Kyle Petty Doesn't Take To Danica As A Driver

((HT: SPEED TV/Fox Sports))

Kyle Petty thinks that Danica Patrick is more of a marketing gimmick than successful race car driver. In an interview on SPEED, he even called her out...


Which, then, meant the question to be asked of Danica herself as the NASCAR crews get ready for the events in Kentucky...


A lot of IndyCar fans thought her win at Motegi was rigged- number of cars on the track, questionable flags on the track et cetera.

And Kyle is a little off in his assessment of Patrick's qualifying versus racing since she made the pole at Daytona and didn't win- which would lend itself to a worse finish...

The HQ calls it a wash and good sound bite material...

The Big One Only Waits 42 Laps At Talladega (UPDATED: With Another Big One With 6 To Go And David Ragan Wins)

Kyle Busch gets a push from Marcus Ambrose... He goes into the back of Kasey Kahne to send him around and all hell breaks loose at Talladega... Busch admitted on his in-car communications that it was his fault...

Your victims- Kyle, Kahne, Greg Biffle, Jamie McMurray, Brian Vickers, Casey Mears, Ambrose, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, David Stremme, Martin Truex, Junior, and Jeff Burton all either got damage of some sort or are out for the day... 14 of 43...

Not a bad percentage for the haunted speedway to take another chunk out of the sport... a full one-third of the field...

Here's a little bit of it from nascarcrashesmore...


More when we know more...

UPDATE: With 6 laps to go, it all happened again...

It looked like Ricky Stenhouse squeezed JJ Yeley as the cars went four wide and it caused another chain reaction involving Kurt Busch (who was looking to win the race). Ryan Newman ended up with the 78 on top of him. Bowyer, both Labontes, David Stremme, Danica Patrick, Jamie McMurray, and Jeff Gordon were all involved.

Stenhouse called out Yeley in his own in-car communication...
Here's the other big one...


NASCAR, much like Saturday's Nationwide race, only allowed one pass for a green-white-checkered finish. Seven hours after the official start, David Ragan got a big push from his teammate David Gilliand and beat out Johnson, Edwards, and Kenseth.
((HT: NASCAR))


Huzzahs to everyone at Front Row Motorsports for their finish...

DEVELOPING: Danica Gets Daytona Pole (UPDATED)

((HT: NASCAR on FOX))

Fastest in practice... fastest in the race for the pole...

Danica and the #10 car ended up qualifying early and finishing early- good enough for a little history...

Here's the run...


196.43 miles per hour gets her up front knocking off her boss in the series, Tony Stewart...

“It would be really nice, it’s a very big pole out of all of them during the year for attention and especially for GoDaddy. … That’s who that helps the most,’’ Patrick said before pole qualifying. “There are other races throughout the year that as a driver you feel more proud of yourself to get, but this is a whole team effort. I don’t give much credit to myself for driving and turning left; it’s very much about the car and the engine.

“The pole at Daytona is very much a team goal. I think being fastest on the chart, being fast in general just shows everybody else how serious (crew chief) Tony Gibson is with his guys and he wants to get me a pole and do absolutely everything he can.”

She was on the pole for Nationwide Series racing last season, but now it's an entirely different ballgame...
Jeff Gordon qualified second...

How's that for an "Oh, by the way..."

Here's the reaction... which is understandable...
((HT: ESPN))

Danica Patrick Derailed By Shoe In Montreal

((HT: ESPN/youtube/NASCAR))

And it had nothing to do with Nikita Krushchev...

Danica Patrick was in contention at the Nationwide event in Montreal at Circuit Jacques Villeneuve, but then someone hurled an extra zapato on the track ahead of time...


In replay, she even got to cuss over her broken axle...


Justin Allgaier passed Villeneuve on a green-white-checkered situation to get the win- much to Villeneuve's dismay in the post-race when he blocked Allgaier's progress in celebration...

NASCAR Talking To Danica

((HT: ESPN on ABC/NASCAR))

Here's what happened after the Nationwide race Saturday...


So, now it appears that the guys in the truck are going to speak to the JR Motorsports driver after her attempt to rub out Sam Hornish, Junior...

As you saw, Hornish apologized after the race (whether Patrick believed it or not) and still got put in the wall for his efforts as, apparently, he had a tire going down.

So much for remembering their Indy days...

Danica's Daytona Experience Doesn't Start Well...

((HT: NASCAR/ESPN))

It's not cool when a teammate does it to you...

And that's what JR Motorsports' Cole Whitt did on Lap 49 of the Saturday race at Daytona. Danica Patrick started on the pole and got some seat time with owner Dale Earnhardt, Junior in draft behind her for the first few laps.

But as is the want of the race and the track, she sorted drivers out and shuffled them every which-a-way. Patrick was no different drifting as far back as the mid-20's in the pack.

And, then, depression set in, thanks to Whitt...

Here's the spin out from and the aftermath...


Sufficed to say that in-car communication had to be bleeped and edited for content... thanks, MotorSportsCentral and TSN2

Danica, Shawna... Shawna, Danica...

((HT: ESPN/NASCAR))

For the first time since Shawna Robinson picked up the pole at Atlanta MOtor Speedway in 1994, Danica Patrick knocked Sam Hornish, Junior off the top spot for the Nationwide Series race at Daytona.

Here's your analysis from the desk...


She is scheduled to drive 10 Sprint Cup races for Stewart-Haas Racing and run every Nationwide race for JR Motorsports ths year- talk about having a split ownership loyalty...

She makes her Sprint Cup debut in the Daytona 500 after eating the wall at 180-miles per hour in the Twin 150's races Thursday afternoon.

She has three top-10 finishes in 25 Nationwide races over two years, so now that she's up front it'll be interesting to see who plays ball with her and if she has any friends on the track - AT ANY TIME...

Jus' sayin...

Daytona: Danica Gets Crashed In 150-Miler

((HT: MT89MotorsportMedia/NASCAR/NASCAR Images/Speed))

Welcome to auto racing, and thank NASCAR for putting in SAFIR barriers when Danica Patrick needed them...

Here's the last part of the race where Danica got introduced to them...


Aric Almirola was bumped by Jamie McMurray and it all led to Patrick's hard crash. But the HQ will give the driver credit for taking her hands off the wheel- using her open-wheel prowess to keep from getting her wrists broken...

The 500-miler is Sunday in Daytona...

Dancia Patrick to race in Daytona 500

Your newest Sprint Cup racer

((ht: nascar.com))

Well, that didn't take long. Shortly after the end of this years troubled Indy Car season, the circuits most popular...or at least best known driver has all but made her jump to NASCAR permanent.

Stewart-Haas racing announced today that Danica Patrick will pilot their #10 car in the Super Bowl of Auto Racing in February...the Daytona 500. She will compete in at least 8 more Sprint Cup races along with a full 33 race season on the Nationwide circuit.

Read the entire story from NASCAR.com RIGHT HERE

This isn't much of a surprise. Everyone knew it would just be a matter of time before Patrick made the full jump to Stock-Car racing. She had a somewhat difficult season this past year racing for Andretti Motorsports Indy Car team and expressed a lot of anxiety over the recent fatal crash involving Dan Wheldon.

We don't know if...or how successful Patrick will be running with the bigger cars. She had a modest amount of success in early 2011 running a few Nationwide events. She didn't win any, but showed according to observers, the ability to handle it.

Undoubtedly, this will be  a big, big story leading into next years NASCAR season and considering the egos involved, it should be really, really interesting to watch and see how it plays out.

Here's some video of your newest Sprint Cup contender:

DEVELOPING: Okay, it's official... Danica To NASCAR

((HT: GoDaddy.com/youtube))

The worst kept secret in NASCAR isn't a secret anymore...

Danica Patrick is racing a full-time Nationwide schedule and some Sprint Cup races in the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in 2012.

"We are pleased Danica Patrick has chosen to race full time in NASCAR in 2012," NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France said in a statement. "She has demonstrated a strong desire to compete and NASCAR provides the best opportunity to race against the top drivers in the world with the largest and most loyal fan base in motorsports on a week-to-week basis."

Here's some of the Q-and-A... for the really important stuff, like Daytona...


Here's CNBC's Darren Rovell talking about Danica's economic impact...
((HT: ESPN))

DEVELOPING: Danica To Run NASCAR Full-Time Next Season...? Looks That Way...

According to Marty Smith over at the four-letter, it looks like Danica Patrick will be driving Nationwide full-time for 2012 and running select NASCAR events for Stewart-Haas in the same calendar year with the idea of her going full-time Sprint Cup for Tony Stewart by 2013's season...

A presser is being arranged at GoDaddy's HQ in Phoenix to announce the whole idea.

"Tony Stewart has always said he'd love to have her, but we're a long ways from being at that point," Stewart-Haas spokesman Mike Arning said Wednesday. "From a Stewart-Haas Racing standpoint, things aren't there yet."

No word on how this would clash with her running in the Indy 500 every year when and if this announced...

Here was the discussion during SpeedWeeks at Indy this past year...
((HT: IndyCar/ESPN on ABC/youtube))


Turns out they were right...