Danica Patrick 2012   2012 Sprint Cup Series Schedule 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race Stats 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Race Stats 2012 Snippets 2012 News Living It Up Patrick dialing back expectations for 2012 For Patrick, progress to performance leap not easy Danica Patrick returns to Daytona 500 after early wreck Patrick wins pole for Nationwide race at Daytona Danica goes for a wild ride on final lap of Duel Patrick's biggest impact may be off the track With starting spot secure, Patrick has pressure-free qualifying day at Daytona Danica Patrick To Skip Indy 500 In 2012 In Transition To NASCAR Patrick's 2012 Cup plan begins with Daytona 500 Danica Patrick To Skip Indy 500 In 2012 In Transition To NASCAR Patrick to make Cup debut in 2012 Daytona 500 Snippets Danica Patrick struggles during long night at Richmond *     *     * Danica started 30th and finished in 21st at Phoenix, 3 laps behind the winner. *     *     * Danica was involved in a Lap 2 accident triggered when Elliott Sadler shoved Jimmie Johnson coming out of the trioval. Kurt Busch, David Ragan and Trevor Bayne were also involved. By lap 66, her crew had her back on the track Danica finished in the 38th spot, 64 laps behind the winner. *     *     * Danica started on the pole in the first Nationwide race of 2012. Her first in 26 attempts and the first for a female driver since Shawna Robinson started on the pole at Atlanta in March 1994. Robinson is the only other woman to win a pole in any of NASCAR's top three national series. On lap 49, Danica was knocked out by her teammate Cole Whitt but came back 48 laps later, after major repairs, to finished 38th. She is currently ranked 22nd. That's the way I love to see a NASCAR round-d-round race end with a major pileup with the leaders at the front of the pack and lots of money down the drain to repair all those cars. It's the new form of the good ole Demolition Derby.   *     *     * Patrick wins pole for Nationwide race at Daytona *     *     * Danica Patrick takes to the track and becomes the third female to qualify for the Daytona 500. *     *     * Danica Patrick To Skip Indy 500 In 2012 In Transition To NASCAR   *     *     * Patrick to make Cup debut in 2012 Daytona 500 News Living it up Patrick not shying away from the full Talladega experience in her first visit to track Danica Patrick proudly displayed a string of large beads hanging around her neck on Friday, traditionally a bawdy badge of honor for women who bare certain body parts for men at Talladega Superspeedway. Asked how she acquired those beads, Patrick said, slyly, "Isn't that obvious?" Yes, Patrick is already embracing the aura of Talladega. And she's also embracing the track. Patrick was 12th in practice on Friday, although she will start 17th for Saturday's Aaron's 312 with the grid set by points when rain Thursday altered Friday's schedule and qualifying was eliminated. Patrick also posted the second-best 10-lap average in Friday's practice at 184.619 mph, just behind her bump-draft partner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. He led the 10-lap chart at 185.011. It was just another sign Patrick is getting up to speed in her first full season in NASCAR. "To be honest, I actually felt pretty good that Junior was wanting to know when I was coming back out of the garage and that he wanted to run and bump-draft with me at the beginning,'' Patrick said. "That was kind of a good feeling for me. I feel like we haven't really made big efforts to try and find each other. So if we're together, we do it. But the fact that he asked if I was coming back out was a nice feeling. But I'm feeling more and more comfortable all the time." Particularly at the longer, faster tracks on the circuit. That's still her comfort zone after years in the IndyCar Series. "Do I like Daytona and Talladega type of racing? I really do,'' she said. "It reminds me a lot of IndyCar racing because you're flat out, looking for air, you're just trying to stay with the pack, you're trying to weave your way through it. In IndyCar, it's a high-speed chess match. I'm used to it, I like it, it's not about the speed, it's just about the style. For me, though, outside of that, the mile-and-a-halfs are probably my favorite just because I think more happens. It's a little more in your control.'' Unlike Daytona. Patrick was collected in wrecks in all three races at Daytona in February: the Gatorade twin qualifying race, the Nationwide Series event and the Daytona 500. It was not the Sprint Cup debut she imagined, but Patrick insists she is not dwelling on those races. With her first superspeedway race since Daytona set for Saturday, followed by the second Cup race of her career next week at Darlington, Patrick knows she has to put that past behind her. "For me, it's not about wrapping my head around what happened in the past,'' she said. "It's about what happens next and how am I gonna be, what did I learn and move on. It's really easy with this schedule to dwell on things and let one weekend affect the next, and affect the next, so the hurdle is, for me, especially because I get so wrapped up in the results, is to disconnect from what just happened and move on and look at it as a positive that you get another week. You get a race the next weekend to go and make it right if you didn't feel like it was right the previous one. So I don't feel like I have to do anything. My goal is just to run competitively and see what happens." In that regard, Patrick wasn't particularly pleased with last week's result, a 21st-place finish in the Nationwide race at Richmond. Among those who finished ahead of her was Johanna Long, another Nationwide Series rookie who inevitably is compared to Patrick because of their gender. Long finished 20th at Richmond. Asked about fans who dislike Patrick gravitating to her, Long said, "I'm trying to grow my fan base just as everyone is out there, so I guess it's a good thing." But Long didn't show up for her press conference wearing a big strand of beads. And that's what continues to set Patrick apart from other women in the sport. She plays up her gender, just as she did on Friday. "Beads on," she said. "Beads up front. This is what makes Talladega special. And makes it exciting. When I talked about coming to Talladega it was ... it's just as much of an excitement level for me to see the fans and get a feel for the atmosphere as it is for driving the car. Driving around Talladega is much like Daytona so I felt something similar at least from what I expect it to be like, anyway. But the atmosphere is something really unique. So it's definitely one of those tracks that I was looking forward to coming to for more reasons than just racing. I think that it's going to be fun. Like I said, I've already got my beads, so what next? More beads?" Source: www.nascar.com/nationwide-series/news/120504/dpatrick-enjoying-talladega/index.html Danica Patrick struggles during long night at Richmond Danica Patrick was encouraged with each adjustment that her JR Motorsports team made to her car during the Nationwide Series race Friday night at Richmond International Raceway. But as she fought a loose racecar, that encouraging feeling went away during green-flag runs in what turned out to be a long evening culminating in a 21st-place finish, two laps behind winner Kurt Busch. “We were just extremely loose—extremely loose the whole time,” Patrick said after a race that featured a 126-lap green-flag run to the finish that didn’t allow much time for adjustments. “Entry and exit (in the corners) were difficult. … Every change made it better when I went out. “But it always got to the point of loose again. It was definitely hell waiting for that last stop (during that green-flag run).” While she knew the short tracks would pose the biggest challenge in her transition from IndyCar racing to her first full year of Nationwide competition, Patrick didn’t expect to struggle as much after a solid performance in practice and qualifying. She was ninth overall in practice and started the race Friday in 16th. But she dropped back to the rear of the lead-lap cars early and rarely came close to cracking the top 20. “We made huge strides in practice — that was a good practice at any track for me,” Patrick said. “We’ll take that and my best qualifying on a short track, too. “We’ll take that and we’ll move on. I’m sure that we’re going to learn from this experience and be better at the next one for it.” She was joined among those two laps down by Travis Pastrana, the action sports star who finished 22nd in his series debut for RAB Racing. Source: aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2012-04-28/danica-patrick-struggles-during-long-night-in-richmond-nationwide-race?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl11%7Csec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D156201 Danica Patrick more comfortable in return to short track at Richmond Danica Patrick will take any sign of improvement she can get as she continues her stock-car education. So she was smiling Friday afternoon after a practice session that was better than she performed at Richmond International Raceway last September. Patrick finished the 150-minute session ranked ninth among Nationwide Series drivers at the .75-mile track and qualified 16th for the race Friday night. . “Staying inside the top 10 in practice was a really good thing for me,” Patrick said. “Hopefully we can qualify well. … It was a much better start to the day than the last time I was here.” In her first full season in her transition from IndyCar, the 30-year-old Patrick went five races with a best finish of 12th before earning her first top-10 (eighth) of the season at Texas. It was the fourth top-10 of her career. She had run 25 Nationwide races for JR Motorsports the previous two seasons. Patrick is 11th in the Nationwide standings and said a key to her improvement is crew chief Tony Eury Jr.’s ability to translate her information from a past race into the setup for practice the next time at the track. “The car felt really comfortable from the get-go,” Patrick said. “So that was a good thing. Part of it is just Tony and I learning each other and him learning what kind of characteristics I like in the car and what’s important. “We came with a variation of what we ended up with last year when we ran here. That’s a big head start.” Source: aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2012-04-27/danica-patrick-nationwide-series-richmond-jr-motorsports-tony-eury-jr Patrick dialing back expectations for 2012 In talking about competing for a championship in the Nationwide Series this year, Danica Patrick admitted Friday that she might have set her expectations at an unrealistic level. I think I need to remind myself every now and again of really where the expectation level should be, and where mine should be. -- DANICA PATRICK "I definitely feel like I want to do well for so many people," Patrick said Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, returning to the track for the first time since racing in the 2011 IndyCar Series finale that claimed the life of Dan Wheldon. "I think that I gave myself maybe a little bit of false expectation about running this year for the championship, and probably using those words 'for the championship.' "It's my first-ever full year, and what I've done still doesn't add up to one year, and I didn't have anything before that at all in stock cars. I think I need to remind myself every now and again of really where the expectation level should be, and where mine should be. And I can't let all of the exposure and hype and hope -- I'm serious when I say 'hope' -- I can't let that be something that makes me feel like I have to do well." * Sound Off: Danica on rough start to season Patrick's return to Las Vegas brought some strong emotions along with the dose of realism. As she walked through the speedway property -- more so than practicing on the race track -- she thought of the loss the sport suffered this past October. "There won't be a time that I come to Las Vegas that I won't think about Dan, and I won't think about the family and hope that they're doing well," Patrick said. "It's in the moments where you don't have a singular focus, like walking up to the media center here [Friday], seeing the neon garage, and kind of the atmosphere that was here on that weekend and where we were pitted -- the things that we were around and the sights that you saw where you can have time to think about multiple things -- that it gets to you." Inside the car was another matter. "I don't think it completely escapes you, but for the most part, you're able to have something to focus on, one thing to focus on, and so I feel that I'm able to do that when I'm out on the race track," said Patrick, who was 14th-fastest in the first Nationwide practice (speeds) and seventh overall in the final session (speeds). "[That's] probably a really good thing, because, especially when you're trying to get the car to its very limit, you need to be able to focus on that one thing. But, as I said, the thoughts outside the car, being in the surroundings, are when you remember so much." Source: www.nationwide.nascar.com/nationwide-series/news/120309/dpatrick-dials-back-expectations/index.html For Patrick, progress to performance leap not easy Finds herself mired 21st in points due to crash at Daytona, poor finish at Phoenix For Danica Patrick, Las Vegas Motor Speedway cannot come quickly enough. A fast intermediate track, the same venue where she recorded her historic fourth-place finish in a Nationwide Series race a season ago -- it all makes for friendly, familiar territory to a driver who could use a little of it right now, given her initial foray into full-time NASCAR competition is off to such a trying start. Forget the crashes in and around the Daytona 500, a frightening impact into the backstretch wall during a qualifying race that was unavoidable, a hard lean into David Ragan during the rain-delayed big show that in retrospect probably wasn't. When it comes to Sprint Cup events, where admittedly she's just trying to make laps and gain experience, Patrick gets a pass. And given that she's lined up a slate of very challenging race tracks, those events are only going to get more difficult -- her next start, at cranky old Darlington Raceway in May, is going to feel like taking first steps onto an alien landscape. Phoenix proves to be a challenge for Danica Patrick as she finishes 21st, three laps down. The Nationwide Series, though, is another animal altogether. She's now full-time on that circuit, with a pair of partial seasons behind her, and aims of winning a race and finishing high in the points -- if not contending for the championship itself. This isn't about the learning curve anymore, it's about results. Fair or not, Patrick will no longer be judged on progress, but on finishing positions. And while it's very early, and while there is still a whole lot of racing to come in the 2012 season, two weeks are more than enough time to distill the difference between dipping a toe in NASCAR and plunging in for real. Quite simply, there's a bigger picture out there that wasn't present for Patrick before, one that's going to become more magnified with every difficult run like the one she endured this past Saturday at Phoenix, where the race car seemed a handful all day and she finished three laps down. This isn't a matter of talent or enthusiasm, two things Patrick has in abundance, the former on display in her handful of strong outings last season and her pole run at Daytona, the latter evident whenever she's around a stock-car track. She's doing this the absolute right way, asking the right questions, making the right friends, showing the right combination of humility and confidence. But now we're at a point where she has to do it every week, where struggles easily become compounded, where some drivers fall into a season-long points hole they spend all year trying to dig out of. Now, that's not to say that will happen to Patrick, but clearly at 21st in points she has some work to do already. She's in a different world now. Running a limited schedule, the promise of a strong run here or there was enough. No more. Now, the performance has to be there almost every week, and if it's not, the wolves are going to be at the door. Patrick has been well-embraced by NASCAR fans, something that's evident in both her merchandise sales as well as the ovation she receives during driver introductions. She's fiery, she's different, and she's easily likeable, and people are responding to that. But she also has a load of sponsorship behind her while more accomplished drivers like Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne have little to none, and if she slogs through a few more races like Phoenix -- Bristol is on the horizon -- discontent may begin to stir. As her boss Dale Earnhardt Jr. well knows, popularity can be a burden if it's not matched with results. Of course, Patrick understands this. "The most amount of respect comes from running for position and racing each other hard," she told reporters in Phoenix prior to last weekend's race. And to be fair, there are some mitigating factors at work. Although even she admits she overcorrected and shot up into the wall during her wreck in the Nationwide race at Daytona, she was inadvertently taken out by JR Motorsports teammate Cole Whitt. Even some Sprint Cup drivers still have trouble with Phoenix, which was reconfigured late last season. And she's inserted herself into one of the deeper Nationwide fields in recent memory, one where Elliott Sadler and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remain the standard-bearers, but Sam Hornish Jr., Austin Dillon and Michael Annett are among those showing potential. Moonlighting Cup drivers have been shut out of the first two races, something that hasn't happened since Chad Little won two in a row to open the Busch Series campaign in 1995. As is always the case in racing, outside forces play their part. For Patrick, though, Vegas is a known quantity. Although a few contenders ran out of fuel in the Nationwide race there last season, her fourth-place finish -- best ever for a woman at NASCAR's national level -- was no fluke. She raced her way up to the front and fought her way past some other drivers, Bayne among them. Everyone knows what she's capable of there. She finishes three laps down at Vegas, the warning lights will surely go off. Of course, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Although crew chief Tony Eury Jr. has preached repeatedly that the first 10 races are everything for his driver, Patrick has some factors working in her favor. She seems at her best on the kind of intermediate tracks, like Las Vegas, that dominate the NASCAR circuit. She also takes struggle very hard, and tries to learn from it. Following her crash-induced, 48-laps-down finish in the Nationwide opener at Daytona, one of those she sought counsel from was Sadler, the current points leader and the winner of last weekend's race in Phoenix. "She walked by my bus Saturday after the Nationwide race in Daytona, and she was all down and out," Sadler told reporters after his victory. "She was explaining to me what happened in the wreck and [that] she finished 38th. I said, 'Danica, I finished 38th last year at Daytona, too. I went to Phoenix and I finished 12th, I went to Vegas and I finished 12th, I went to Bristol and finished somewhere in the top 10. Next thing I know, I was top-five in points.' I said, 'In the Nationwide Series, if you just see the checkered flag at every event, stay on the lead lap, get yourself a good finish, you will learn what you need to learn ... and you'll be where you want to be in the points.' That's what I told her. 'Hey, I've been there, I know what you're going through, but you've got to put this behind you and move on.' That's kind of what I told her." Patrick did indeed see the checkered flag at Phoenix, and perhaps finishing a race weekend without being involved an accident should be seen as a sign of progress. But in all fairness, this is someone who is supposed to go full-time in Sprint Cup with Stewart-Haas in 2013. Very soon, progress isn't going to be enough. For a full-time driver in a fully-sponsored car, performance is the absolute bottom line. Patrick isn't shy about piling an awful lot on herself, which leads to situations like the one she's in now, where she's trying to still learn -- she does have only 27 career Nationwide starts, after all -- and theoretically contend for a points championship at the same time. That's a very difficult balance for anyone to pull off, much less someone who's still trying to define realistic expectations. "I think you need some expectation levels that aren't 'I want to go win.' Everybody wants to win, that's clear," Patrick said before her most recent event at Phoenix. "But some realistic [expectations], some ones you can actually make happen. First it's top-20s, and now, through the progressions, it's top-10s. ... I think on a mile-and-a-half [tracks], there's some likelihood to be in the top 10 more consistently." That's certainly the hope at Las Vegas, now that the bingo hopper that is Daytona and the recently-reconfigured Phoenix are each in the rearview mirror. It's clear Patrick is still learning at this, and it's true that progress and performance are not always mutually exclusive, even though one typically takes longer to find than the other. In all honesty, though, at this point, expectations are out of her hands. They're set for her, by dint of her full-time status and fully-sponsored car and accelerated NASCAR career path, each time she slides behind the wheel. Source: http://www.nationwide.nascar.com/nationwide-series/news/120307/dcaraviello-dpatrick-progress-not-enough-needs-results/index.html Danica Patrick returns to Daytona 500 after early wreck After getting caught up in an early wreck, Danica Patrick returned to the Daytona 500 on lap 62 Monday night. Patrick got caught in a six-car crash on lap 2 when Elliott Sadler hit Jimmie Johnson from behind in the middle of a big pack of traffic. Danica Patrick's car had repairs made to it before she returned to the track 62 laps down. (AP Photo)Johnson’s car slammed into the frontstretch wall, collecting the cars of Patrick, Kurt Busch, David Ragan and Trevor Bayne. Patrick’s car suffered damage to the right rear, forcing her to take it to the garage for extensive repairs. She was running 40th, 62 laps behind, when she returned to the race. Patrick was involved in a wreck in all three races she ran at Daytona—none of which were caused by her. She was turned by Aric Almirola in her Gatorade Duel qualifying race on Thursday and then spun by her teammate, Cole Whitt, in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday. Patrick, who is running the full Nationwide schedule this year, made her Sprint Cup debut in the Daytona 500. She is scheduled to make nine more Cup starts this year. Source: aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2012-02-27/danica-patrick-returns-to-daytona-500-after-early-wreck Patrick wins pole for Nationwide race at Daytona A day after a jarring crash took her out of the first Gatorade Duel qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway, Danica Patrick stormed back to win the pole for Saturday's Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race at the 2.5-mile track. The pole award was Patrick's first in 26 attempts and the first for a female driver since Shawna Robinson started on the pole at Atlanta in March 1994. Robinson is the only other woman to win a pole in any of NASCAR's top three national series. The 35th of 50 drivers to make a qualifying attempt, Patrick posted a lap at 182.741 mph and waited as drivers who had been faster in practice attempted to unseat her. That didn't happen. Dale Earnhardt Jr. couldn't knock her off. Nor could Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch or any of the drivers who followed her in the qualifying order. To Patrick, the wait for 15 cars seemed interminable. "Gosh it seemed like a hundred, didn't it?" Patrick said. "I didn't even know the qualifying order. I had no idea how many people were going after me. One of the engineers was writing down lap times as he heard 'em, and he was like, 'All right, we dodged that bullet.' "We've got this one -- this one's going to be a big one. All right, we got that one.' And I'm like, 'It seems like every car is a big one. Of course it is -- they're all faster than me [in practice]. That's why they're qualifying after me.' "I definitely didn't know it was the pole until the last car crossed the line." Trevor Bayne qualified on the outside of the front row at 182.715 mph, just .007 seconds slower than Patrick. Elliott Sadler, Earnhardt and 2011 Camping World Truck Series champion Austin Dillon completed the top five. Afterwards, Sadler paid Patrick a strong compliment. "In the last 24 months, I think she's the most improved driver we've had, in all three series," Sadler said. Source: www.nationwide.nascar.com/nationwide-series/news/120224/dpatrick-pole-daytona-nationwide/index.html Danica goes for a wild ride on final lap of Duel Chain-reaction wreck sends her spinning and crashing violently into the wall It all went pretty much according to plan for Danica Patrick in her inaugural Gatorade Duel qualifying race Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. Until, that is, the final two corners on the final lap of the 150-mile event. Then, Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet got clipped in a chain-reaction wreck that sent her spinning and crashing violently into an inside retaining wall. * Video : Danica crashes hard in Duel 1 Patrick admitted afterward that the impact she took rivaled that of any she had endured in previous crashes in her racing career, but she walked away uninjured and didn't even appear to be shaken. "Yeah, it was pretty big. I guess it's pretty good that it happened [Thursday] and not on a Saturday or Sunday -- because that would have meant I crashed in the Nationwide race, and that would have been bad," said Patrick, who is making the transition to NASCAR full time this year after running a full-time IndyCar schedule and part-time NASCAR schedule the past two years. "It sucks. You just kind of brace yourself. I guess in these situations, I just need to be glad that I'm a small driver and that I've got room to just kind of hug it in and let it rip." Patrick said her car was sent spinning after getting hit by someone else, and it appeared to be the No. 43 Ford driven by Aric Almirola who hit her. But Almirola said he was a victim of driver Jamie McMurray getting loose in his No. 1 Chevy right in front of him, which appeared to be confirmed via television replay. "To be honest, I couldn't really tell what happened. We got a really good run coming to the white [flag]," Almirola said. "We were running in fourth -- and the next thing I knew, I got down into Turn 1 and I was in the middle on a three-wide for 12th. It got pretty crazy there when we came there and got the white. "We went from three-wide in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 and then I think somebody came from behind me to make it four-wide. Then the 1 car got loose off of [Turn] 2 and I tried to stay off of him, but he came across my nose and I couldn't stay off of him. Then me and Danica got together and she went off sliding down into the infield and had a big crash. "I'm glad she's OK. We managed to save our race car. We've got a little bit of body damage -- but other than that our Smithfield Ford was really fast." Almirola and Patrick talked for several minutes in the Sprint Cup garage area shortly after the race, parting ways amicably. "I just got hit," Patrick said. "I was running on the bottom and I'm betting it was a chain reaction from the outside. That's what it looked like. Guys get so close on their side drafts that they're touching you sometimes. I'm sure that at times, at least in that situation, that it was a 'hitting' side draft. But it was probably a chain reaction. "I'll go look at it and see if I can change something or fix something that I'm doing out there, but overall, I'm just very disappointed that the car got crashed with just two corners to go. It's not how we wanted to roll into Sunday. We wanted to be cool, calm and collected with no damage." Patrick already was locked into Sunday's Daytona 500, which will be the first in her career. After being forced to settle for a 16th-place finish in Thursday's first Duel and now having to go to a backup car, she will drop to the rear of the field at the beginning of the race. Thursday's first qualifying race was won by Tony Stewart, who doubles as co-owner of the Stewart-Haas Racing organization that is fielding Patrick's 500 car through a partnership with Tommy Baldwin Racing for the 500. Stewart admitted he was trying to keep tabs on Patrick as Thursday's race unfolded, and said that for the most part he liked what he was seeing. "I didn't see how [the last-lap wreck] started. I just saw it in the [rear-view] mirror, and saw her car taking a hard left there. So obviously when you turn that hard left, usually you got some help," Stewart said. "I didn't know what the start of that was, but I kept looking in my mirror to see where she was behind me. The good thing about that fluorescent green car is that she's easy to pick out. "It was really impressive how she kept picking her way up through the field. She got up to sixth at one point, the way I saw it. So I thought she did a good job. I'll get a better shot to understand how she really did when I get the chance to see the replay of it and watch the whole race. But the little bit that I did see [during Thursday's race], I thought she did a good job. I thought she would do that." Stewart said it was simply the beginning of the learning curve for Patrick on the Sprint Cup side. Patrick will run 10 Cup races this season, as well as a full-time Nationwide Series schedule in a JR Motorsports car. "It's hard for her right now because she's trying to gain the confidence of the guys around her," Stewart said. "She wants to show that she's solid and makes good decisions, and that she's not going to just pull the pin every time she gets an opportunity to break out of line. I think there is more aggression in her and more confidence in her than even what she showed here [Thursday], but I was pleased with the poise that she showed in trying to gain the confidence of the other drivers." Patrick tried to look at the bright side of Thursday's disappointing finish. All things considered, she thought she performed reasonably well. "Overall, I'm happy -- and I'm forgetting the last two corners," Patrick said. "At times it was much more calm than I expected, to be honest. At times when we got single file and had very steady two-lane racing, it was pretty calm. I felt like I learned a lot, was learning a lot about the side draft. I learned what to do in those situations and how to get the most out of it. Obviously, you don't want to get into people because bad things happen. But I'm glad that I finished all those laps to get that experience. It would have been much more disappointing to have done that early on and not have had the experience that I did. "Maybe that backup car is fast. We weren't super excited after qualifying, so maybe this is a blessing in big disguise." Source: www.nascar.com/news/120223/dpatrick-crashes-duel-1/index.html Patrick's biggest impact may be off the track The defining image of these Speedweeks thus far isn't a car in Victory Lane, but a vehicle into the wall. Danica Patrick's harrowing crash in a qualifying race Thursday at Daytona International Speedway destroyed her primary race car for the Daytona 500, and buckled the energy-reducing barrier that runs along the backstretch. Yet one day after the biggest wreck of Patrick's young NASCAR career, the only lingering effects for the driver were a sore foot she hit on the clutch pedal, and a sore arm she banged on the side of the seat. "Everything feels pretty good," said Patrick, whose old open-wheel instincts of taking her hands off the wheel at the point of impact perhaps saved her from injury. Her husband, a physical therapist, helped her work out a few sore areas Thursday night, and she skipped the first of two Sprint Cup practices Friday while her crew prepared her backup race car. Beyond that, all systems are go for only the third woman to start the Daytona 500. "I was relaxed in the car," she said, "and I felt good, I felt comfortable, and I feel more ready for Sunday." She may have started only a few dozen stock-car races at this point, and she may be racing only a limited Sprint Cup slate this year, but Sunday is when this combination of NASCAR and Danica Patrick truly shifts into high gear. To a certain degree, she already drives television ratings and merchandise sales. She's already an almost constant topic of conversation among those in the media and the grandstand. Her crossover appeal already brings NASCAR the hopes of increased ticket sales and a broader fan base. And it's all really just beginning, given that Patrick is only now venturing into the elite Sprint Cup Series, and carrying with her a sea of untapped potential on the track as well as off. Her thunderous crash on Thursday may not be the biggest impact Patrick makes this weekend. "It's great for the sport," said four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon. "Who doesn't want to see a female driver come in here and be able to race with the guys and do well and be marketable? It's great for the sport." Success on the race track, of course, will ultimately determine how much of an impact Patrick can make. For the past two seasons Patrick has competed in a limited Nationwide schedule, while maintaining her full-time status in open-wheel cars and chasing the dream of the Indianapolis 500. Now she's solely a NASCAR driver, running full-time and for a championship on the Nationwide tour in a car owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. The Daytona 500 is the first of 10 starts she's scheduled to make on the Sprint Cup tour in a car that was originally fielded by Tony Stewart, but is now technically owned by Tommy Baldwin as part of a deal that locked her into the Great American Race. Even in limited appearances thus far, she's shown signs of progress in the heavier, full-bodied cars, which allow for a degree of aggression on the race track that seems to fit Patrick's feisty nature. Her fourth-place finish in a Nationwide event at Las Vegas last year was the best ever for a female at the sport's national level, and she placed 10th in her most recent Nationwide race at Daytona. Sunday she will chase the best finish by a female in the Daytona 500, which is 11th by Janet Guthrie in 1980. On a Daytona track where the aerodynamic draft helps to equalize competition, Stewart thinks she's capable of much more. "Did anybody think Trevor Bayne could win the race last year [at this time]?" he said, referring to the 21-year-old driver whose unlikely Daytona victory stunned NASCAR a season ago. "Anything can happen here. It is anybody's ballgame. She did a really good job in July last year in the Nationwide race when I ran with her. I was really impressed at how smooth she was and how good a job she did .... There is no doubt in my mind she has the talent to do it." Frenzy of attention To this point, Patrick has been able to move the needle despite only dipping a toe into NASCAR. The immense popularity that made her the biggest star of the IndyCar ranks, and magnified her attempts to win the Indianapolis 500, has been evident from her first days in a stock car. Television ratings for her 2010 Nationwide debut at Daytona were up 33 percent over the same race from a year earlier, according to The Nielsen Company. Of the 13 Nationwide events she started in 2010, 11 experienced increased viewership from the previous season. Last year, as Patrick became a more regular figure around the NASCAR scene, ratings increased for half of her 12 Nationwide starts. Now that she's set to make the most anticipated Daytona 500 debut since Earnhardt Jr., and is running full-time for the championship on the Nationwide Series, those numbers figure to be on the upswing yet again. "She is someone who clearly has brought new fans to the sport," said Rich Feinberg, vice president for motorsports at ESPN. "She represents appeal to a younger demographic, which is an important area for us to grow our viewership base, and she's a darn good race car driver." And all that comes before her first start in the Daytona 500, easily the most-watched NASCAR race of the year. "Sunday's 500 will definitely be the largest audience to ever see her race," said Mark Dyer, senior vice president at International Management Group, and one of Patrick's agents. "... She's had mega-audiences see her play a part in a television commercial, but she's never had the kind of audience that's going to see her race Sunday afternoon." In terms of merchandising sales, Patrick ranked in the top 15 among all drivers last season according to the NASCAR.COM Superstore. Heading into the Daytona 500, she's moved into the top 10. Nearly 80 percent of NASCAR's Fan Council, a feedback group comprised of 12,000 avid followers of the sport, believes Patrick is good for the series. She ranks in the top five in terms of awareness of NASCAR drivers among the U.S. population, according to NASCAR. But statistics don't capture the essence of it all. Witnessing the frenzy of attention that surrounds Patrick at a major race track like Daytona sharpens the focus on what NASCAR chief marketing officer Steve Phelps calls the "heightened awareness" she brings to every event she's involved in. That's certainly the case in the days leading up to the Daytona 500, where her every move has been tracked by photographers, reporters and fans. Patrick received one of the largest ovations during driver introductions prior to Thursday's qualifying races at Daytona, further proof of her acceptance among the NASCAR faithful. And all the NASCAR races she's competed in to date still don't equal a full season. "I think you have to take all things in account," Phelps said. "Is she responsible for every ratings increase? ... Probably not. Her merchandise sales are what they are, and they're robust, and they're going to be even better this year, obviously with the Sprint Cup ride part-time. So it's hard to quantify what that effect is. You can certainly qualify it, because you can see it. You can see the attention that she gets from a fan perspective, the attention that she gets from a media perspective, the fact that she's able to get sponsors to want to be with her and partner with her like GoDaddy. There's clearly something there." There has been since her first days in major open-wheel racing, when Patrick's tenacity and close calls at Indianapolis -- she's finished third and fourth in the Indy 500 -- made her one of that discipline's few real American stars. Since making the move to NASCAR, that level of attention has increased proportionally to the stock-car league's higher profile. But Patrick seems used to it all. "I enjoy being different. I enjoy being unique," said Patrick, who on Friday won her first Nationwide pole position. "I enjoy it all, I really do. I choose to look at the positives that come with it instead of the negatives, and that it's a balance. ... Part [of that is] because I'm used to it, and the other part is, what's not to like? I'm followed well, and I have lots of great fans, and I'm always grateful when people write nice things about me. I feel good." Patrick's influence even extends outside the NASCAR sphere -- Tuesday she became only the fourth NASCAR driver, and the first without a championship, ever to address the National Press Club in Washington. "She gets NASCAR into places where it's hard for them to go sometimes," Dyer said. Nationwide uses her as a spokesperson, and her crossover appeal has translated into a higher level of brand awareness for the company. "I'm not going to say other drivers don't have the ability to do that," said Jennifer Hanley, Nationwide senior vice president. "Obviously, her Indy experience, she brings that with her. She's talented, she's passionate about what she does. But it also, I think, helps that she's different and she's a woman. That just works well with our brand, and I think it works well with consumers, too." All eyes on her It all starts, though, on the race track. Daytona suits Patrick, partly because she's at her best on big, fast tracks, and partly because the restrictor plates used on the 2.5-mile facility tend to bunch up the field and determine a winner based on positioning and aerodynamics as much as anything else. Regardless of her performance at Daytona, her real challenge may come in the weeks ahead, when NASCAR moves onto a variety of different-sized tracks that will place more of a premium on experience. "A lot of eyes are on her," said Dale Jarrett, a former NASCAR champion who is now an ESPN analyst. "I'll be quite honest, I was very skeptical whenever she came over. Could she handle these cars, get in, and mix it up? I'm a fan. I think she can do it. Is she going to go out and set the world on fire? That's going to be difficult to do, because she's up against the best in the world." IMG's Dyer said that while Patrick's goals aren't gender-specific -- like every driver, she wants to win races and championships -- she realizes how significant it would be to become the first woman to win a race at NASCAR's national level. Given how male-dominated NASCAR has been for most of its 64-year history, a Patrick victory at Daytona could have a sports-transcending impact not unlike Tiger Woods' victory at the Masters in 1997. Given how popular and marketable she is already, a victory in any national-series event could be an unprecedented boost to the sport. "I think there certainly is that ability," NASCAR's Phelps said. "She's a crossover star now. ... She's already a sensation. If she starts winning races, that's only going to add fuel to the fire, to be sure." A crossover star like Patrick -- and to a similar degree extreme sports athlete Travis Pastrana, who makes his Nationwide Series debut in April -- is important to NASCAR because she's capable of attracting television viewers and potential new fans who might not otherwise gravitate toward the sport. That role can bring with it equal degrees of pressure and expectation, but Patrick said she doesn't feel any of it. "I truly like don't feel like anything more gets put on me," she said. "I feel like there's a lot of hopes, but I don't feel the pressure that ... I have to do something. Trust me, I put in my head enough thoughts that I have to do certain things, not all of them which I share with you. But I don't feel like that. I feel I'm very lucky to be in the situation I'm in. I feel lucky to be unique and different, and I feel lucky to have the fan base that I do. And if that helps in any way, or we can work together to make it better, then that's just a win-win." If anything, Patrick seems to embrace the factors that make her stand out in major auto racing, and understand that attention comes with it. "I don't know that anybody at NASCAR sees her as the end-all and be-all on growing," Dyer said. "She's amazingly grounded and focused. When you talk about pressure, the pressure she feels is to keep improving on the race track. The marketing stuff she does on behalf of GoDaddy and her other partners, and the stuff she does on behalf of NASCAR and the tracks -- she doesn't really feel any pressure to do that. She has a lot of marketing savvy. She has a great judgment savvy on what can move the needle for everybody involved." Added NASCAR's Phelps: "I don't think she's weighed down by it at all. I think she's actually lifted up by it." That certainly seems the case today. Not only does NASCAR stand to benefit from the increased attention Patrick brings, but the driver herself has completely embraced stock-car racing, despite piloting open-wheel machines for most of her career. Dyer said Patrick is happier now that she can focus solely on her NASCAR program, and although she hasn't ruled out a run at the Indianapolis 500 every now and then, she wants to retire as a NASCAR driver. "This has been very much a long-term plan," Dyer added, one that will continue with a full-time Sprint Cup effort next season. For all the focus on Patrick's first Daytona 500, it is just that -- a beginning. There are many more races to run, many more things to learn, many more plans to be set into action. There are potentially trophies to be won, and barriers to be broken down, and young female drivers to be inspired. And only then will Danica Patrick's full potential in NASCAR begin to be realized. "There's no doubt in my mind that winning is the goal, and the ultimate goal is to be a champion in this series, and not just break through because she's a female driver," Nationwide's Hanley said. "... She made the choice to do this. When she does this, that's certainly an expectation people have. I think she certainly has the ability and talent to do that, and it's going to be fun to watch this year." Source: www.nascar.com/news/120224/dpatrick-biggest-impact-off-track/index.html With starting spot secure, Patrick has pressure-free qualifying day at Daytona Danica Patrick has gone through the drama of Indianapolis 500 qualifying, so the pressure in her first Daytona 500 qualifying attempt couldn’t compare to IndyCar’s biggest event. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver already had a guaranteed starting spot at Daytona through the team’s partnership with Tommy Baldwin Racing, which had one of the 35 spots based on 2011 owners points. Knowing she would make her Cup debut in the Feb. 26 Daytona 500 no matter how she qualified, all Patrick had to do Sunday was secure her starting position for the qualifying races Thursday at Daytona International Speedway. “This is a little less nerve wracking because there is a little less to worry about as a driver,” Patrick said. “To say that I wasn’t nervous at all is a lie. Of course I was a little bit. I want to do a good job, I want to have a nice pretty smooth line out there and I want to go through the shifts nicely. “As far as nerves go, it was less nerve wracking, but there was no lack of photographers and cameras.” Patrick’s week has consisted of a lot of media interviews as well as several single-lap runs in her No. 10 Cup car. Most of that will be irrelevant when she practices Wednesday for the qualifying races Thursday and then practices Friday and Saturday prior to the Daytona 500. The 29-year-old former IndyCar driver is making the transition to NASCAR full time in 2012, where she will run a full Nationwide schedule for JR Motorsports and a 10-race Cup schedule with the intent of running full time in 2013 for SHR. “Nothing is anticlimactic at Daytona,” Patrick said. “The week started off with me doing about 2 and a half hours of interviews. That’s not a small day. “There is a lot of media going around with the event. I like the layout, the format of the week—test, qualify, test, race. It reminds me of how Indy was before it shortened up the month.” Patrick ranked 29th among 49 drivers who made qualifying attempts on a day that only set the two front-row starting spots for the Daytona 500. “It’s a lot easier to drive the car here at Daytona,” Patrick said. “Since the track’s been repaved (in 2010), it’s very straightforward as a driver. Indianapolis is something that is a little more difficult.” Although she has only raced two partial NASCAR seasons, Patrick has a solid base of experience in stock cars at Daytona. In 2009, she competed in the season-opening ARCA and Nationwide races at the track and then in 2010, she competed in both Nationwide events at DIS. Patrick watched some video of other drivers at Daytona and turned her car down the banking a little quicker than she had in practice. But like most drivers at Daytona, she just held it on the floor and let the car do the work. “I pretty much just had to hit my shifts,” Patrick said. “I did that. It felt better than it did in practice, so I thought, ‘Sure, this is a good sign.’ “As a driver, you try to go through the gears smooth and be smooth on the track. Beyond that, there isn’t a lot more that we can do (as a driver).” Source: aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2012-02-19/with-starting-spot-secure-patrick-has-pressure-free-qualifying-day-at-daytona Danica Patrick To Skip Indy 500 In 2012 In Transition To NASCAR Danica Patrick became a worldwide sensation as a rookie at the Indianapolis 500, challenging for victory and becoming the first woman to lead laps in the showcase race. Those Indy days are fading fast. Patrick's shift to stock cars is long under way and her ties to IndyCar were cut even further Monday – she said she won't run in this year's Indy 500. Her focus is entirely on NASCAR, and on May 27 she'll race in the Coca-Cola 600. She said skipping the Indy 500 was a "business decision." "I hope to do it in the future, the Indy 500 that is, and maybe it will be a double," she said. "But at this point in time, after a lot of conversations, it's just going to be the Coke 600 and I think it's going to be a big challenge. It's just is something that didn't work out, as far as the business side of things. ... For this year, it just didn't happen." Patrick led 19 laps late and finished fourth in 2005. She was a career-best third in 2009. When she jumped full time to NASCAR she said the Indy 500 was still under consideration. Her NASCAR season includes the full second-tier Nationwide Series schedule for JR Motorsports and 10 races in the elite Sprint Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick had previously announced eight of her races. The Coca-Cola 600 – Patrick jokingly called NASCAR's longest event of the season "The Coke 6,000," – is the ninth announced race. The Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 are both May 27. "We didn't tell her she couldn't run the 500. It was left up to her," team co-owner Tony Stewart said. "It shows how dedicated she is to making this transition." Stewart, Robby Gordon and John Andretti have all tried to run both events on the same day. Stewart, NASCAR's three-time champion, completed the double twice: In 1999, he was ninth at Indy and fourth at Charlotte, and in 2001, he was sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte. He's not tried Indianapolis since, and has let go of his childhood dream of winning the 500. He has twice won the Brickyard 400, NASCAR's race at the storied Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "The hard part for me was you make that decision when you sign up to do (NASCAR)," Stewart said. "The decision you make, you have to come to peace with yourself with saying `I'm not going to do this.' That was my childhood dream anyway. It may be a different scenario and feeling for her. But it was hard knowing when I signed that (NASCAR) contract that I was writing off the opportunity to go race at Indy. "It's figuring out at the end of the day what do you really want to do. I guess that's the part that even though it was hard to watch opening day of practice at Indianapolis, I'm enjoying what I'm doing, too, and this is what I want to do at the end of the day," he continued. "It makes you want 30-hour days and 400-day years and we always want to do more than what we're capable of doing, but the reality is you have to pick at some point and choose your career path. This is what I've done and what she's doing now." But Stewart said so long as Indianapolis Motor Speedway makes it logistically possible for Patrick to attempt both races, she may eventually run the race again. He said he has no interest in fielding a car for her, citing how much he's already doing with all his other teams. The IndyCar Series would also welcome back its most recognizable driver to its biggest event of the season. "We continue to wish Danica the very best on this new phase in her career. The door is always open should she wish to run the Indianapolis 500 in the future," IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said in a statement. Patrick has already set some of her expectations for NASCAR, and sounded Monday as if she expects her debut in the Daytona 500 next month to go as well as her debut in the Indianapolis 500. She tested there two weeks ago with new crew chief Greg Zipadelli, and after leading 13 laps at Daytona in last July's Nationwide race, likes her chances in the Feb. 26 season opener. "At Daytona, the cars are very fast, so I feel good about that race," she said. "I was lucky enough to get to run with Tony in the Nationwide race last summer and that went pretty good, so I feel good about Daytona and I think there's a real chance, if luck falls our way, to perhaps win. "I think it's a real chance. I mean a guy like Trevor Bayne last year showed that. Those are the expectations for the first race." Bayne, a rookie last season, was the upset winner of the Daytona 500, which Stewart said was proof that Patrick is a viable contender. "A rookie won it last year, why would you ever count yourself out?" he asked. "She's a talented driver. Our cars were really fast at Daytona. At that point, I'd have that confidence." But Stewart is cautious regarding his expectations for Patrick. Although she said she'd like to knock down top-20 finishes in the Cup Series, the car owner was more concerned with Patrick simply turning laps and learning as much as she can before her scheduled full-time move to the Cup in 2013. "I crashed everything that I drove when I drove the Nationwide cars. We got to the Cup side and it got better, obviously," Stewart said. "But I think looking at it, these 10 races for her this year, for me, it's just finishing the races and just getting the track time. I'm not worried about what her finish is at the end of the day. "I think the success at the end of the year won't be judged by where the finishing positions are at the end of the day, as much as what she takes away from each race weekend. That's what my goal is for her." Patrick has higher goals for the Nationwide Series, where she's run 25 races over the last two series. She has three top-10 finishes and one top five, all last season with JRM. The Daytona 500 will be her Cup Series debut. "With the Nationwide stuff, it very much depends on the individual weekend itself. There are still some tracks that I haven't raced before, so probably a little bit different expectations for those," she said. "But, for the most part, solid top 10s and getting into the top five consistently through the year would be a goal. And I'd like to get to Victory Lane." Source: www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/danica-patrick-nascar-indy-500-no-coca-cola-600_n_1225938.html?ref=sports&icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl8%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D129756 Patrick's 2012 Cup plan begins with Daytona 500 Will also include Darlington, Bristol, Atlanta, Chicago, Dover, Texas and Phoenix Danica Patrick's long-awaited debut in the Sprint Cup Series will come in the 2012 season-opening Daytona 500, Patrick and Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner Tony Stewart confirmed Friday at Texas Motor Speedway. Patrick is in Texas to race the first of the final three 2011 Nationwide Series races she'll contest before doing the full 2012 Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports. Patrick will race a No. 10 Sprint Cup Chevrolet, bearing the number she first used in karting, during Daytona's Speedweeks, where she currently will need to qualify on time. Her schedule will also include events at Darlington, Bristol, Atlanta, Chicagoland, Dover, Texas and Patrick's home Phoenix event, the penultimate race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. “I did not want to start my year in a Cup car -- for the races I was going to do -- at someplace like Darlington. Everybody's going to be watching, especially at my first Cup race." DANICA PATRICK"This announcement has been a long time coming, and it's nice to be able to unveil the car and reveal the schedule for next year, finally," Stewart said. "We took the whole schedule and took races that we thought would be really challenging for her and to pick tracks she needed to put emphasis on. "We're keeping two dates open to see how the start of the season goes and make sure we can call an audible if we need to. If we see a place or Danica feels like there's a track that she struggled at, we have that flexibility to plug them in. But we will run 10 full races with her." "The most weighted factor [in determining the schedule] was places that might be a challenge -- places that had unique characteristics, that would be good to get some extra laps at," Patrick said. "At a place like Darlington, for example, where I'll run the Cup and Nationwide cars together, one absolutely will help the other. Tony [Eury Jr., Nationwide crew chief] has said sometimes the Cup guys like to do the Nationwide races to get more laps so they get more comfortable on the track. "Sometimes guys like to do races at places they're good at, so they can just have fun -- like [Dale Earnhardt] Junior at Bristol, or something. But for me, it's going to be about laps." Patrick understands that some tracks will be easier to tackle than others. "Darlington's going to be an awful lot of fun," Patrick said, tongue obviously in cheek. "The expectation levels will be low, which is probably a good thing. "To be honest, from my perspective, I did not want to start my year in a Cup car -- for the races I was going to do -- at someplace like Darlington. Everybody's going to be watching, especially at my first Cup race. And there's going to be more news about it, so I didn't want [Darlington] to be my first one. "I wanted to start somewhere where I could have fun, and where I had a chance to do really well." Patrick had a chance to win the July Nationwide Series race at Daytona, the first NASCAR stock car superspeedway race she competed in, until a competitor triggered an accident coming to the finish. "There are other places where I'll go that will take a long time to learn," Patrick added to her Daytona reasoning. "So it was that, and it's just a good weekend to start, because it's good for Go Daddy and the other partners." Patrick acknowledged that the more time she can get in stock cars is a good thing. Three-in-a-row to end the Nationwide season is good, but she's not sure about off-season testing for either division. "It's great to have these three races at the end that's going to lead into the next year, because we're kind of getting ahead of the game for the start of the season next year, as far as implementing certain things and trying different things that we'll carry over to next year," Patrick said. "We want to do that to ensure we start off strong, because as Tony Jr., has said, the first 10 races are the whole championship. "Conversations about [testing] the Cup car have been very limited. [Stewart-Haas] is in the middle of the Chase and it's just such a new relationship so that's something I need to get on because I want to get out there and I want to do well and the only way to do that is to test and get better." A Cup test has been scheduled for Nov. 15 at Daytona and Stewart said his group would attempt to have a car for Patrick to participate with in addition to the regular Pre-Season Thunder testing at Daytona in January. Patrick has lived in Scottsdale, Ariz., near Phoenix while competing in IndyCar -- which means she's not been near the Andretti Autosport shops in Indianapolis -- or JR Motorsports or Stewart-Haas in the Charlotte, N.C., area either. She won't change, even considering she'll have 43 stock car races on her docket next year. "I go [to the shops] when I need to go and I'll go to make seats and get to be friends with everybody," Patrick said. "But let's face it; we're going to spend 33 weekends together in Nationwide and eight to 10 weekends in Cup together -- so we spend a lot of time together. "I'm always available by phone and if they need me to fly to Charlotte that's exactly what I'll do. But I don't feel the need to set-up shop [near Charlotte] -- I don't get that many days off [smiling] so to be honest I probably wouldn't be at the shop that many days." Stewart said that with Patrick's announcement, efforts to hire a crew chief for the program would be ratcheted-up, describing the relationship as a marriage where "there aren't a lot of people that you can plug into the positions." Stewart also reiterated that his organization would continue trying to put sponsors in place to run the No. 10 car full-time next season and hasn't set a date where the organization wouldn't consider the additional funding.  Related: Eury looks forward to full-time season with Patrick Patrick takes stock in her career move to NASCAR Caraviello: Danica's new chapter begins sooner than later Aumann: Patrick follows in the footsteps of pioneers Source: www.nascar.com/news/111104/dpatrick-2012-cup-schedule/index.html Danica Patrick To Skip Indy 500 In 2012 In Transition To NASCAR The Daytona 500 may still be 10 days away, but it arrived in force on Thursday, and it was powered by a diminutive raven-haired driver in a bright-green firesuit. Danica Patrick has yet to turn a competitive lap in a Sprint Cup car, but with her debut in the Great American Race looming, the spotlight on her during the media day that kicked off Speedweeks shone brighter than the central Florida sun. Can she win the Daytona 500? How might she fare in a pack draft? Will she pair up with de facto car owner Tony Stewart in a tandem situation? For most of her 20-minute session she fielded one question after another about her forthcoming inaugural effort in the No. 10 Cup car, to the point where the Nationwide Series patch on her uniform seemed completely forgotten. And yet, let's not forget that Patrick is running for a championship this season, and it isn't on NASCAR's premier circuit, and that she has a race next Saturday that in the long run may be as important to her development as her effort in the sport's Super Bowl the following day. “There's very little Nationwide testing here. I thought to myself, what a wonderful thing that I'm doing the Daytona 500, because the cars. ... I think it's going to be great practice for the Nationwide race, and it's something to keep in mind for the future, too.” 2012 Media Day: Danica talks about the track she fears most No question, having Patrick in the Daytona 500 is huge for NASCAR, which will surely draw the eyes of curiosity seekers as well as fans of the most popular and marketable female driver on the planet. If she wins -- and let's face it, under this roulette wheel of a drafting format, and coming off Trevor Bayne's unlikely victory a year ago, anything could happen -- the significance would rival Tiger Woods' seismic breakthrough at Augusta National in 1997. A Danica Patrick victory in the Daytona 500 would resonate to such an extent, that Bayne's accomplishment last season would feel like a mere blip by comparison. So let's not underestimate the impact of Patrick hoisting the Harley J. Earl trophy, a prospect that surely keeps NASCAR marketing types lying giddily awake at night. But barring a development of that historic significance, Patrick's real growth this season will come on the Nationwide tour, where she will attempt to make the jump from part-time participant to championship contender. A driver who has competed in 25 total national-division events will now tackle an entire 33-race schedule, which in addition to her 10 Cup starts will make for a workload very different from what she shouldered during her IndyCar days. Given that Nationwide regulars win so relatively infrequently in a series in which Cup stars like to moonlight, given that there's no Chase to hide shortcomings in consistency, for title hopefuls getting off to a good start is key. "The first 10 races are everything for her," said Tony Eury Jr., crew chief on her Nationwide car. And it all starts at Daytona, where Danica Patrick winning the big show next Sunday might be the best thing for NASCAR, but winning the Nationwide opener a day earlier might be the best thing for her development as a stock-car driver long term. "The opener is very important," Patrick said, surrounded by a crush of journalists and hangers-on snapping photos on mobile phones. "As Tony Jr. has told me, the first 10 races really set the stage, and set the pace for the rest of the year. It's like being in school -- you get a few bad grades on your first few tests, and just seems like you can't get out of that hole. It's always the same. If you can start the year off well, have great test results at the very beginning, it seems like you just hang up there. Hopefully, it's a good start to the year, and we can feel good about it." The Nationwide tour offers Patrick the best chance at real progress. We've seen that already to an extent, given that she seemed lost in the tandem draft in the Nationwide opener a season ago, and by the July event at the same track had improved to the point where she could lead 13 laps and challenge for the victory. Her advancement on the intermediate downforce tracks that dominate the circuit was evident in strong finishes at Texas and Chicagoland, and a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas that stands as the best ever for a female driver in the sport's national divisions. "She made tremendous progress last year," veteran Mark Martin said. "It was amazing, really. It showed how much talent she has." No surprise, then, that she enters this season viewed as a legitimate Nationwide championship candidate, an effort aided somewhat by the rule implemented last season that prevents Cup regulars from contending for the crown in the sport's No. 2 series. Even so, she's driving for a JR Motorsports operation that produced a fourth-place finisher in Aric Almirola last season, so everyone knows her No. 7 car will be fast. The top title contenders from 2011, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Elliott Sadler, are back and joined by promising newcomers like Austin Dillon and Cole Whitt. But at the very least, Patrick has placed herself in the conversation. "Is it critical? No. But it would be really nice," she said of winning the Nationwide title. "More than anything, for what it signifies, and it means you're probably running up front every weekend and you've won some races. And I'd sure as heck like to win some races." And the most likely place for Patrick to win races is on the Nationwide tour, despite the crapshoot that is tandem drafting at Daytona, despite the fact that her Daytona 500 effort promises to dominate the next two weekends. That will change once the circuit moves on from the Sunshine State, and Patrick's limited Cup starts take place at layouts like Darlington, Bristol and Dover that promise to be very challenging for her. Until then, though, be prepared for a level of Danicamania that may rival her stock-car debut in 2009. In the meantime, Patrick feels her Daytona 500 bid helps with her effort in the Nationwide race. "There's very little Nationwide testing here," she said. "I thought to myself, what a wonderful thing that I'm doing the Daytona 500, because the cars, in my lack of experience, I didn't notice a difference between the two cars. I didn't drive them back to back, but when I came and tested a few weeks ago, it feels very similar to a Nationwide car. I think it's going to be great practice for the Nationwide race, and it's something to keep in mind for the future, too .... I think the Cup practice is going to be great for the Nationwide race, and I think the Nationwide race is going to help a lot for the next day for the Daytona 500." Patrick concedes that she'll need some luck to have a chance to win the Daytona 500, but then again, in this drafting format, so does everyone else. She'd prefer to stay near the front in an attempt to avoid accidents, but on this 2.5-mile track, the whims of aerodynamics will take cars where they will. Regardless, no one seems to be counting her out. Particularly not her car owner -- OK, maybe Tommy Baldwin is listed as the owner after a points deal locked her into the field, but let's not split hairs -- who is still looking for a Daytona 500 victory of his own. "Did anybody think Trevor Bayne could win the race last year?" Stewart asked. "Anything can happen here. It anybody's ballgame. She did a really good job in the Nationwide race in July when I ran with her, and I was impressed with how smooth she was and how good a job she did in the two-car deal. Talent-wise, there's no doubt in my mind she's got the ability to do it." She also has the ability to enjoy success on the Nationwide tour, which barring a shocker next Sunday will be the true springboard of her stock-car career. In that regard, it's not too much of a stretch to argue that Danica Patrick's most important event of these Speedweeks might be not the Daytona 500, but the race run the day before. Source: www.nascar.com/news/120216/dcaraviello-dpatrick-speedweeks/index.html Patrick to make Cup debut in 2012 Daytona 500 Danica Patrick just got thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool. After making her NASCAR Sprint Cup debut Feb. 26 in the Daytona 500, Patrick will complete her 10-race schedule at some of Cup racing’s toughest tracks. In addition to her full-time Nationwide Series schedule for JR Motorsports, Patrick will compete in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet at Darlington (May 12), Bristol (Aug. 25), Atlanta (Sept. 2), Chicagoland (Sept. 16), Dover (Sept. 30), Texas (Nov. 4) and Phoenix (Nov. 11). Two races are still to be selected, based on her progress in the series. “We took the whole schedule and tried to find races that we thought were going to be, I guess, to a certain degree, really challenging for her,” team owner Tony Stewart said during Friday’s announcement at Texas Motor Speedway. “We wanted to pick tracks that we needed to put some emphasis on. In addition to running a full Nationwide Series schedule in 2012 with JR Motorsports, Danica Patrick will run 10 Sprint Cup races for Stewart-Haas Racing. (SN Photo)“Obviously, her partnership in the Nationwide Series with JR Motorsports next year and getting to run the whole Nationwide schedule helps a lot. That was a factor, too, knowing which racetracks she was going to get to participate in and which ones she wasn’t.” Patrick has a good idea of what she faces in her first attempts in a Cup car. “Oh, boy,” she sighed. “Darlington will be a handful. I actually enjoyed Bristol (in the Nationwide car), but I’m betting that, once I get out there with (the Cup) guys, it’s going to be a whole ‘nother level. I know Atlanta’s pretty challenging and has some unique characteristics. “Dover was a handful last year, but we’ll be at Chicago and Texas, which are a little bit more comfortable. I’m excited. There’s a lot I’m worried for, but, on the other hand, as I kind of felt with my Nationwide races so far, is that expectation levels are sometimes not quite as high, so you have the ability to make mistakes.” The No. 10 has special significance to Patrick, who ran that same number on her go-kart. Similarly, her teammates, Stewart and Ryan Newman, use their go-kart numbers on their Cup cars, too (14 and 39, respectively). “This is the first time in my professional career I’ve ever been able to choose a number,” Patrick said. “This is really neat for me. This is really the first time I’ve been able to put a number on my car that I chose and I like and has emotion to it.” 2012 Sprint Cup Series Schedule Date Race Time (ET) February 18 Budweiser Shootout Thu 1 p.m Fox February 18 Sat 8 p.m. ESPN February 23 Gatorade Duel 1 Thu 1 p.m. ESPN February 26 Daytona Sun 12 p.m. Fox March 4 Phoenix Sun 2:30 p.m Fox March 11 Las Vegas Sun 2:30 p.m Fox March 18 Bristol Sun 12:30 p.m Fox March 25 Fontana Sun 2:30 p.m. Fox April 1 Martinsville Sun 12:30 p.m. Fox April 14 Texas Sat 7 p.m. Fox April 22 Kansas Sun 12:30 p.m Fox April 28 Richmond Sat 7 p.m. Fox May 6 Talladega Sun 12 p.m. Fox May 12 Darlington Sat 6:30 p.m. Fox May 19 Sprint Showdown Sat 7 p.m. ESPN May 19 Sprint All-Star Race Sat 7 p.m. ESPN May 27 Charlotte Sun 5:30 p.m. Fox June 3 Dover Sun 12:30 p.m. Fox June 10 Pocono Sun 12 p.m TNT June 17 Michigan Sun 12 p.m.TNT June 24 Sonoma Sun 2 p.m.TNT June 30 Kentucky Sat 6:30 p.m.TNT July 7 Daytona Sat 6:30 p.m.TNT July 15 Loudon Sun 12 p.m.TNT July 29 Indianapolis Sun 12 p.m. ESPN August 5 Pocono Sun 12 p.m. ESPN August 12 Watkins Glen Sun 12 p.m. ESPN August 19 Michigan Sun 12 p.m. ESPN August 25 Bristol Sat 7 p.m. ABC September 2 Atlanta Sun 6:30 p.m. ESPN September 8 Richmond Sat 7 p.m. ABC September 16 Chicago Sun 1 p.m. ESPN September 23 Loudon Sun 1 p.m ESPN September 30 Dover Sun 1 p.m. ESPN October 7 Talladega Sun 1 p.m. ESPN October 13 Charlotte Sat 7 p.m. ABC October 21 Kansas Sun 1 p.m ESPN October 28 Martinsville Sun 1 p.m. ESPN November 4 Texas Sun 2 p.m. ESPN November 11 Phoenix Sun 2 p.m. ESPN November 18 Homestead Sun 2 p.m. ESPN 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Race Stats Date Track Start Finish Laps Status Feb 27 Daytona 29 38 138/202 Running July 7 Daytona Sep 8 Richmond Oct 21 Kansas Nov 4 Texas Nov 11 Phoenix Nov 18 Homestead-Miami 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Race Stats Date Track Start Finish Laps Status Feb 25 Daytona 1 38 72/120 Running Mar 3 Phoenix 30 21 197/200 Running Mar 10 Las Vegas 12 12 200/200 Running Mar 17 Bristol 19 27 298/300 Running Mar 24 Fortuna 21 35 63/150 Engine Apr 13 Texas 17 8 200/200 Running Apr 27 Richmond 16 21 248/250 Running May 5 Talladega 17 13 122/122 Running May 11 Darlington May 20 Iowa May 26 Charlotte Jun 2 Dover Jun 16 Michigan Jun 23 Road America Jun 29 Kentucky Jul 6 Daytona Jul 14 Loudon Jul 22 Chicagoland Jul 28 Indianapolis Aug 4 Iowa Aug 11 Watkins Glen Aug 18 Montreal Aug 24 Bristol Sep 1 Atlanta Sep 7 Richmond Sep 15 Chicago Sep 22 Kentucky Sep 29 Dover Oct 12 Charlotte Oct 20 Kansas Nov 3 Texas Nov 10 Phoenix Nov 17 Homestead-Miami WomenInRacing.org ©1996-2012 by Gordon Clay