Ready or not, here comes Danica

THATSRACIN.COM OPINION

Saturday, Feb. 06, 2010

She's starting 12th in a minor race sandwiched between two main events, yet Danica Patrick has commanded as much attention as anything happening this weekend at Daytona.

There are five other women in her race, and 15 women have competed in NASCAR's top division. Yet Patrick's debut in stock cars is seen as something, if not historic, enormously compelling.

Why? Because Patrick is different.

Because the 5-foot-2 firebrand with the exotic looks and molten-lava temper is coming after Jeff Gordon.

Because she is coming after Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, and she isn't afraid of Brad Keselowski or Tony Stewart. OK, maybe Stewart, but Patrick is coming anyway.

You know Danica Patrick by now. She's the spitfire who shoved Dan Wheldon at Milwaukee and marched furiously down pit road for Ryan Briscoe at Indy. She's the girly-girl slash tomboy who takes no guff and gives no quarter.

That she can drive a little has given her credibility. That she poses for swimsuit editions and crosses regularly into pop culture have created both appeal and rejection.

And now Patrick, who has the same agent as Peyton Manning, is coming to American's most popular form of racing.

Today, it's the ARCA race (sure to be the most watched in history) and tomorrow a dozen or more races in NASCAR's No. 2 series for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports.

Even if Patrick never leads a lap in NASCAR, this will be worth watching.

''I'm just excited to see it," says Sam Hornish Jr., one of Patrick's former Indy car rivals. "I've been getting so many questions about it that I feel like it's me going out there and racing."

Nobody wants to predict Patrick will flunk, because nobody wants to be portrayed as the Neanderthal in the movie if she makes it. But the hard reality is, the odds against her are long.

All of the many drivers who've tried to transition from open-wheel cars to NASCAR recently have gotten a triple dose of humility. Most were more accomplished than Patrick, who has one victory in five seasons.

Take Dario Franchitti. He came to NASCAR as a proud champion, floundered until losing sponsorship, and went back to Indy cars and won another championship.

Or Hornish, a three-time champion in Indy cars. He has checked off two top-five finishes in 72 big-league NASCAR starts and is getting called out by Jimmie Johnson for running into things.

Jacques Villeneuve, a Formula One champion, and Paul Tracy couldn't make it. Scott Speed, an ex-F1 driver, and A.J. Allmendinger, once a phenom in the old CART series, are battling steep learning curves.

Speed, who also made his stock car debut in an ARCA race, laughed about what Patrick has in store today.

''I mean, you need to wear a helmet if you watch it from the stands," he says, admitting he stole the line from Tom Busch, Kurt and Kyle's dad.

The great Juan Pablo Montoya, once considered one of the world's finest drivers, is finally coming on in NASCAR. And even he hasn't won on an oval after three years.

''I think more people want you to fail than to do good," said Montoya, who had Patrick over to his motor coach for dinner and encouragement Thursday night. "Not because they are bad people, but you will be better news if you fail than if you did well."

The drivers who are coming into NASCAR now and making it have years of stock car racing experience -- or at least lots of experience in the hardscrabble world of sprint cars and midgets.

Patrick -- and she admits it -- is a neophyte.

''You feel a little claustrophobic being that close to a car turning into a corner," she says of the adjustment from Indy cars. "I'm just not used to that distance."

Holly Cain, a longtime racing writer and former Tribune reporter, is convinced Patrick will make it in NASCAR.

Cain points to Patrick's indomitable will and the fact she'll have good equipment and talented people around her. (Even in the ARCA race, Patrick has veteran Sprint Cup crew chief Tony Eury Jr.).

To Cain's argument, I would add that Patrick is the real deal on ovals, an exceptional driver who is fast and smooth. And if you haven't noticed, there are a lot of ovals in NASCAR.

Even so, the odds against Patrick are long.

And yet the person battling them has a lion's heart.

Don't underestimate the little lion.

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