Racing News Digest

Maybe my thinking is off here. I know, that is rare, but I am wondering why Danica Patrick is expected to either run INDY or NASCAR? Why not do both?

And that really goes for any driver in any different series.

If she has an interest in NASCAR, why not sign another 2 or 3 year contract with who ever she wants in INDY but on some from weekends come over and give a couple NASCAR races a try during that 2 or 3 year period. She could do some Camping World Truck Series races and maybe a lot of Nationwide races to get use to the car differences.

Then on the last year of he of the INDY contract concentrate more on getting into some Sprint Cup races along with doing some Nationwide races. All in an effort to get use to the differences in the cars.

I bet I know why. I expect her to fail miserably if she comes to NASCAR racing. I don’t want to be mean about that, that is just how I feel. I honestly believe she will be running in the back of the pack 90% of the time. Even after she has a couple years under her belt full-time to get use to the cars.

So, if she were to move she would want the most money and glamor as possible right now. If she did some races here and there for a couple of years and it showed how bad she was, then when it came time for a full ride she probably wouldn’t bring in as much money as she could right now to just jump over.

I believe that I have read that Danica Patrick wants to go straight to the Sprint Cup Series if she were to make the change. She would also want to go to a big name team. How many big teams have an opening for her. I read one article that said there was rumors of kicking Dale Earnhardt Jr. out of Hendrick and giving her a spot. I have read that Hendrick could place her with Stewart-Haas Racing. Doesn’t Tony Stewart have a saying in that?

How about not kicking Jr out of Hendrick, but helping Jr move his Nationwide team up to the cup level with Brad Keselowski. Making room for her at Hendrick. And Hendrick would have yet another team out there with big names.

I would think that the idea of having Danica Patrick on your team would be intriguing for a car owner. A lot of that intrigue would be centered around dollar signs obviously with the sponsorship that she could probably bring in.

Jack Roush has admitted that he has tossed around the idea of bringing Danica aboard. He thinks she is a great driver and at the top of the list of female drivers. But he is not willing to just sign her and through he into a Sprint Cup ride. She would have to do a couple of years in the Nationwide Series.

And apparently the Ford representatives have echoed the same thing.

I think that this would probably be a pretty popular consensus between owners and manufactures. Smaller teams would probably kill to have her regardless of how she may do. But it also does not sound like she wants to go to any smaller outfits.

With all that, I don’t think she is coming over to the series full-time anytime soon.