Angry Race Fan

ESPN is reporting that Danica Patrick is nearing the completion of a deal to drive a partial schedule for JR Motorsports in the Nationwide series next year.  According to their sources she’ll be running 12-13 Nationwide races for the team in 2010 and may start as early as the ARCA race during Daytona Speedweeks.

Photo Credit: Phot Mojo

This has been talked about for some time and most have been aware that some sort of talks were going on.  Prior to her resigning with AGR there was wild speculation that she was looking to move to NASCAR full time.  I, much like others, figured this was just a stunt to get some attention and probably pump up her power at the AGR bargaining table.  But I totally missed the Go Daddy tie in with JR Motorsports.  This sponsor could only gain by moving one of their Go Daddy Girls into a more visible series.  Keselowski’s a great driver and all but whose a better fit for the Go Daddy car than Danica?

But…  I think this sucks.  I like Dale Jr, I like JR Motorsports, and I’m down with Danica.  I just don’t think this is the right move for her.  Dipping your toe in the waters of NASCAR isn’t really going to get you anywhere.  We’ve seen this with Paul Tracy in the past. He made some runs in the NASCAR feeder series and it didn’t get him anywhere.  Danica will need a full time ride most likely in ARCA to be brutally honest to have any chance at making it to a competitive position in Cup.  Scott Speed did that and he’s still not competitive (my money says he will be someday though).

I’ll be interested to see how this all pans out.  She’ll probably have the biggest merchandise trailer of any of the part timers that aren’t BushWhackers. What do you call them now that it’s the Nationwide Series?  NationWhackers?

You can check out the full story from ESPN here: 

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/news/story?id=4622687