Danica Patrick: Grading Each Aspect of Her Stock Car Performance in 2012

NASCAR's darling, Danica Patrick, changed her career course from IndyCar to NASCAR full-time this year. The polarizing driver may be better known for her commercial value, but how well is she doing in NASCAR?

Patrick is certainly not the first woman to drive in NASCAR, but she garners more attention than any other woman has, be it right or wrong.

Overall, NASCAR fans would like to see her do well, but she does have a hard-hitting bunch of naysayers who call her overrated and claim she will never be anything other than mediocre with her driving ability.

NASCAR needs Patrick to do well because of the attention she attracts to the sport and the fans she can draw in.

Patrick only has 32 NASCAR nationwide starts since 2010, so in all fairness, she still needs additional seat time for a true evaluation of her stock-car racing talent.

This slideshow will grade the major aspects of her performance as a driver in NASCAR's top levels.

Qualifying

Patrick was on the pole for the NASCAR Nationwide race at Daytona in February this year. It was her only pole position start since coming to NASCAR and she has only started in the top 10 in three different races.

For the most part, she qualifies around the mid-pack. Patrick has fast cars, but she still has some difficulty finding the right entry and exit line in the turns for maximum speed during her qualifying laps.

Grade: C+

Learning Curve

Danica Patrick has no problem understanding the basics of racing cars, but coming from the IndyCar series to NASCAR presented a whole new lingo as car set-ups are totally different.

Patrick at first had some problems with the southern drawl of her crew chief at JR Motorsports, Tony Eury Jr. That, compounded with the new terminology was a little tricky for the driver of the No. 7.

She is a very quick study and has learned to give the necessary feedback with both her Nationwide and Cup series cars.

Fellow drivers, her crew chiefs and her team owners have nothing but praise for the way she soaks in information and her level of intensity. She is committed to doing well in NASCAR.

Grade: A-

Drafting

Danica Patrick was used to driving cars that didn't have fenders and were not supposed to make contact with other cars.

Patrick has overcome her hesitation of bumping another car and is adapting to the aero-packages that deal with downforce and sideforce on stock cars.

Part of what she likes about NASCAR is the fact she is in a car with fenders as opposed to open-wheel race machines.

Patrick has become more aggressive with her car, but she still needs experience with the side draft that sometimes causes her problems when passing.

Grade: B-

NASCAR Nationwide Series

Danica Patrick still only has 32 starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. She ran part-time schedules in 2010 and 2011, then began a full-time schedule in 2012.

Her average starting position in 2010 was 26.9 and the average finish was 28.0. In 2011, her average starting position was 18.1 with an average finish of 17.4.

The 2012 season has shown inconsistency with finishes. After qualifying on the pole at Daytona, she was caught up in a wreck not of her making and finished 38th.

The finishes for the other races after Daytona have been 21st, 12th, 19th, 35th, eighth and 21st. She is the highest finishing female in a NASCAR National series with a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas in 2011.

Patrick needs to qualify better and be able to give the adequate information to her team. Often she complains of the car being loose; she needs to be faster and more consistent with performance.

Grade: C

Fans

Danica Patrick is very popular with NASCAR fans despite her loyal naysayers. Her souvenir and apparel sales rival that of the most popular drivers in the sport.

She attracts fans from every demographic and they really want to see her do well. It is not unusual to see large collections of fans gather anytime there is a chance for a photo or autograph.

Patrick's presence is good for NASCAR and the better she does on the track, the larger her fanbase will grow.

She will always have her detractors, but that is not a distraction for this driver.

Grade: A

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Danica Patrick debuted her No. 10 GoDaddy.com NASCAR Sprint Cup car at Speedweeks in Daytona earlier this year. Wrecks not of her making hampered her finish.

Patrick is technically driving for Tommy Baldwin Racing for the 10 races that she will run during 2012, but she will have support from Stewart Haas Racing and Hendrick Motorsports engines and chassis.

The point of the deal with TBR was to keep Patrick from having to qualify the car as long as David Reutimann is able to keep the car in the top 35 owner points.

Patrick proved in preseason testing that she can wheel a Cup car. She just may be one of those drivers who adapts better to the faster cars in that series than the Nationwide cars.

The next appearance for Patrick will be at Darlington in a couple weeks. She is deliberately driving at tracks that will be the most difficult for her, as she tries to hone her skills in the Sprint Cup series.

There is little doubt she will take some hits and have some tough lessons to learn during the nine races she is planning to run in the remaining season. Patrick is scheduled to drive the Cup car full time in 2013 for SHR.

The GoDaddy.com driver has done some testing and feels very comfortable in the Cup car.

Grade for adapting to the Cup car is a B+

Grade for predicted performance in 2012 is a C-

Restarts

Danica Patrick is getting more aggressive with her on-track performance. She is learning the art of drafting and understanding the effects of downforce and sideforce better.

Patrick often lags back on restarts. She tends to let the traffic clear out a bit in front of her before making her move.

The driver of the No. 7 for JR Motorsports needs to stay in the mix on restarts and try to improve her position faster.

Grade: C

Pit Stops

The driver of the GoDaddy.com Nationwide car executes clean pit stops and is able to get the car back on the track without incurring penalties.

Patrick doesn't seem to have any trouble blending back into traffic under green-flag stops.

For the most part, Patrick is able to give positive feedback that enables her crew to adjust her car, but that is still a work in progress.

Grade: B+

Wrecks

Danica Patrick has been caught up in more than her share of wrecks with both her No. 7 Nationwide car and the No. 10 Cup car.

Most of the wrecks are not of her making. She normally keeps her car clean barring any accidents.

Patrick handles wrecks well, doesn't seem to get rattled by them and controls the car when she can, but she also knows when to let go of the steering wheel.

Grade: B

Respect from Fellow Drivers

It is evident in the garage area and other media events that Danica Patrick has garnered respect and friendship from not only drivers in the Nationwide series, but in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as well.

She doesn't hesitate to seek advice from more experienced drivers. Feedback from drivers in the Cup series is very positive.

She has had a few encounters with the boys of the Nationwide series, but she has many friends among them.

Patrick is feisty though, and promises to give what she gets on the track. Her intensity sometimes translates as a "diva" attitude, but she is really trying to do well with her NASCAR endeavors.

Patrick is trusted by her peers to maintain control of her car on the track, and has been welcomed by mostly all of the drivers in NASCAR's top-two series.

Certainly her team owners, Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr., have nothing but praise for her and find her a lot of fun to be around, as do others.

Grade: A