ARCA: NASCAR President Helton At Patrick Test

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ARCA: NASCAR President Helton At Patrick Test

NASCAR President Mike Helton was one of the spectators at Daytona International Speedway...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted December 19, 2009 Daytona Beach, FL

NASCAR President Mike Helton was a visitor to the JR Motorsports garage at Daytona International Speedway as Danica Patrick participated in a test session. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

NASCAR President Mike Helton occasionally will stroll through the garage during an Automobile Racing Club of America test session, but he made it a point to stop at the JR Motorsports garage to see what was going on there Friday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway.

About a dozen photographers were crowded around the garage taking pictures of JR Motorsports driver Danica Patrick get in her car for the test session.

“I saw you guys all huddled up, so I figured I’d stop by and see what all the hoopla was about,” Helton said after chatting with former NASCAR executive Mark Dyer, who helped negotiate Patrick’s NASCAR deal as part of his job at IMG, and JR Motorsports director of competition Tony Eury Sr.

Patrick, a 27-year-old Izod IndyCar Series driver, will make her NASCAR debut either in the Feb. 13 Nationwide Series race at Daytona or the Feb. 20 Nationwide race at Auto Club Speedway in California. She plans to drive in up to 13 Nationwide races in each of the next two years while also competing full time in the IndyCar Series.

Helton said he couldn’t remember one person’s NASCAR debut that generated such interest. Patrick is racing’s most well-known active female driver, and her presence even attracted a reporter from The New Yorker to the race track.

“She’s got a good deal of experience with a following,” Helton said. “It’s always – whether it’s Juan Montoya or Sam Hornish or whoever it might be, Tony Stewart – [when open-wheel drivers] decide on NASCAR to participate in, we consider that a positive thing for us.

“You take someone with the profile that Danica has and the attention that she attracts, that doesn’t hurt either. … It doesn’t hurt us to have good story lines, and this certainly is a good story line.”

Expectations for Patrick are mixed. She will be in good equipment from JR Motorsports, but she also has no experience in stock cars. She has one career IndyCar Series victory and was fifth in the standings last year.

“I hope everybody’s expectations can be reasonable,” Helton said. “That’s important. She’s got obviously her own goals and expectations, and that’s the important thing. JR Motorsports, [co-owner] Kelley Earnhardt has got theirs [expectations] that they all want to come together with, but I think it’s important for the rest of us to be reasonable with ours.”

SceneDaily.com • Dale Earnhardt Jr optimistic about Danica Patricks chances for success in NASCAR