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Nationwide
NNS: Patrick Returning To ‘The Unknown’
Danica Patrick has a best finish of 31st in three NASCAR Nationwide Series starts for JR Motorsports...
Danica Patrick is reportedly set to make her Sprint Cup debut in 2012. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Danica Patrick is ready to be surrounded by stock car fans – and stock car sheet metal – again.
Patrick is scheduled to return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series portion of her 2010 racing schedule this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. She ran three Nationwide races early in the season, returned to her “full-time” job driving in the IZOD IndyCar Series and now will begin a string of 10 Nationwide races to complete that part of her schedule.
She had a horrible IndyCar start but ran sixth in the Indianapolis 500 and had a second and 10th, respectively, in the following open-wheel races to roll into Loudon with a touch of momentum.
Still, it’s all different Saturday, a fact she clearly understands.
“It’s hard to answer how the transition [back to stock cars] will be,” Patrick said Tuesday. “It’s kind of an unknown. I started doing stock cars and then went back to IndyCars and haven’t had much overlapping going on.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the teams, to the fans, to the paddock and everything in it. Everybody was so nice when I first came into the series at the beginning of the year.”
Patrick had some promising laps in JR Motorsports’ Nationwide cars but still had no finishes better than 31st in the three races.
It will be tough for her to perform well this weekend at NHMS, a track she’ll be driving on for the first time. She tested with the JR Motorsports team at Milwaukee, a similar track.
A top-20 qualifying run and a top-15 finish are realistic goals, she said.
“I think it’s best for my confidence and morale to set those expectation levels,” she said.
“I’m nervous because it’s new and there’s so much to learn about how the race goes and plays out, the yellow flags and the pit stops, how the car changes when the tires change. There’s so much I’m unfamiliar with. And that makes me nervous.
“I’m not going to know it all the first time I get there. I want to do a good job. I want to give the fans a reason to cheer for me. I want to do well.”
She said no one should expect her recent success in IndyCar racing to carry over to Nationwide.
“It’s a whole different thing,” she said. “I have to think about what I did last time I was in a stock car and what I need to remember for the next time. It doesn’t matter what’s happened on the IndyCar side.
“Like my friends tell me, you’re one good race from turning it around. It just so happens I’ve had a couple of good runs the last few weeks. I’m sure that helps my confidence a little, but still it’s a whole new weekend.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
Patrick is scheduled to return to the NASCAR Nationwide Series portion of her 2010 racing schedule this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. She ran three Nationwide races early in the season, returned to her “full-time” job driving in the IZOD IndyCar Series and now will begin a string of 10 Nationwide races to complete that part of her schedule.
She had a horrible IndyCar start but ran sixth in the Indianapolis 500 and had a second and 10th, respectively, in the following open-wheel races to roll into Loudon with a touch of momentum.
Still, it’s all different Saturday, a fact she clearly understands.
“It’s hard to answer how the transition [back to stock cars] will be,” Patrick said Tuesday. “It’s kind of an unknown. I started doing stock cars and then went back to IndyCars and haven’t had much overlapping going on.
“I’m looking forward to getting back to the teams, to the fans, to the paddock and everything in it. Everybody was so nice when I first came into the series at the beginning of the year.”
Patrick had some promising laps in JR Motorsports’ Nationwide cars but still had no finishes better than 31st in the three races.
It will be tough for her to perform well this weekend at NHMS, a track she’ll be driving on for the first time. She tested with the JR Motorsports team at Milwaukee, a similar track.
A top-20 qualifying run and a top-15 finish are realistic goals, she said.
“I think it’s best for my confidence and morale to set those expectation levels,” she said.
“I’m nervous because it’s new and there’s so much to learn about how the race goes and plays out, the yellow flags and the pit stops, how the car changes when the tires change. There’s so much I’m unfamiliar with. And that makes me nervous.
“I’m not going to know it all the first time I get there. I want to do a good job. I want to give the fans a reason to cheer for me. I want to do well.”
She said no one should expect her recent success in IndyCar racing to carry over to Nationwide.
“It’s a whole different thing,” she said. “I have to think about what I did last time I was in a stock car and what I need to remember for the next time. It doesn’t matter what’s happened on the IndyCar side.
“Like my friends tell me, you’re one good race from turning it around. It just so happens I’ve had a couple of good runs the last few weeks. I’m sure that helps my confidence a little, but still it’s a whole new weekend.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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