Danica Patrick: Please Say No to NASCAR

Danica Patrick might be coming to NASCAR.  To quote Charlie Brown, "Good Grief!"  NASCAR needs Danica about as much as they need a migraine headache (and, they've got two or three of those already).

First off, Danica's not that great a driver.  She won, what, one race, in Japan, last year?  She's still 0-for-however-many-races here in the U.S.  And, her attitude consistently rubs many people (including me) the wrong way.

She hates being bumped?  Geez...how are you going to survive a race at ___________ (fill in the blank with the name of any of the short tracks on the Sprint Cup schedule)?  I can just hear her conversation with her crew chief after that first bump (and, I apologize in advance for the language):

DP:  That sonuvabitch just slammed into me!

CC:  No, honey...he didn't slam into you, he didn't bump you...he didn't nudge you....he rubbed you!!  And, here in NASCAR, on these tracks, honey, rubbin' is racin'! 

Anybody who followed Tom Cruise's career before he went goofy recognizes that as a paraphrasing of dialogue between him & Robert Duvall in Days of Thunder, but, guess what?  It fits!  Cole Trickle, at least at the point of the movie where that exchange occurred, was every bit the prima donna that Patrick is.

Do I think Patrick has a future in a Cup car?  One word:  No.  First off, the IndyCar Series is what made her (that and her looks), and she needs to build some kind of consistency there.

Second, none of the drivers who came over from Indy cars recently have had any consistent success.  Come to think of it, neither has Patrick!  Seriously, though, her reputation would precede her, and as I said, Cup racing has enough prima donnas without her bringing her whiny little self over.

Finally, while I think her personality is compatible with NASCAR Cup racing (I'd love to see her and Tony Stewart go at it), her driving style is not.  If I were in a position to advise Patrick on this career choice, I would say, "stay where you are!"

Get a new deal with Andretti-Green Racing, try to figure out how to drive, and start winning more consistently!  Then, in a couple years, maybe she could run with the big dogs.  But for now, she needs to "stay on the porch!"