Danica Patrick’s Big Decision For 2012 Looks To Be NASCAR

By

-

July 5, 2011

Last week, it was released that Go Daddy was sold from Bob Parsons to KKR & Co. for $2.25 billion. Off the bat, people were worried about how that would effect Danica Patrick’s future. It appeared that was unnecessary. A spokesperson for Go Daddy said that it won’t affect their relationship with her.

David Yeazell | SpeedwayMedia.com“I can tell you Bob’s been very vocal about how well Danica has fit into Go Daddy’s marketing efforts,” spokesperson Elizabeth Driscoll said. “And the new investors have specifically said they don’t want to mess with Go Daddy’s secret sauce…at least two of the magic ingredients, our customer service and marketing.”

“We are very much looking forward to the future…on the Internet and on the race track.”

With Go Daddy’s support behind her 100%, it is now up to Patrick with what decision she chooses to make for herself in 2012.

Silly season always seems to bring a puzzle and right now, the puzzle has Patrick pointed towards NASCAR for 2012.

Go Daddy already announced that it wouldn’t be backing the No. 5 entry from Hendrick Motorsports next year with driver Kasey Kahne, as it had backed the entry the last couple of years with Mark Martin. This opens up the door for Go Daddy to take on a new sponsorship role within the NASCAR sector. Patrick is already their marketing tool and the person who has given them some of their best publicity. It’d make sense that they were making that announcement so they could sponsor Patrick full-time over at JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series.

Also, if Patrick came over to NASCAR, her future in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series looks bright down the road if she is capable of moving up. Tony Stewart already stated that he’d like to have her drive for him and as was seen last Friday night at Daytona, they work well together.

Speaking of Daytona, it showed that Patrick is a strong learner in learning aspects of stock car racing. Back in February, she was criticized for how she drafted with drivers as they stated she didn’t know the idea of dragging the brake. However, she learned that quickly on Friday night and led the field for a bit while working with Tony Stewart. She also worked well with JR Motorsports teammate Aric Almirola.

“Got disconnected about half a lap to go and dropped back to get reconnected with Aric,” she said after scoring the third top 10 of her NASCAR career Friday night. “It looked like Mike (Wallace) was struggling there. I kept the car straight and my foot in it, probably not the right thing to do in a wreck.

“I learned a lot out there. I was glad I got to push a bit as I was thinking, ‘Am I only good as a leader?’ But the guys did a good job on the Go Daddy Chevrolet.”

Her ability to be successful in NASCAR has been seen in many different forms also, as she scored her first top five earlier this year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, finishing fourth with fuel strategy after running just inside the top 10 all day.

“I mean, we’ve been really consistent – the finishes haven’t shown it,” crew chief Tony Eury Jr. said after the fourth place finish. “It’s really easy for her to run in the top 15. If we can get everything right, we can run in the top 10 with this girl.”

Lastly, it has been displayed that she has a good teammate in Aric Almirola to lean on with his experience, as witnessed last year at Homestead-Miami when he came on her radio during the race to give her some tips about her racing line.

With all the pieces laid out, it’d look to be that her decision will be NASCAR full-time in 2012.Though whatever her decision, she’ll have her fans behind her and IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard says that he’s okay with whatever she does.

“I think the world of Danica,” he commented. “I think she’s going to make the right decision for her and I will wish her well whichever decision she makes. She’s done a lot for our sport and that’s what we need to remember. I think that she’ll probably go where the money is the best and I think that’s what I would do, you would do as well, and I think it’s more important right now I focus my attention to Go Daddy and make sure that I can keep Go Daddy apart of our series. I think without Go Daddy, Danica Patrick wouldn’t have the fame that she has and I’m looking out for the long term of our sport.”

Notes From The NASCAR Nation: Lending Junior A Helping Hand

By

SM Staff

-

July 5, 2011

In the aftermath of the July 2nd Coke Zero 400, at the Daytona International Raceway, it was clearly evident to all that Dale Earnhardt Jr was not a happy man. Why would he be? First off, he lost sight of his Daytona dance partner, Hendrick Motorsports team mate Jimmie Johnson, following a miscommunication regarding a pit stop. Then, on the final lap of the race, he got caught up in the event’s second “big one” of the evening and watched a good race car and a potential top ten finish become a wadded up race car that finished 18th.

[media-credit id=22 align=”alignright” width=”225″][/media-credit]It was very easy to understand the frustration of NASCAR’s most popular driver. He arrived at Daytona with high anticipation, perhaps even a feeling that this was the weekend he was going to end that equally frustrating win less streak that dates back to the summer of 2008. It’s the same streak that he’s been reminded of on national television, and in the print media, at each stop on the NASCAR Sprint Cup’s schedule.

After the race Earnhardt found himself in front of the media once again under dire circumstances. However,this time was different. He didn’t mince words and he made no effort whatsoever to choose his words carefully.

Referring to the his frustrations over the new two car draft system now prevalent in NASCAR restrictor plate racing, he asked “what kind of move can you make? I mean, Jesus man, what kind of freakin’ move can you make racing like this? There are no moves to make. You’re just holding on trying not to wreck each other and we saw how good we are at that.”

Then, much to every one’s surprise, Earnhardt challenged the media to state their opinions on the two car draft. “You guys need to get your own opinions and write what you all think about it,” he said adding “I think it’s probably pretty damn close to mine. Stop putting my damn mouth with y’all and getting my ass in trouble. Y’all write what y’all think. Come on, y’all are good. Y’all have an opinion about it. I read Y’all’s stuff. You put us in the damn crow’s nest.”

I can’t imagine how my personal opinion, on the state of restrictor plate racing, could help out Dale Earnhardt Jr, but I like him enough to at least try. Get ready, here it comes “Y’all”.

The Coke Zero 400 was 160 laps long. The first 140 of those laps was like watching paint dry. There were times when I had to stand up to keep from falling asleep. This was followed by 20 plus laps of the world’s most expensive demolition derby.

However, I’m not sure that this tedium is going to have a huge negative impact on the TNT Network’s television ratings. The race broadcast was on a Saturday night and, if you checked your television guide channel, there was basically nothing else on to compete with the race. Having said that, there were moments during the Coke Zero 400 when a rerun of “Law And Order” was starting to look good to me.

I’m having trouble relating to the fact that a driver absolutely needs a partner to win one of these races and I can’t imagine the fans being able to completely relate to that either. The old days of an individual, like Dale Earnhardt Sr charging to the front of the field at Talladega all by himself, appears to be gone forever and that’s too bad.

The so called “big one” is always going to be prevalent in restrictor plate racing. Whether the drivers return to the old school style of plate racing, keep the new two car tandem or even come up with a radically new concept, there’s always going to be the possibility of a multi car crash. I hate to see them because of the potential danger to the drivers as well as the collateral damage to the cars, especially the cars belonging to teams who are racing on limited budgets.

I couldn’t help but notice that, during pit stops, the gas man now had the added duty of wiping down the rear bumper with a grease laden rag to make the double car contact work smoother. I wondered why Pam hasn’t become the official cooking spray of NASCAR.

Finally I’ll never understand how this bizarre thought entered what’s left of my mind, but it occurred to me that this new two car hook up actually resembled two cockroaches having intimate relations.

Again, I don’t know if these opinions will help Dale Earnhardt Jr in any way, but I was glad to at least try and lend Junior a helping hand.

NAPA Racing Kentucky Race Preview

By

SM Archive

-

July 5, 2011

NCAT: Mark Dilley Looks To Turn Season Around in Toronto

By

SM Staff

-

July 5, 2011

Going in Toronto, Mark Dilley is looking for the season to turn around as so far the best finish for the No. 9 Rheem/PartSource Dodge team is a fifth place finish at Circuit ICAR.

The bad luck this season that has the hurt Dilley sees him sitting 10th in points, almost 200 points behind points leader Scott Steckly.

“It hasn’t been very good for us,” he said of the season so far. “We’ve had a lot of bad luck, that’s for sure. But hopefully that’s all behind us and we just look forward to get going again and getting everything switched around here.”

Heading into the Honda Indy Weekend in Toronto this weekend, Dilley is looking turn things around with a strong run.

“It’s just a great event,” he said. “Anytime you can race through the streets of the biggest city in Canada, it’s pretty exciting. It’s a great event and we get to showcase ourselves from the NASCAR side in front of a lot of people who wouldn’t see us, if it wasn’t for that event. So pretty excited about it. We’ve always been pretty good there. Just need to have a good, strong run.”

Last year wasn’t that great for Dilley in Toronto as he finished 24th due to a rear-axle issue after qualifying ninth.

Unlike the top NASCAR levels, the Canadian Tire Series is split down the middle almost with ovals and road courses, as there are five road courses in the 12 race schedule. With that said, there are those who have brought up the discussion of which they’d perfer, in which Dilley points more towards ovals for him.

“I’m more of an oval racer,” he said. “I raced ovals all my life, but I just think that unfortunately, the biggest events in the country are the road course racing so we have to be at those, too. I can see both sides of the coin, but for me personally, I’m more of an oval racer.”

Though on the bright side of things, things have been good for Dilley once he’s outside of the racecar this year. The track in Innisfil, Ontario, in which he manages called Sunset Speedway has seen a very good season so far with lots of success. Its not the easiest job for Dilley to have, however he thanks his staff for their work they do in helping.

“It’s tough,” he said of trying to balance racing and managing the track. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes on at the same time; that’s the biggest thing. We do have good staff that work for us at Sunset that can take up a lot of slack, but there’s just a lot of things that happening on the same weekends. Like, this weekend for example, we have Toronto Indy Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we also have two events at Sunset on Saturday and Sunday, so I’m going to be back-and-forth and running around and that, but its been pretty good so far.”

He got into the ownership side of things back in the 1990s when he was the part-owner of Barrie Speedway.

“Well, I actually owned Barrie Speedway back in the early 1990s with a buddy of mine – Brad, who actually runs the Canadian Tire Series now, we owned Barrie before,” he said. “I’ve just always liked it. When we got involved in this, they put a team of owners together that had money to back it and really wanted to make a difference and they’ve done that by the investment they’ve made into the track, redoing the track. Just whatever they said they’d do, they’ve done and it’s been good to work with partners like that where they have the money to repave the track, redo it and a real fast and exciting place to be. So that was really what the biggest part of me was when they put the owners group together, they made a commitment that they’d put money in and they’ve stayed to their word 100%.”

So far this season, the competition level at Sunset Speedway has been great with the amount cars and differnet winners, however Dilley admits the crowds have been down.

“The crowds have been a bit light,” he said. “On the initial part, but its just weather, but now its getting better. But when it rains every weekend on Saturday, its hard to get people to come; nobody is going to sit around in the rain, that’s for sure.”

This summer marks an important time for Sunset Speedway as the Sunset will be one of the five tracks that are part of the Richard Petty Driving Experience Canadian Summer Tour.

“I’m excited about it,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for people to be able to get in a car, the same as what they see on Sundays with the Sprint Cup level. I think that its very exciting and I really believe that the pricing is right with it and I think it’ll be a huge success once it gets rolling. I just think that it’s an awesome opportunity and it’s really awesome of the Richard Petty Driving Experience to come to Canada and showcase what they have.”

Dilley got his start in racing through go-karts at the age of six after watching his grandpa race and has since been winning races, with his most memorable coming in Nova Scotia a couple years ago.

“It was pretty good for me,” he said of the win. “My mom had just passed a couple weeks before so it was kind of a big one.”