Well she definitely got a lot of attention that is for damned sure!  After the past couple weeks at Daytona I’d say that its now just a matter of time before the girl wonder makes a permanent move from Indy Car to NASCAR.  Obviously she’s not ready to run a full cup schedule tomorrow and obviously it isn’t a given that she’ll do well.  What is a given is that she can bring a whole new group of fans to the sport, more sponsors, etc, etc.  And in through out all that she can make a boat load of dough!

All that aside Danica is a racer.  I don’t think she has much interest in being a showpiece and not a contender.  I also think she has unfinished business in IndyCar that she wants to take care of before going anywhere.  Winning at Motegi last year is great and all but if she wants to win in NASCAR first she must win in Indy Car on a more regular basis.  As Franchitti proved last year one does not easily beget the other.  Montoya is proof positive that switching between disciplines with success is absolutely possible but you have to be a good driver to do so.  She is a good driver but she’s not JPM.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no NASCAR honk.  When I say it’s hard to switch racing disciplines  I mean that in all directions.  I don’t think Jimmie Johnson could switch to Indy Cars and be competitive tomorrow.  It’s just different.  DW was quoted during the elongated coverage of the Daytona 500 as saying that (and I summarize) “racing here will help her when she goes back to Indy Cars.  Look what happened to Dario Franchitti… He went back and he won the championship.”  Now I don’t think for a minute that Dario won the Indy Car championship last year because of his short stint in NASCAR.  He was going to win that anyway.  But does it teach some things to race different types of cars?  I’m sure it does.

Either way you look at it this foray into NASCAR will be interesting to watch.  Fans will watch, nay-sayers will watch, lots of people will watch.  We’ll see what she can pull off.

So the speculation of will she or won’t she is over.  Now we can move onto will she succeed or won’t she.  Although the media outlets have been reporting it for days, it is finally official.  That is if you can believe her own words from her twitter, “I will see you all in indycar and nascar!!!! #7 go daddy car with jr motorsports.”  Talk about a power couple, Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr.  As far as marketing power goes anyhow; maybe not so much for on track results though.

As afan of motorsports that transcend NASCAR, I wish she didn’t have to make this move.  However, for the Danica brand, she probably had to.  You have to make hay while the sun shines they say, and in the current state of American motorsports, the sun shines brightest in NASCAR.  There is definitely a risk involved.  She needs to produce at least mediocre results quickly and there is a laundry list of very accomplished open wheel drivers who have not been able to make the transition.