Danica Patrick joins NASCAR

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Danica Patrick will race in NASCAR as well as Indy Car next year

Danica Patrick joining NASCAR may not seem especially relevant for F1 fans, particularly those of us in Europe.

But you have to pause for a moment and consider the scale of the missed opportunity. Here is a talented, female, American racing driver who, had things gone differently, might have ended up in F1.

Simply being the first female F1 driver in 17 years would have been a boost for the sport’s profile. But having an American driver as well would have been a marketing dream.

Patrick will appear in several second-tier NASCAR Nationwide races next year alongside her Indy Car activities. Inevitably this is being seen as an escalation to a full campaign in the NASCAR top-flight in the future.

Could things have worked out differently? Patrick considered a move into GP2 in 2005 – but instead chose the Indy Racing League.

Another American driver – Scott Speed – finished third in that year’s championship and graduated to F1 with Toro Rosso in 2006.

Any discussion about Patrick tends to lead to a debate over how good she actually is. After joining the IRL she became the darling of the category when she led the 2005 Indianapolis 500. In 2007 she joined top team Andretti-Green. But her detractors – every bit as vociferous as her fans – point out she’s only won one Indy Car race in 81 attempts.

We can discuss whether or not she could have been a success in F1. And, in my opinion, I think she would have found it very tough.

But what you can’t deny is it would have attracted a huge amount of attention and given F1’s profile a massive boost.

At least with Alexander Rossi and JR Hildebrand testing F1 cars last week the prospects of there being an American in Grand Prix racing in the future are looking brighter. Up-and-coming female racing drivers, however, are even harder to find.

Image (C) Indy Car

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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83 comments on “Danica Patrick joins NASCAR”

  1. Prisoner Monkeys
    8th December 2009, 21:45

    Meh. Patrick never would have cut it in Formula One. She’s a great oval racer, but she’s noticeably lacking on street circuits and road cources. The only reason she gets asmuch attention as she does it because she has boob-shaped boobs.

    1. Totally Agree

      All indycar or champ racers that have come into F1 recently have been okay bordering rubbish. She won once in 81 starts, this translates into roughly no chance of a win ever in Formula 1.

      F1 drivers need to graduate through open wheel racing in junior catagories that race on the right kind of circuits or there just not sharp enough.

      To be honnested I’d much prefer the next women in Formula 1 to get there with race winning talent, blast the door right open like Hamilton did for black drivers. She’s a middle runner at very luckiest best an we don’t really need her.

      1. there r many F1 drivers with “no hope” to win a race in F1 according to ur calculation. why not kick one out and make a place for her. anyway, F1 is not a sport anymore, it is a show

    2. I wouldn’t call her great, in fact I’d call her pretty poor. She’s won a single race in 5 years in a spec series.

      1. Danica may not be great, but she’s at least the best of the rest in IndyCar, and the highest placed Andretti Green driver in this year’s championship, even scoring ahead of the great Tony Kanaan. That tells she isn’t racing just for fun.

      2. “Here is a talented, female, American racing driver”

        LOL let me shorten that sentence for you….
        Here is a female, American racing driver…

        she would have put her career in taters had she joined F1. I mean boobs dont win races, talent does. She would have shamed herself Badoer style, and lost the tiny glimmer of creditability she has managed to con the media into believing she has.

        1. Yaaaaaawwwnnn….

          I am so glad Danica didn’t join F1 and bring more shame on American race drivers.Scott Speed has already taken care of that for us recently.

          She looks nice but,she could never cut F1.Let her race the Budweiser circuits and show her figure off in the occasional magazine.She seems comfortable with doing that now.

    3. “Boob-shaped boobs.”

      Neil Patrick Harris FTW!

    4. I wonder if her problems on street circuits/road courses is due to the IRL cars lack of power steering? Not to be a troll and start anything, but physiologically speaking men have more upper-body strength/stamina than women. Therefore, she has to work much harder on the road/street tracks then the men do.

      1. they bent the rules and gave it to her for a season last year(?)
        But not this year..no difference in results.

      2. She does use power steering in her Indy Cars, and she’s not the only driver in the series to do so. She and I, also female, are about the same size, and I know for a fact that I would never be able to drive a stock car. So don’t look for her to do any road races in the Nationwide series. But I admire her desire to do so, and believe she’ll give it everything she’s got, without relying on her boobs one way or the other. AP doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

        1. Indycar prohibits powersteering, although Danica Patrick, the female driver does use powersteering. There is a strong possibility that powersteering will be legal in the 2008 season….
          Ok so they did make it legal my bad. :)

          Now add that advantage she had PLUS the fact she weighs half the amount of all the other drivers..
          She then had to bitch and moan about equalising the car weights like they do in F1 by including the driver weight…
          “Starting this season, the minimum weight for IRL cars will include the driver, and Patrick is the series’ lightest at 100 pounds”….”Patrick admits to having had a slight speed edge from weighing less in a sport where lighter means faster”

          SLIGHT!!! rofl
          Imagine RBR having a 75pound to 100 pound advantage over the rest of the field….get real lady.

          1. Umm, “will be legal in the 2008 season”?

            Are you writing these posts from 2007? Say hi to Marty, Doc and the rest of the Back To The Future crew :)

          2. It was a retrospective “post”(actually is a direct quote from 2007) referring to power steering not being legal ……and me being wrong…They have finally made it legal…

  2. I cant stand that woman! she is always yelling at someone about something.

    Shes just a driving bilboard, nothing more nothing less

  3. I think had she been in a top car she would have gone ok. If I remember correctly she won or finished on the podium at one of the FFord festivals at Brands Hatch before her IRL career. You don’t go ok in those festivals, where there are about 800 drivers all in the same equipment basically, unless you can pedal on a course that goes both left AND right pretty well.

    Not saying she could have or would have been WDC but she would have done as good a job as say Hekki did in the McLaren over the past 2 seasons. But for a struggling team she would have brought a massive amount of sponsorship and media attention.

    And I’m glad she has boob shaped boobs. What other shapes do you think they come in?

    1. I also remember she had a really big crash at Brands Hatch aswell. cant remember if it was the same raceweekend though

    2. she would have done as good a job as say Hekki did in the McLaren over the past 2 seasons.

      Thats a bit far! Heikki is one of the most underated drivers and has been the unluckiesst f1 driver for the last 2 seasons! Danica spins out on every circuit that goes right aswell as left-she’d the new Piquet!

      1. Heikki is one of the most underated drivers and has been the unluckiesst f1 driver for the last 2 seasons!

        I’d be replacing both “underrated” and “unluckiest” with words like “underperforming”.

    3. There are other shapes.. but the better ones are the boob shape boobs

  4. Simply being the first female F1 driver in 17 years would have been a boost for the sport’s profile. But having an American driver as well would have been a marketing dream.

    Yes it would be a marketing dream….. unless of course she turns out to be bloody slow.

  5. She ain’t that bad (on an oval).
    She had a bad season this year, but her whole team did, so that was more down to that I think!

    A woman in F1 would be a great addition, for sure she has to be resonable good, like Patrick.
    She fits the profile perfectly!

    1. Not bad when she only has to turn one way!

  6. Simply being the first female F1 driver in 17 years would have been a boost for the sport’s profile

    Can I do it then? :P

    1. Apparently you can, but you need at least drive in other major racing series

  7. Fred Schechter
    8th December 2009, 22:20

    If you bother to look at the IRL season ending standings, she’s the highest rated American, period. End of story (yes, someone will make a period joke, but I am above that).
    She does have “only 1 win,” but how many do other drivers have,, well 1, probably not so many either.
    Her euro experience is quality and yes, the Brands Hatch FFord festival is another great example she can flat out drive.
    How she’d fare in F1, who knows, but she’s dealt with all the hoopla. True she tends to get angry, you’d be too if you had that roving chicane Milka Duno in your way (honestly how everyone avoided hitting her all year is beyond me, absolutely the most terrifying man made racing hazard I have EVER seen).
    But I digress.
    She’ll do fine in NASCAR when she gets there, handling the media is a specialty she has as well as being a top flight driver(how would you do with that many media requests,, not well I’d imagine).
    As for her chances in F1, it appears we’ll never know. Clearly someone in a vehicle lighter than Heidfeld can’t be all bad either!

    1. Danica was also the highest placed driver in the IRL behind the DOMINANT Penske and Ganassi teams (they won every race except one) this season. No, she didn’t win this year. She also did not drive the best car or for the best team. There are plenty of F1 drivers who have never won (Nick Heidfeld immediately comes to mind) but are considered pretty good drivers. Anyway, lots of F1 fans like other categories and I’m happy to see an American racer mentioned! :)

    2. irl to nascar isn’t a automatic cross over sport. Bit like saying basket ball and volley ball are the same..indoors on wooden floors.

      it has taken Pab a few year to get his head around it, and Scott Speed is showing why he was dumped from F1 with his lack of Speed…there are a few other ex-indi/irl drivers that dont get results and were better talents than DP.

      I think she has the $ to hang around long enough in the sport because of her boobs but if she was a bloke the funding wouldn’t even be there to begin with.

  8. This is F1 fanatic Keith…. not NASCAR fanatic…….

    1. And many F1 Fanatics also follow, or at least have a casual interest in, other motor racing series.

      1. I second that!

    2. There were rumours of her getting an F1 drive (that no one really thought would come to anything, but they were still out there), so this is relvant to F1fanatics.

      1. F1 Fanatic, but also interested in things that relate to F1, is ok by me. Don’t listen to em Keith. You do a great job! :)

  9. she is no where near good enough for f1, when she came to surfers street circuit in 08 all she did was wobble round no idea what line to be on, and run around the back of the field. not f1 material, pr material maybe but no an f1 driver on talent thats for sure.

  10. As far as I know, to get an F1 superlicence, you have to win a single-seater championship. So far, she has won one single-seater race. A move to F1 will take a long time…

    1. Not quite correct. You automatically qualify if you win a single seater championship, and then only some of them count. Webbo has never won a single seater championship for example, yet he has a superlicence. Alex Yoong had a superlicence for crying out loud, and I’ll bet Danica is a far better driver than him!

      And she has won only one Indy car race – I think she’s won a few others as well.

      She is a whinger, yells at everyone, and she probably is not the best driver in the world. But she would have fitted in ok at some F1 teams and brought publicity to a sport which often in the past couple of years has got publicity for cheating, stealing of data, fixing races and dressing up like a nazi prisoner.

      Hopefully there’s a seat for Steph90 in the near future…

      1. Alex Yoong came into F1 before the superlicence rules were revised. They were altered a few years ago specifically to prevent pay drivers like Yoong from coming to F1 with too little experience. I think the rules as they stand say you have to be a top three or four finisher in the IRL championship to be eligible for an F1 superlicence, so Danica wouldn’t get one just yet.

      2. Lol ! Thanks Clay :)
        Penelope Pitstop sounds like a very good racer maybe she could? If you’re reading this Penelope all the best and hope to see you back on here soon:)

  11. I would like a woman in F1. just not her

  12. I question if F1 doesn’t have a little too much ‘Machismo’ for a female driver to be comfortable and be treated as an equal. Scott Speed simply didn’t get along with his bosses at STR, and as an American who was an Expat for 5 years (1 year in Europe), I always smelled some clash of expectations/culture. Danica would indeed have a very tough time in F1. Rossi I feel is Americas best hope for a future, *competitive*, F1 driver.

  13. There’s a much better woman driver in the pipes, who has international road racing experience, who rubs shoulders in her home country with the likes of Nelson, Rubens and Fitti, who came up through karting system through choldhood and is now racing in American Indy Lights on her way soon to Indycar. Her name: Ana Beatriz.

    1. Do you mean Bia Figueiredo? also known as etc.
      Because ehhhh? even more average than Danica.

    2. My friend is Ana’s Race Eng, he rates her well, but not the next potential F1 superstar I don’t think…

    3. Bia Figueiredo (who recently chose to call herself “Ana Beatriz”) is a brazilian promisse for a long time (by far our best female driver ever), had a constant career through Formula Renault and South American Formula 3, but, in two years at Indy Lights, only won twice (once in 2008 and once in 2009), had a spetacular first year (Rookie of the year, 3rd overall), and could have gone directly to the top series, but stayed there and had a less relevant second year (8th in the standings).

      Anyway, her CV is good enough to get an IndyCar Series seat, like many other drivers who didn’t shine in the junior formulae but showed their full potential at the big stage.

      I’d bet on her for the future, and that would be great for brazilian motorsport.

  14. Danica did very well in 2009. While she did not win a race she did finish fifth on points behind penske and ganassi which is like finishing fifth behind Ferrari and mclaren.she finished higher than teamates Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti.

    People that don’t like her boggle my mind. There is nothing to hate about a talented driver who is as competative as it gets who happens to be smoking hot. F1 missed an opportunity but I don’t think she wanted to leave the states anyway.

    1. I’ve heard the same thing- she probably could have easily had a good shot at an F1 seat, but never really wanted to pursue that route. Some say that she knows she’s not good enough, while she chalks it up to not wanting to travel and operate all over the world. In any event, it is interesting to ponder how her potential F1 career could have gone….

    2. Se was as constant and as winless as Lucas di Grassi, for example…

      1. And let’s not forget that the only race she won was effectively “half a win”: the Motegi GP during that transition from Champ Cars and Indy Car that saw another race on the same weekend at Long Beach with the remaining Champ Car teams running their last race…

  15. Keith said:

    “Here is a talented, female, American racing driver who, had things gone differently, might have ended up in F1.”

    Do not even hint at the possibility of her competing in F1; one of the the alleged reasons for her pursing NASCAR is the massive reduction of oval racing in Indy Cars. She is marginal in Indy Cars and totally inadequate on the road/track courses used in that series. And they now have a fifty-fifty split between ovals and tracks. And before anyone states “but she finished 5th in points”, it’s not representative of a winning driver. In NASCAR, 5th is a big deal, worth millions in winnings, but not in Indy Cars. Get the picture? It’s all about the $$$$$.

    If she were half as talented on track as in her marketing of her sex and appearance she’d be a female Schumy. But alas, she’s not. I also predict she’ll be a back marker in NASCAR Sprint, only producing headlines in controversies with other drivers. She might make a few initial waves in ARCA or Nationwide, where the cars are lighter and horsepower lower, but she will be a footnote in the history of top NASCAR series racing.

    I will gladly offer mea culpas’s galore if wrong.

  16. I think the only woman that has a chance to make it to F1 any time soon is Buemi’s female cousin. I forget her name, but the point is that she is likely the best candidate for making F1.

    1. Natacha Gachnang. Didn’t set the world alight in F2 this year.

  17. Scottish driver Susie Stoddart is another woman who could get into F1 if someone were to give her a chance.

    She would be far better. And she’s got a bit of talent, and races on circuits, not round and round on ovals.

    1. Thought Kathy Legge would have been a better choice in the past. She did have a test with Minardi, if I remember correctly. But she hasn’t done that well in DTM.

  18. No kidding. Manager Andretti Jr. Learn’t the hard way.Pass on the advice and save the embarrassment. Skills required else do not apply

  19. Danica Patrick: American, Female, racing driver, good on tracks that just go left, no so good on tracks that also have right hand corners.

    Sorry, but she wouldn’t cut it in F1. The chances of her making it to F1 went out the window when she decided not to drive in GP2.

  20. For as much as I have bashed Danica and her talents on here in the past, I will admit to the following:

    – She was the highest-placed American in IndyCar this year, and did beat her teamamte and sometimes-F1 prospect Marco Andretti on a regular basis. She lagged behind the elite drivers (Dixon, Dario, Helio, Kanaan) but was at least more consistent than past seasons.
    – In terms of moving to NASCAR, she’s taking a sensable approach for several reasons. First, stock cars are a WAY different breed of racing than either F1 or IndyCar….just ask JV, Dario, or JPM on how different it is when jumping in at the Sprint Cup level. With the ARCA and Nationwide races, she can learn at her own pace. If the whole thing blows up and sinks on her, so what…she just chalks it up as a failed experiment. At the same time, by running a full IndyCar schedule, she keeps the movement going that got her here to begin with, so nothing lost if the NASCAR deal dosen’t work out.

    I understand that Danica dose have talent, has accomplished alot more than many other drivers, and could probably accomplish something to F1 if she dedicated herself to it. What bugs me is so many people pushing her for an F1 drive where there are other young Americans with driving talent who have real ambitions of reacing F1…if some of them had even a fraction of Danica’s sponsorship and funding, we may see some of them on the grid already.

  21. I watched a really interesting documentary on National Geographic yesterday, it was called Racing To America. The show follows JPMs switch from Open Wheelers to stock cars. I have to say, my interpretation of NASCAR has changed dramatically after what I saw.

    I’ve never really watched NASCAR proper, but all I can say is that, its always looked like a lot of fun. I think NASCAR is just as difficult as F1, just that its a different kettle of fish. I believe that real racers can race anything and be successful, it just depends how much time they are given and how good their machinery is.

    I havent watched too many Indycar races, the few I’ve watched, Danica was always yelling at some one at some point. I can’t really judge if she’s any good so I wont comment.

    Well lets just put it this, the media can make anyone believe anything…if they made you believe that David Beckham was one of the greatest players ever…why can’t they make us believe that Danica Patrick is a really good racing driver?

  22. Danica in F1 is never going to happen. F1 would be high risk move for her and could end her iconic status she holds now. Look what happened to fissi, everyone (incl me) was screaming at the possibility of him winning monza, but look what happened.

    The expectations on Danica are just too high, if she fails it will be THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTING EVENT IN MOTORING HISTORY. No way anyone in their right mind would risk it. Even Schumi chickened out earlier this year saying his neck was screwed up, imagine if a Luca would have happened to him.

  23. Scottish driver Susie Stoddart is another woman who could get into F1 if someone were to give her a chance.
    She would be far better. And she’s got a bit of talent, and races on circuits, not round and round on ovals.

    She is doing Toto Wolff nowadays so she could have a chance.

  24. Of course she is talented. Not only that, she is improving. In 2007 she just outperformed one out of her three full-time teammates. In 2008 Danica beat two out of three. This year she beat all three. And I might add that IndyCars has added road / street courses during that period. Danica did relatively worse on a more oval-heavy schedule.

    I really don’t think she would have excelled in F1, but she probably would have been average. She also would have garnered intense public interest. More sponsors, more fans, more attention – all of which would have been good for the sport. I think it’s a shame that we won’t get to see how she could have performed.

  25. There are other women racing drivers out there, of course, in DTM, Rallying, and the youngsters making their way through Formula Renault and Ginetta Juniors, so it might be worth not quite holding your breath for Danica, and to look out for the others…….

  26. I’ve been thinking about this for a while so I can at least try to do this issue some justice.
    Patrick would have been a short term quick fix bringing only media hype but I fear it would have ended in disaster.
    I think the way forward is by a natural process. Find a great racer, get her through the other series and if she is good enough then give her a seat-just like we do with men and so the issue if sex is irrelevant and it is about driving ability like it should be. This may take a while as I think the real problem is that there isn’t any female star right now. But bringing someone in for pr or to unlock an area of the driving market could do more harm than good. The media attention will mean if it fails then everyone will see and say ‘look women can’t do it’ and we will be waiting forever for the opportunity again.
    Maybe encouraging more girls to kart will be a simple but very effective step. The question is do you want a solution now or the right one?
    Wonderful responses from everyone by the way

    1. Lets hope some team can bring on Sarah Moore and persuade her to race in open wheel events.
      She just got the Autosport British Club Driver Award. After she won the Ginetta Junior championship this year and she’s only 16.

  27. She is a typical American driver, and would only come into F1 as a marketing tool. She is not a great driver at all, technical very limited and not a natural speedfreak like, for example, Dixon is.
    Tough its always nice to see a woman race against some testosteron filled dudes who think the world revolves around them. Certainly when she wins ;-)

    1. Typical American driver?
      I’m not American but please explain that one…

  28. Let one of the top F1 teams give her a proper test and we vill know a lot more.

  29. Imagine Sebastien Bourdais with a wig and a bit of faux attitude and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Danica in F1 would’ve been like.

    1. Algebra lesson!

      [(Bourdais’s whinging – his American results) x Scott Speed’s brashness and arrogance] + breasts = Danica

      I don’t think anyone put it better on Danica than the USF1 Day 1 Youtube video.

      Not good enough for F1. Not good enough to even be on the F1 rumour list, in my view.

      I agree a woman in an F1 seat would be a marketing boom, but there’s no point if she’s not any good.

  30. “Imagine Sebastien Bourdais with a wig and a bit of faux attitude and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what Danica in F1 would’ve been like.”

    Sorry but bourdais showed at least a hint of talent. All Patrick has done is **** and moan, crash cars, fault other drivers on crashes, and spin on pit road. Not only would she be bad in F1, but potentially dangerous.

    She’s one of the most overhyped drivers ever. There’s no doubt that Andretti Green has had an off year in ’09, but the cars weren’t THAT bad. She was completely irrelevant in every single race. She says she’s a good road course driver, but she hasn’t put up the results. People say she’s good on ovals, but yet people with more track time on road courses are better on ovals compared to Patrick’s 1 victory. It’s better she’s not in F1, in the past few seasons there’s been to many drivers on the grid that shouldn’t be there. Nascar’s “gain” is leaves F1 better off.

  31. I fail to see the differances in IRL teams, I thought they all ran the same car and engine. I wonder what are the reasons Andretti Green have for having a bad year in IRL.

    1. Every team gets the same base chassis from Dallara and Engine/Transmission from Honda.
      But the teams with more money get to develop suspension pieces, brakes, and aerodynamic winglets and whatnot. Danica’s team fell by the wayside because of poor management.

  32. Personally I think she would have come to F1 in a blaze of publicity and little else. And I have an issue with this as we see it far to often. I think she has more to loose coming to F1 and much more to gain especially financially by doing what she’s doing. Good luck to her and I wish her well…

  33. Hey give the girl a break…..Patrick is a good driver, she got to where she is based on talent. You can’t race Indy cars without a certain skill set.
    She probably has a very good idea about how her talent ranks with the men she races against.

    She is smart enough to capitalize on the media attention she receives based on her sex/looks. If she didn’t do this she would be a fool.

    Is she good enough to race in F1? Very few drivers are good enough to even enter the conversation. She certainly knows that looking at F1 doesn’t make any sense unless she can dominate at her present level, which she isn’t doing.

    Besides, it wouldn’t make any commercial sense for her to race in a series which the average American motor racing fan is aware of in name only. She needs to maximize her financial earnings now, in the years that she can race competitively.

    Keith is right, she would be very big copy in F1, but doing a Badoer (sorry Luca) would bring about all the worst kinda of sexist criticism. To be a viable commercial entity she doesn’t need to win, she just can’t be viewed as a loser.

    I think she knows F1 is out of her league, quite literally, and running at the middle-to-front in NASCAR may be very tough…ask Montoya.

    So lets ease up a bit on her, and keep looking for the real deal when…SHE…comes along.

    1. “You can’t race Indy cars without a certain skill set.”

      You obviously haven’t watched an Indy race in a long time. Just look at Milka Duno and Marty Roth to name a couple. Milka especially isn’t good enough to be a cab driver in NYC. Let alone drive a race car.

      And I’m not being harsh on her because she’s a woman. I just don’t like her because she’s a fake.

      Sarah Fisher is much more the real deal and I would be delighted to see her do well. Same for Ana Beatriz, who is slowly making her way up to Indycars.

  34. Ive been following F1 and CART/IRL Indy whatever it is called now for a while now and I have to say racing is all about “mileage” and practice.
    Getting into it requires tons of money and connections perhaps.

    Danica would do well in F1 just as any other driver if she got into the right situation.
    Winning doesnt require total skill. Like iI said earlier it takes money and connections. Then its just takes seat time and practice. Practice enough, anyone can get good at racing.
    Thats why racing itself can have generations of drivers from the same family. Not too many sports have that. I dont think racers overall are that talented to be honest.

    I mean, Damon Hill won a title didnt he?

  35. Anything American on this or for that fact, any British centric website will always and forever be “not good enough”.

    Therefore, I will always take the rants on this page with a grain of salt.

    1. That’s not it at all.

      You can’t honestly say Danica is a frontrunner for an F1 drive on the basis of a single win in IRL. Not before Franchitti, Dixon, Castroneves, Wheldon, and even Kanaan and Briscoe – and even those guys know that being IRL champion on its own does not mean an massive amount in the grand scheme of F1’s concerns, not at the moment.

  36. @ F1 Outsider…

    I Googled Milka Images…..I’d say she had a set……of skills.

    Actually, I completely defer to your knowledge regarding this young women, as you are correct in saying I haven’t watched any US open wheel racing in a long time.

    @ Ken…

    “Then its just takes seat time and practice. Practice enough, anyone can get good at racing.
    Thats why racing itself can have generations of drivers from the same family. Not too many sports have that. I dont think racers overall are that talented to be honest.

    I mean, Damon Hill won a title didnt he?”

    May I submit that the generational component actually reinforces the case for…talent. And it certainly can be passed along genetically, in the form of reaction time, visual acuity, a sense of balance, a “competitive nature”, perhaps even…physical courage…try driving a lap at Spa in the rain.

    And what the heck is wrong with Damon Hill?

    1. He was an average driver?

  37. I think its for the better that Danica did not become a F1 driver.I don’t want her to end up like Bourdais or Michael Andretti.

  38. I think that Patrick should stay in Indy cars until she proves she can win. This partial transition is a mistake on all team owners involved. NASCAR drivers can barely accomodate a schdedule within their own NASCAR series yet alone race two different leagues.

    As a junior Fan I am dissapointed that he would offer this move. The Hendricks organization is just out for sponsopship and this will make a new example for team organizations.

    I have always wanted to be a race car driver. So if I can raise enough money, then I can get to be one. Even if I suck, as long as I want to pay.

    This is the message being sent. NASCAR needs to consider this carefully. She hasn’t won a thing yet and does not deserve to come over to NASCAR.

    Jr. What are you doing? Why don’t you try to win races instead of this crap? Running bars? promoting too many products? Now this??

    Get back to the real and stop BS’ing us.

    I didn’t agree with Montoya, but he is proving to be worthy.

    Patrick is a waste of time in NASCAR. She might as well ride around with Almandinger (did I spell his name right? doesn’t matter)

    Please tell me that she has to WIN a Nationwide Race before Hendrick promotes her to Sprint cup.

    If she is promoted without needed proof then I would be foreced to turn off the tv and probably never watch again.

    NASCAR needs to be careful with this one. I do not Support Patrick in NASCAR at this time. She has not earned it and SHAME on Junior and Mr. Hendrick for taking these actions.

    1. she would have to qualify for a SS license from nascar…so there is still a ‘?’ as to if she would even get one.

  39. Guys, just for fun why don’t you come out with something like what it would be if she was paired(team Mate) with drivers like Lewis/Alonso/Kimi etc., Like will Kimi stop eating icecreams and ….

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