit as much up in the air as it was at this time a year ago.

To recap: Last year, Patrick made her NASCAR Nationwide Series debut, entering 13 races with JR Motorsports, the team co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister Kelley. In those 13 starts, Patrick’s best finish was a 19th at the season-ending Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Her average finish was an abysmal 28.00.

On the other hand, when she ran the ARCA race at Daytona, the race broadcast on SPEED drew 2.4 million viewers, an 87 percent increase over the 1.3 million viewers the 2009 event had. Her Nationwide debut at Daytona became the most-viewed series race in cable television history.

Everywhere she went, it seemed, Patrick drew huge crowds and lots of media attention. Her souvenir trailer frequently had long lines, even at places where other drivers saw sparse sales.

On track, things did not go as well.

That Patrick struggled in her first year in stock cars is hardly a surprise. Superstars Dario Franchitti, Sam Hornish Jr. and Jacques Villeneuve tried NASCAR and couldn’t make it work for them. All three have multiple open-wheel championships and at least one Indy 500 victory on their resumes, while Patrick has won but a single IZOD IndyCar Series race.

Making the transition from high-downforce, lightweight and nimble open-wheel cars to heavy and ungainly stock cars is much tougher than it looks. Patrick was simply one more driver to struggle in her first year in NASCAR.

The question is, where does she go from here? Publicly, Patrick has repeatedly dodged questions about her long-term intentions, specifically whether she’ll move to NASCAR full-time once her contract with Andretti Autosport is up at the end of 2012, or whether she’ll finish her driving career in in open-wheel cars.

Danica Patrick is swarmed by media members at Daytona last February. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“I’m lucky I don’t have to make that decision right yet,” Patrick said during an appearance earlier this month at the GoDaddy.com bowl in Birmingham, Ala., an event in which she served as grand marshal. “I still have some time, and I’ve only run 13 (NNS) races. I have a long way to go to really establish myself and see if this is something I want to do.”

Presumably, how Patrick performs this year in her second go-round with JR Motorsports will have a huge impact on what her final decision will be.

But for now, there is no decision, just questions. Questions that next month, Patrick will start formulating her own answers to.

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 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Jensen

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