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Danica Patrick might join NASCAR

Roman529

Roman529

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http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story.asp?id=171030

Danica Patrick next to join NASCAR?

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Danica Patrick

Associated Press
7/10/2006 5:45:59 PM
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - NASCAR could be getting a makeover next season.
With Juan Pablo Montoya, a Colombian, bringing an international flavour to American stock car racing, the circuit is now apparently considering another major move - bringing America's top female driver, Danica Patrick, to the series.
"I feel like it says a lot about NASCAR's popularity if folks like Juan Pablo and Danica are coming," Carl Edwards said. "I think it's awesome."
The announcement of Montoya leaving Formula One to join NASCAR's Target Chip Ganassi team came at Sunday's race in Chicago. But even before nearly four dozen drivers arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for testing Monday, Montoya was already old news.
The Orlando Sentinel reported Patrick's father, T.J., was having exploratory discussions with some NASCAR teams and attended Sunday's race as the guest of Roush Racing.

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Roush team president Geoff Smith said the team gave Patrick's family members passes as a favour but had not had any serious discussions of adding Patrick to the team.
"If she's interested, all they have to do is pick up the phone," Smith said. "But they haven't picked up the phone."
That report fuelled speculation on the first of three days of testing in Indy that Patrick, whose contract with Rahal Letterman Racing expires after this season, could be leaving the Indy Racing League for NASCAR.
Team spokesman, Brent Mauer, declined to comment on the report Monday but confirmed that the Rahal team has been discussing a contract extension with Patrick.
Patrick quickly emerged as an IRL fan favourite last season when she became the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500. She finished fourth, the highest ever for a woman, and was named the race's rookie of the year in 2005.
This season, however, has not been as magical.
Rahal's team has struggled against the IRL's best teams, owned by Roger Penske and Ganassi, and Patrick's best finish of the season came on the road course at St. Petersburg where she was sixth. Despite four top-10 finishes, Patrick has, at times, shown her frustration with her No. 16 car.
Would she be welcome in NASCAR?
 
i think she needs to do something in IRL first instead of jumping to nascar which i think she would do worse in. I also think that jaun pablo maontoya will suck in nascar. a steering wheel for a F1 car costs as much as the motor for a nascar car. they control 12 things on them. on a cup car he'll have a kill switch and a button to que the mic to the team. he may be fine for the first 10 laps but once the cars starts handling like hell, and he can do anything about for 40 more laps hes going to plow down the wall.
 
NorthFloridaFin said:
If she can't win where she is at, she definately can't win on the NASCAR circuit.
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She'll be a marketing machine regardless of whether she wins consistently on the circuit. Sponsors and advertisers will be lining up and fighting over her if she crosses over to the U.S.'s most popular style of racing.
 
Trekbiz said:
She'll be a marketing machine regardless of whether she wins consistently on the circuit. Sponsors and advertisers will be lining up and fighting over her if she crosses over to the U.S.'s most popular style of racing.
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Very, very true, and most the drivers in Nascar see that as a plus, it only helps them!
 
like david stemme he sucks but coors light wanted him in the car bc he was younger and more marketable. you got the bud car up front, the miller lite car up front and the coors car can barley make the race. hes not even in the top 35.
 
woody1351 said:
like david stemme he sucks but coors light wanted him in the car bc he was younger and more marketable. you got the bud car up front, the miller lite car up front and the coors car can barley make the race. hes not even in the top 35.
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Difference is the common person not into racing has never heard of David Stemme, everyone has heard of Patrick!

Its a huge difference!
 
Patrick is so overrated.

I hope she never goes into Nascar.
 
Trekbiz said:
She'll be a marketing machine regardless of whether she wins consistently on the circuit. Sponsors and advertisers will be lining up and fighting over her if she crosses over to the U.S.'s most popular style of racing.
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She might be marketable, but the fact of the matter is that NASCAR is still a Good ol' Boy Southern Sport, regardless of what people say. Just go to a race and you will see. So there will always be certain types of individuals who will never excel in NASCAR.
 
NorthFloridaFin said:
She might be marketable, but the fact of the matter is that NASCAR is still a Good ol' Boy Southern Sport, regardless of what people say. Just go to a race and you will see. So there will always be certain types of individuals who will never excel in NASCAR.
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Well word was that she was a guest of Rousch racing.
If so she'll have every opportunity to excel.

I don't get what NASCAR being a "Good ol Boy" sport has anything to do with whether she'll succeed.
 
death7star said:
nascar stinks.

dont see how watching a car go in circles a million times is fun.
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To each his own.

Personally I'd rather watch grass grow than watch another soccer match.
My opinion dosen't make soccer "stink" to anyone but myself though.
 
Trekbiz said:
To each his own.

Personally I'd rather watch grass grow than watch another soccer match.
My opinion dosen't make soccer "stink" to anyone but myself though.
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This is true.. :lol:
 
Patrick would make a ton of money in NASCAR; there's no doubt she'd be a marketing bonanza. She would probably instantly rival Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon as the most marketable drivers on the circuit. And frankly, the tie-in between marketability and success is less significant in NASCAR than other sports; personality, likeability and (let's not kid ourselves) the ability to shill yourself shamelessly count for a lot. Dale Jarrett hasn't been good for years, yet he's a fantastic poster boy for UPS. Ditto Michael Waltrip and NAPA. Patrick would make money hand over fist for a couple years even if she finished 20th or worse every single week.

That said, over the long haul, there has to be SOME success to maintain viability in NASCAR. At some point, if Patrick kept stinking up the joint (she's seriously overrated as a driver as is; can't win get good finishes on the watered-down Indy car circuit), the sponsorships would dry up.

But, she'd have at least a couple years where she could get lengthy on-the-job training, and if she hooked on with a team where there was someone with open-wheel experience to mentor her (i.e. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, etc.), she'd succeed that much faster. To that end, Roush is a poor choice, because it's the closest big-time team there is to the "good old boy" network; all those guys came up on the local dirt tracks and raced with the Roush crew in lower divisions and worked their way up. How's a jerk like Matt Kenseth going to react to Patrick getting top-flight Roush equipment? That was a right he had to work his *** off to get.

Incidentally, I think JP Montoya will be good very quickly. He's had success at the F1 level and goes to a team where he's going to be comfortable. And now that his F1 team has unceremoniously cut him loose, he can start working with Ganassi that much sooner.
 
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