NOTES FROM THE NASCAR NATION: DANICA STAYING? DANICA LEAVING? WE HAVE A NEW MYSTERY TO SOLVE
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[/media-credit]Remember last fall when we had all of that fun trying to unravel the mystery of where driver Kasey Kahne was going land for the 2011 season? Kahne needed a one year deal with a team while waiting to take over his new ride with Hendrick Motorsports in 2012. We had a ball trying to figure out his 2011 mystery.
Now we have a new racing riddle to solve and this one is going to be very special because it involves Danica Patrick. On Tuesday we were treated with published reports that said she was moving to NASCAR full time next year and her management team, the highly reputable IMG, were finalizing all of the details.
However, the following day, Patrick issued a statement saying she had no idea where that information came from and called the reports “speculation.”
Let the game begin.
Tuesday’s report was initially released by “ESPN Dot Com”, also highly reputable, and seemed to focus on five major points regarding Patrick’s next move in her career:
1. Danica Patrick will compete full time in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series in 2012.
2. She will also drive in a selected number of NASCAR Sprint Cup events next year.
3. She will move up to the Sprint Cup Series full time in 2013.
4. She will make a brief return to the Indy Racing League to compete in the 2012 Indy 500.
5. Her long time sponsor, Go Daddy Dot Com, will follow her to NASCAR.
The timing of this announcement seems to fit. Her Indy Racing League contract with Andretti Auto Sport, as well as her NASCAR Nationwide Series contract with J R Motorsports, expires at the end of this year.
However, on Wednesday, Patrick threw a major monkey wrench into machine when she denied any knowledge of her future racing plans being in place. In an interview with “SI Dot Com” she said “I’m watching TV and see it scroll across the bottom of the screen. I don’t know where it came from but it’s all speculation. Anybody can speculate that and write that. I don’t know where it came from but there’s no truth to it; it’s just speculation.”
Expressing her own form of speculation, she said she found it “curious about the timing of such a story coming out a few days before the Indy 500.”
I have two basic problems with this denial. First, I’ve never had a second’s hesitation in believing anything that I’ve seen or read from ESPN. They have a long standing reputation of cultivating sources and double checking the facts. I’m inclined to think that their report last Tuesday was spot on.
Secondly, this would not be the first time a major announcement was denied in order to protect the timing of the official announcement. The catalyst here would be Patrick’s management team taking advantage of every marketing concept available that comes with a glitzy press conference.
If we’re going to get accused of speculating, then that’s all the reason we need to roll up our sleeves and do exactly that: speculate. It seems that our brand new racing mystery has one element that hasn’t been addressed: what NASCAR team will Danica Patrick sign with?
The first, and rather obvious, choice is J R Motorsports, the NASCAR Nationwide Series team owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr, that Patrick used to launch her NASCAR venture. That #7 Go Daddy Chevrolet has been Patrick’s NASCAR learning curve since last year. The culmination of the hard worked peaked last March when Patrick finished fourth in the Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas.
J R Motorsports could easily cover Patrick’s Nationwide Series needs next year, but what about the proposed Sprint Cup events? The answer to that question may lie in yet another high profile contract negotiation. In recent days we learned that team owner Rick Hendrick is very close to signing Dale Earnhardt Jr to a contract extension that will keep NASCAR’s most popular driver in the Hendrick Sprint Cup racing stable for the next several years to come.
There has also been speculation that says one of the final negotiation points to this new contract involves Rick Hendrick’s increased participation in J R Motorsports. Could that possibly mean that a small fleet of Hendrick built Cup cars could be delivered to Earnhardt’s race shop? It makes sense when you think about it. Hendrick cannot sign Patrick to drive one of his Sprint Cup cars. That’s due to the NASCAR mandated owner’s cap that limits team ownership to four cars implemented just prior to the start of the 2010 season. Hendrick’s four car Cup stable is full at the moment and will be for the next several years. But placing some Cup cars in Junior’s shop would be rather easy.
There’s also been some speculation regarding a liaison between Danica Patrick and Tony Stewart although the plans for the Nationwide Series could turn out to be a deal breaker. The owner/driver from Stewart-Haas Racing fully understands what it takes to complete the transition from Indy cars to NASCAR stock cars. He has been very generous in the past by discussing the process with Patrick and offering his advice.
Stewart has always maintained that he’s wide open to expanding his operation from two cars to four under he right set of circumstances. While he hasn’t conducted any formal contract talks with Patrick, he did say he would be interested in having her join Stewart-Haas if she would be willing to make the leap of faith to the Cup level. Stewart made it clear that he was not interested in fielding a Nationwide Series team.
We can stretch the Danica speculation one giant step further by including Joe Gibbs Racing in this mix. Their existing operation would be perfect for Patrick’s transition because they already have one of the best Nationwide Series operations in place. Bringing Patrick to the Cup level would also be an easy accomplishment because Gibbs Racing currently has three teams with room for one more.
In the past team President J D Gibbs has said they would seriously consider expanding to a four car Cup operation under the right set of circumstances. A high profile driver like Danica Patrick, backed with Go Daddy dollars, would definitely be the right set of circumstances.
So there you have it racing fans. We have a new mystery to solve. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m also wondering where I can purchase one of those really cool Sherlock Holmes hats.
NOTES FROM THE NASCAR NATION: THE RETURN OF ‘OLD KYLE’ LITERALLY GOES OVER THE LIMIT
When Kyle Busch decides to misbehave, he often does it in rather spectacular fashion. Last Tuesday’s citation, for driving 128 MPH on a North Carolina public road zoned for 45 MPH is his latest example of bad behavior.
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[/media-credit]Over the past several months we’ve watched an interesting transformation from Kyle Busch. The “Old Kyle”, a brash I’ll do and say what I want character, seemed to be determined to live up to his official “Rowdy” nickname. The antics of “Old Kyle” sometimes hit legendary proportions and, in some cases, were even highly entertaining. I can actually recall many times when I referred to his behavior as “job security.”
Just when we started to get used to the antics of “Old Kyle, that side of the driver began to evaporate. Busch entered into a transformation and slowly but surely “New Kyle” began to emerge. That former high level of intensity and drama, often displayed out of the race car, was replaced by a more calm and mature demeanor. He became someone who chose his words very carefully, especially in front of the media. The very same things that used to make this driver angry within a New York minute now barely became blips on his personal radar. This transformation was likely the biggest sigh of relief his team owner, Joe Gibbs, has enjoyed in quite awhile.
In all of us there’s that basic good versus evil struggle that has to be frequently dealt with. It’s not unlike the silly sequence from a Saturday cartoon where the tiny good angel stands on your left shoulder and says “on no no, this is wrong and we must not do this.” That is counteracted by the tiny little devil, standing on the right shoulder, that says “don’t listen to him, let’s go have some fun. Let’s do this.”
In the case of Kyle Busch, the little devil on his right shoulder won the argument last Tuesday. According to reports from the Iredell County ACE, Aggressive Criminal Enforcement, Busch was driving a 2012 Lexus LFA sports car on a North Carolina public road between the communities of Troutman and Mooresville. That’s where he was clocked doing 128 MPH in a 45 MPH zone. He was issued a citation for speeding along with careless and reckless driving.
That very same day there was an official statement released by Busch who profusely apologized for the incident. The statement said “I was test driving a new sports car and I got carried away.” The official apology also stated Busch’s willingness to take full responsibility for his actions along with an assurance that something like this will never happen again.
While I don’t doubt that Busch is indeed apologetic and embarrassed by his latest episode, one can’t help but think the carefully worded prose in this official statement was carefully created by a spin doctor from Joe Gibbs Racing. It was likely created by the same person who spent a great deal of late night overtime sitting in an office trying to put a coat of polish on previous “Old Kyle” episodes.
Hypothetically speaking, if local resident “John Q Public” committed this act he would also be issued a citation. The resolution would likely include a well deserved hefty fine and the possibility of a license suspension for 60 days per North Carolina DMV law. There could also be some possible stipulations regarding a period of community service and perhaps even probation. Once the matter was adjudicated in court, “Mr John Q Public” would settle his business with the county and its doubtful that his misdeed would barely make the next edition of the local paper.
The situation was diversely different for Kyle Busch because of his well known celebrity status as a star in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The ink was barely dry on his traffic citation before the story was ran by every news and sports media center in the country. While the episode was certainly embarrassing for the driver, it was even more embarrassing for Joe Gibbs Racing. Once again the Gibbs organization found themselves having to explain the actions of this driver to their sponsors while in the midst of putting out his latest public relations fire.
This incident is not going to become an official NASCAR matter. On Wednesday NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharpe issued a statement that said “this is a matter Kyle will have to handle with the authorities in Iredell County. Based on what we know right now, this would not impact his status as a NASCAR driver.”
Paying the monetary fine from his citation is not a problem for Kyle Busch. He’s a wealthy man. It’s likely that a fine will be the only punishment he receives from actions that are widely regarded as being both dangerous and completely irresponsible.
After all, he is a celebrity and it’s well known that in our country there are rules and procedures that apply to celebrities that would never be afforded to someone such as “John Q. Public.” If you find that hard to believe then ask anyone, including yours truly, from southern California about celebrity justice. We will quickly drop the names Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen just to name two. Don’t even get us started on the O J Simpson matter.
If Kyle Busch is going to have any real problems from this incident it will likely come from Joe or J D Gibbs who were reported to be “looking into the situation.” They will likely instruct him to find a way to lock “Old Kyle” into a box never to be heard from again.
