Bristol, TN. – Dale Earnhardt Jr. discussed the new agreement with Danica Patrick for full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series at JR Motorsports.
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[/media-credit]Earnhardt Jr. is glad Patrick has made her decision and the “he I really didn’t have to get involved in it”.
“Her (Patrick) and Kelley (Earnhardt) basically hashed the whole deal out and I really didn’t have to get involved in it. It was pretty easy on my end.” Earnhardt Jr. said.
“I think it’s a good decision, man. We’re looking forward to it. Hopefully she enjoys it and has a good time with it. We’re going to try to put together good race cars and see if we can’t win some races.” Earnhardt Jr. said.
A Twitter message by Brad Keselowski stated that “if she does not make it, it’s going to be a long time before another woman gets a chance”. Earnhardt does not necessarily believe that, but believes “She (Patrick) is really savvy and I think she just opened the door myself, to a lot more opportunities for other women, regardless of whether she measures up to everybody’s expectations or not.”
Keselowski has had a lot of reactions to his comment.
“I got a lot of, ‘couldn’t have said it better’ reactions which is pretty interesting. I rely on a pool of friends, family and some fans to help me kind of assess things like that in my own mind. I think most of them agreed to what I said. I would say over 90 percent. If you can bat over 90 percent in anything you do in public opinion, I think you’re doing pretty damn well. I said what I meant.” Keselowski said.
Patrick also announced that she will be doing part-time driving in Sprint Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2012 with Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. She plans on competing eight and ten Sprint Cup races.
Newman discussed her schedule and the impact of Patrick joining Stewart-Haas Racing.
“I don’t think there has been any part of the schedule announced and I don’t know that there is a true idea of what she wants to do, or the sponsor wants to do. I really don’t know how its going to affect our entire organization but obviously there is a lot of hype around it and we have seen around other areas of the sport with a lot of hype there can be much disappointment so its something that I think we are all looking forward to just the experience of working with, for me, working with her.” Newman said.
“We are excited about it. She’s putting 100 percent into it and that’s something that we’re excited about. She is definitely deserving of an opportunity like this and we’re excited and honored that she chose us to do it with.” Stewart said.
Patrick may be making her Sprint Cup Debut in the Daytona 500 in 2012. Jeff Gordon spoke about her debuting at Daytona.
“It doesn’t matter to me. She did pretty well in the Nationwide race. To me, that was a testament of what she is capable of doing. So I don’t see why that would be the case if she has; I mean she’s racing the Indianapolis 500 and to me, that’s pretty challenging. So I think if that’s where they want to make her debut, I wouldn’t have any heartache against it because of the tracks that she’s raced at in the Nationwide Series.” Gordon said.
Stewart says the schedule has not been set yet.
“We’re working on her schedule and when we have a schedule, we’ll let you guys know what those races are going to be.” Stewart said.
