Hulkenberg edges 3 F1 champions to lead test (PA SportsTicker)
February 26, 2010
BARCELONA, SPAIN(AP) —Nico Hulkenberg beat out three former Formula One champions to set the fastest lap in testing Friday.
The Williams driver set a best lap of 1 minute, 20.614 seconds to edge two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Ferrari by two-hundredths of a second in good conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Pedro De la Rosa of Sauber was just over three-tenths back in third ahead of Tonio Liuzzi of Force India and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher of Mercedes GP trailed by just over a second in seventh, while 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton was eighth for McLaren.
Testing continues through Sunday. The opening race of the season is in Bahrain on March 14.
Speed cuts through the bull (Yahoo! Sports)
February 26, 2010
Only a handful of drivers have led laps in both races in 2010. Scott Speed is one of them, which is saying something.
Scott Speed has reason to smile. After two races, he sits 15th in the standings.Getty
As a rookie in 2009, Speed struggled in his transition from the high-tech world of Formula 1 racing to the bulky taxi cabs of NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series. He recorded just one top 10 all season en route to a disappointing 35th-place finish in the standings.
So far, though, things have been different this season as Speed sits 15th in points heading into Race No. 3 on the schedule.
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Speed talked to Yahoo! Sports about the difficult transition to the world of NASCAR, what the “Red Bull lifestyle” means to him and, in a moment of sheer honesty, what he wants you to know most about him:
1. Y! Sports: What do you attribute your progress so far this season to?
Scott Speed: A ton of it is experience. These cars are so different and the racing is so different from what I’ve done. It takes a while to make that transition; to make that change. You see it with every open wheel driver who comes here.
For us, things started clicking at the end of last year. We knew we were a lot better than we showed. We expected to be a lot better than we were all of last year, but we didn’t expect to come out here and run top 10 in California.
Daytona is one of those places where we knew we were already reasonable at and it’s one of those tracks where you have to miss the wrecks and if you do you’re going to end up alright. So that finish there was more or less OK. The last time we came to the Daytona 500 we wrecked four cars and none of them were our fault. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. This year was a little bit of a balance out of that bad luck.
To say the least, things have turned around a lot from that race to this [Daytona 500], things were a mile better.
2. Y! Sports: You’ve led late in both races this season. Did you ever allow yourself to think, Hey, I might be able to win one of these races?
Speed: In the positions we were in, a lot depended on chance, but you do gotta put yourself in position to win.
At California, we put ourselves in a position to win like Joey Logano won his race. The rain was coming; we had a little bit better fuel mileage than everyone at that time, so we were able to stay out longer and take a bigger chance with the weather. But that also came at a price. Because it didn’t rain, we had to come in to pit and we fell back in the 20s somewhere and we had to drive our way back up to the top 10. So, it came with a cost, but it was sort of being in a position to take a gamble and take a risk off pit strategy and as it turns out it was a very good idea for us, because not only did we lead some laps and get five bonus points for that, we also put ourselves in a really good position.
3. Y! Sports: Are you and Kyle Busch getting into any trouble out in the desert?
Speed: We’re taking it easy with the Busch family out there. I’ve never been to the sand dunes, so I tried to do a little bit of everything. It was a good time for sure.
4. Y! Sports: Are you paying attention to the Olympics?
Speed: Of course. I’m watching a little bit of everything, but there’s a special place in my heart for Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn, being Red Bull athletes.
5. We hear about this “Red Bull lifestyle.” What does the Red Bull lifestyle entail for you?
Speed: I’ve never been the kind of racing driver who goes in dressed like a businessman, dressed in slacks and a polo T-shirt at the race track and tried to con people out of money to sponsor us. That’s never been my thing. I’ve never been the one who’s been very politician-like. I’d hate to talk and just say b.s. because that’s what everyone wants to hear. I’ve always sort of spoke my mind. And I’m in a position now and have been since I was 19 since I’ve been supported by Red Bull – they encourage me to be myself and to speak my mind. And to that end, it’s a really good fit for both of us. All good things with Red Bull.
6. Y! Sports: Who’s the genius behind “Milk and Cereal?”
When Scott Speed wants to show off his personality at the race track, he sports a pair of sunglasses.AP
Speed: Oh, good lord. That was something that my buddy found on the Internet. We saw a couple of versions of it. At that time I was racing in Europe and we’d only come back to America in December and January. And what we’d do when we were in Arizona where my manager’s from – that’s kind of our headquarters – and we would train all day, about 20 hours a week.
During the off time of that, you didn’t want to do anything like going out. So we just stayed in the house and kind of zombied out. So to entertain ourselves we’d do whatever we could not to waste any energy, I guess, so that’s what we came up with.
Honestly, we did that whole thing in about 20 minutes. It didn’t get on YouTube for almost three years after we did it. I still to this day do not know how it got in YouTube. I just remember the phone call from my buddy Colin [Fleming].
‘Scott, Milk and Cereal just made YouTube.’
I was like, Oh boy.
7. Y! Sports: What is the competitive difference between being an F1 driver and a NASCAR driver?
Speed: Clearly Formula 1 is a bigger sport worldwide. I think it’s the third-largest sport in the world. Could not be, but it was when I was there, only being smaller than the Olympics and World Cup soccer.
But worldwide, it gets everyone involved besides our country. It’s kind of weird, you know, our country has never really been a huge part of Formula 1, and I can’t really understand why.
You know, the sport is primarily based in Europe, and you have the whole rest of the world watching it and trying to compete in it.
So, you want to say it’s more competitive in that sense, but in NASCAR you have 43 guys and all of them are very, very talented racing drivers and they all have very similar equipment. So, racing and sort of dog-fighting, if you will – that accounts a lot for how well you do in the sport – because it’s not enough just to be fast, and that’s just a little bit different than Formula 1. Although you get to race a little bit, for the most part you’re by yourself.
8. Y! Sports: What’s the most frivolous thing you spend money on?
Speed: Sunglasses. I lost nine pairs last year. I wouldn’t necessarily say I waste a lot of money on it just because I don’t want a sunglasses sponsor necessarily. They’d have to pay me a lot of money to wear one brand of sunglasses. I like the freedom to wear whatever I want.
It’s the one thing as a racing driver you can always wear and kind of define your personality a little bit besides a branded Red Bull cap or wear something most everybody else has to wear. You know, at Red Bull we have the most lax rules ever. As long as I have something that says Red Bull on me – and I have a lot of options to choose from – they’re happy. So it’s a lot different than other NASCAR drivers.
9. Y! Sports: You’re a California native living in North Carolina. So which are you – are you a little bit country or a little bit rock ‘n roll?
Speed: Dude, I’m zero country. My wife is 100 percent country. And, I would say honestly I’m more influenced by the time I spent in Europe than growing up in California.
It’s one of those things where I lived in California my whole life, and when I was 19 I moved from my parent’s house and my parent’s protection and I went out on my own and moved just outside of London in England for a year. And after that I moved and for about four years I was in Austria right next to headquarters of Red Bull.
So, obviously in Formula 1 and my time in Europe, I’ve travelled the whole world and I think that influenced me a lot in how I am today.
You know, just from the standpoint of when you move out from your own house and you move from your parent’s station, you sort of develop what you are on your own and I did that in Europe.
9 ½: The one thing I want fans to know about me is …
Speed: That I was good at racing at some point. It’s really hard making a transition into something when you were considered one of the best at what you do in the past industry, and that’s why you were making the progress you were on the world stage in open wheel racing to trying to learn something as fast as you can and not look like an idiot. And it’s hard. It was a very, very hard transition last year.
I tell my wife all the time, “You think I’m doing good now, but I wish you could have seen me when I was really actually good at something.” Because this NASCAR thing is something I’m learning and getting better at, but I probably will never, ever be as good at NASCAR as I was in open wheel racing.
Jay Hart is the NASCAR editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Jay a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
RCR could show it’s for real with strong Vegas run (NASCAR.com)
February 25, 2010
A look at the top five drivers and five to watch in Sunday's Shelby American (3 p.m. ET, FOX). All statistical references are for Cup Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway unless otherwise indicated. Driver Rating is based on the past five races at the track.
Top five
1. Kevin Harvick, 92.2 Driver Rating. Harvick's record is nothing special at Las Vegas: No wins and three top-10s in nine starts. But based on his performances at Daytona and Fontana, a third top-five wouldn't be a surprise.
2. Clint Bowyer, 68.6. Bowyer finished second last year for his first top-10 in four starts. The Richard Childress Racing Chevys are hot, hot, hot right now. If Harvick, Bowyer and Jeff Burton finish in the top 10 for the second consecutive week, look out.
3. Greg Biffle, 103.9. Roush Fenway Racing has won six of the 12 Cup races at Las Vegas, but Biffle doesn't have one of those wins. He does have four top-10s in six starts, including finishing seventh last year.
4. Jamie McMurray, 76.7. McMurray finished ninth last year for his third top-10 in seven starts. One interesting stat: Of the 19 drivers who have started the past five races at Vegas, only two drivers have posted fewer fastest laps than McMurray's eight. Perhaps the powerful Earnhardt-Childress engines will make a difference for Jamie Mac.
5. Jeff Burton, 98.5. Burton has two wins among his eight top-10s in 12 starts, and his 9.8 average finish is his best average finish of the 24 tracks he has competed on since his first Cup race in 1993. Burton led 61 laps last year and finished third.
Five to watch
6. Mark Martin, 94.9. Martin holds the track record with nine top-10s in 12 starts. Last year, however, he finished 40th when his engine failed after 121 laps. His two DNFs (the other in 2003) have been for engine failures. He won the first Cup race at Vegas in 1998.
7. Matt Kenseth, 91.6. Kenseth has two of Roush's wins at Vegas, but last year he finished last when his engine died after six laps. It signaled a radical change in his fortunes after he had won the first two races of the season. His 438 laps led are the track record.
12. Jimmie Johnson, 113.6. Johnson has the most wins, three, which came in 2005 through 2007. But since then he has finishes of 29th and 24th. Despite the poor finish in 2009—he spun five laps from the finish—Johnson led a race-high 92 laps.
13. Kyle Busch, 109.4. Busch won from the pole last year, giving himself a dream victory in his hometown. He has four top-10s in six starts and hasn't finished worse than 11th since crashing and getting a DNF in his first start at Vegas in 2004, which also was his Cup debut.
22. Jeff Gordon, 111.5. Gordon has a win and five top-fives in 12 starts. He finished sixth last year for his sixth top-10. He also has two DNFs for crashes, including a wicked hit five laps from the finish in 2008 when he was running third.
• Hendrick drivers scored just three top-10 finishes in the first two races in 2010: (Dale Earnhardt Jr (second at Daytona) plus Jimmie Johnson and Mark Martin (first and fourth at Fontana)• Jeff Gordon has not scored a top-15 finish in 2010• Terry Cook and Casey Mears both failed to qualify in the first two races of 2010• Casey Mears has just one top-10 finish in his past 15 races• Marcos Ambrose has not scored a top-10 finish in his past 14 races• Sam Hornish Jr. has not scored a top-10 finish in his past 12 races• David Ragan has not scored a top-10 finish in his past eight races• Elliott Sadler has just one top-10 finish in his past 11 racesNot Who's Hot and Who's Not Hot • Jimmie Johnson has won five of the last 11 Cup Series races • Four drivers scored top-10 finishes in first two races in 2010: Greg Biffle (3rd and 10th), Clint Bowyer (4th and 8th), Kevin Harvick (7th and 2nd) and Matt Kenseth (8th and 7th)• Three Richard Childress drivers rank in the top-five in points: Kevin Harvick (1st), Clint Bowyer (2nd) and Jeff Burton (5th)• Kyle Busch has eight consecutive top-15 finishes, since Charlotte last fall• Jeff Burton has eight consecutive top-15 finishes, since Charlotte last fall• Clint Bowyer has six consecutive top-15 finishes, since Talladega last fall• Greg Biffle has six consecutive top-15 finishes, since Talladega last fall
Former NASCAR crew chief J.C. Elder dies at 73
February 25, 2010
STATESVILLE, N.C. (AP)—J.C. Elder, known as “Suitcase Jake” during his long tenure as a NASCAR crew chief with the likes of star drivers David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip, has died. He was 73.
Elder died Wednesday of natural causes at Autumn Care of Statesville, the Bunch-Johnson Funeral Home said Thursday.
Elder was the crew chief for Pearson’s 1968 and 1969 series champions and directed Earnhardt to his first Cup victory in 1979 at Bristol.
Elder is survived by children Randy, Andy and Sandy Elder Maxwell, four sisters and two brothers. He was preceded in death by wife Debbie.
A funeral service is set for Saturday at the funeral home’s chapel.
Down to business: Kroger, Bud score at Daytona 500 (NASCAR.com)
February 25, 2010
Look for a Kroger presence in future Daytona 500s.
Kroger didn't pay to sponsor any of the Sprint Cup cars circling the track at the Daytona 500, but its red and blue logo found a home on three of the cars in the race.
Cincinnati-based Kroger took the full paint scheme on Marcos Ambrose's No. 47 Toyota, and the rear panel on Kyle Busch's No. 18 Toyota and Clint Bowyer's No. 33 Chevrolet. The placements were the result of a trade-out between the retailer and the regular sponsors on those cars.
Ambrose is sponsored by a collection of consumer-packaged goods, including Kimberly-Clark (Kleenex), Kingsford and Little Debbie. Busch is supported by Mars, and Bowyer by General Mills. For a sponsor to surrender the most visible spots on the car in the season's biggest race is especially rare.
In exchange, those sponsors use the trade-out to drive additional displays in Kroger's nearly 2,500 stores.
"We're always looking for ways to gain additional floor space," said Philip Grieco, director of Mars' sponsorship and sports marketing. "It's another touchpoint for a consumer beyond the candy aisle and the checkout counter."
Kroger also locked down an extension on its deal with Daytona International Speedway through the 2014 Daytona 500. Kroger is recognized as Daytona's retail licensing partner.
Kroger came on board in 2007 and ran the largest retail promotion in NASCAR history leading up to the 50th running of the 500 in 2008. More than 50 brands participated with special Daytona 500 packaging.
The program, which is run by Charlotte, N.C.-based Retail Sports Marketing, has thrived in the two years since the 50th running. From April 2009 through this year's race Feb. 14, 55 brands across 23 companies had used the special 500 packaging and discounts.
The No. 47 car was on the cover of Kroger's direct mailer to its customers before the race.
"The NASCAR fan is the core consumer for Kroger," said Tad Geschickter, owner of Ambrose's No. 47 car at JTG Daugherty Racing.
Budweiser pleased with Party Porch
It was hard to miss the enormous new Budweiser Party Porch, standing 46 feet high along the speedway's superstretch. It was one of several enhancements to the superstretch, which runs 3,000 feet along the backside of the track.
Those 40,000 seats along the superstretch were not sold for any of the lead-in events, but it was full for the 500, which is when the speedway debuted the Party Porch and a new interactive fan zone with amusement rides, giant slide and carousel, go-karts, show cars and team merchandise for sale. Budweiser, a longtime sponsor of the track and the title sponsor of the Bud Shootout the week before the 500, bought sponsorship of the Party Porch as part of a separate negotiation. Terms were not available.
The 277-foot-long Budweiser sign, touted by the speedway as the largest sign in motorsports, gave the beer unprecedented signage display and exposure on the race broadcasts. Even though the Party Porch didn't open until the day of the 500, Bud still was enjoying the visibility of the giant sign on TV and across the track.
"We're always looking for a positive connection with the race fan and this was an idea they brought to us," said Anheuser-Busch's Brad Brown, senior director of sports marketing. "We were very pleased with the turnout. It was comfortably full with people five or six deep looking over the railing down onto the track."
The visibility of the sign "enhances our ad buy and our presence on the broadcast," Brown added.
Bullet points: Daytona business
• Office Depot, a NASCAR official partner and Tony Stewart team sponsor, showed up at Daytona with a new agency. After several years with Chicago-based Wunderman, Office Depot now is working with Momentum on its motorsports business.
• All four of the manufacturers in NASCAR—General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Dodge—bought space in Daytona's corporate display area. It marked the first time that all four manufacturers featured their latest consumer models in the display area. In past years, some of them had featured their race cars only.
• The display area featured 40 companies, a 10 percent increase from 2009.
Related: •
Ragan, UPS win 2010 Daytona 500 Ad Showcase (NASCAR.com)
February 25, 2010
UPS had high scores for its ad featuring Santa Claus, but it wasnt the top-ranked spot.
Jamie McMurray may have been the surprise champion of the 52nd running of the Daytona 500. Off the track and on the tube, it was David Ragan and UPS, a NASCAR partner known for its consistently entertaining commercials. UPS dominated the fifth annual Daytona 500 Ad Showcase, taking two of the top three spots in a fan vote on NASCAR.COM.
In the winning ad, a UPS delivery man in China wonders if Ragan can navigate the tight streets of Asia. The young driver of the No. 6 Ford zips around the track and through the grandstands in a snazzy, three-wheel UPS delivery truck. He even skids to a stop to spray paint "Ragan Rules" on a poster of Carl Edwards.
The competition for the best new spot was as close as the frenetic racing in the waning laps of the Great American Race. Hot on UPS's wheels were Coca-Cola's singing drivers, a nearly cuddly Kyle Busch in a pink Toyota driver's suit, and Gillette's Young Guns teaming up for the Gillette 500, an attempt to shave 500 miles of beard.
UPS' commercial bested several instant classics, most notably from Coca-Cola, whose family of drivers have in past ads been famously ogled and chugged the product in good-natured competition. For the first time, after fighting frustrating race cars and drinking a cold Coke on a pit stop, the drivers sang in their race cars, almost on key, led by Tony Stewart belting out, "I'd like to buy the world a home, and furnish it with love."
Many older NASCAR fans recognized those familiar lyrics as the opening bar of Coke's classic "Hilltop" ad, shot in Italy in 1971, the year Stewart was born.
One thing is for sure. If you see a NASCAR driver walking into a karaoke bar, run the other way. In behind-the-scenes footage on YouTube, Coca-Cola Racing Family driver Clint Bowyer says Elliott Sadler is the worst singer, while Denny Hamlin claims Kevin Harvick is so bad he makes Denny sound good. Stewart admits his animals bark like crazy when he sings in the shower.
Toyota created another popular commercial making the top five, this time encouraging fans to design their own paint scheme at ToyotaRacing.com. The spot put Kyle Busch in a pink driver's suit in front of a race car adorned with kittens, bunnies, and baby seals. The message, "I love you," is emblazoned on the spoiler. Which NASCAR fan wouldn't want to see Kyle run that prissy car, designed by a precocious little girl, at a contentious place like Bristol? In the same spot, fellow Toyota wheelman Joey Logano is clad in some sort of mesh medieval warrior outfit with a tinge of Luke Skywalker. His car is painted up in monsters and dragons.
Even pitted against Toyota's visual treats, Jimmie Johnson literally flooring a teenage girl who calls his Sprint phone, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s earnest spot for Hellman's, eating his grandmother's sandwiches, as well as one for Nationwide Insurance, trusted by the Earnhardt family for more than 30 years, Ragan, an affable chap from Unadilla, Ga., was not to be denied as the top vote getter.
For UPS' second high-scoring spot, delivery icons such as the milkman, a newspaper boy, a guy with a pizza, a Chinese takeout deliveryman, a golden Greek messenger, the stork, and Santa Claus stand in frustration outside the NASCAR garage. For the delivery trade, this walled-off sanctuary is only open to UPS, the official delivery company of NASCAR. The odd-ball scene crosses into hilarity when Santa goes off the rails and claws up the chain link fence to get into the garage.
Following its award-winning "Race the Truck" campaign with Dale Jarrett, the Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., has again come through with new commercials that resonate in a big way with NASCAR fans.
"Each year, the commercials seen during the Daytona 500 form an extraordinary body of creative work," said Norris Scott, managing director of partnership marketing and business solutions for NASCAR. "During the Daytona 500, NASCAR official partners again showed fans and the entire ad world they know how to get their messages across in a highly entertaining way that showcases drivers' unique personalities."
Fans don't have to be exclusively tuned to races or racing shows to see their favorite drivers appear in commercials. Aflac's new "You Don't Know Quack" spot with Edwards and the ever-present duck on a ski slope ran on the Daytona 500 and is also a staple in prime time, including the Winter Olympics.
Usually seen in his Aflac driver's suit, Carl is never identified as a NASCAR driver. Viewers who don't know quack about NASCAR, probably believe the former substitute school teacher is a commercial pitchman rather than an athlete who hangs onto a loose race car careening through treacherous turns at 180 mph. He does a pretty good job explaining Aflac insurance before pushing the screaming duck down the slope.
Almost 30 million people tuned into FOX Sports' coverage of the Daytona 500, including strong gains in places like Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C, Indianapolis, Nashville, Tenn., and Orlando, Fla.
According to a new Nielsen study, advertisers in the Daytona 500 enjoy higher brand recall, and overall "likeability" of their spots. TV ads airing in the Daytona 500 are 26 percent more likely to be recalled by viewers than those who saw the ad run elsewhere, the Nielsen study showed.
In layman's terms, that means David Hill, who runs FOX Sports, can charge even more for ad time next year, and it will be worth every penny for sponsors.
On race day, NASCAR.COM enjoyed more than 10 million page views and set a record with 1,494,374 unique visitors (+7 percent vs. the 2009 Daytona 500). The race was pretty darn good, and those who checked out the new commercials were not disappointed, either.
Andrew Giangola is the author of "The Weekend Starts on Wednesday: True Story of Remarkable NASCAR Fans." Click here to purchase.
Red Bull fastest as last F1 test gets under way (PA SportsTicker)
February 25, 2010
BARCELONA, SPAIN(AP) —Mark Webber was fastest Thursday as the last Formula One test before the start of the new season gets under way.
The Red Bull driver set a best lap time of 1 minute, 21.487 seconds around the Circuit de Catalunya – nearly a second faster than Nico Hulkenberg of Williams.
Nico Rosberg of Mercedes GP, Sauber’s Pedro De la Rosa and Jenson Button of McLaren were the only other drivers within two seconds of the Australian driver.
Tonio Liuzzi of Force India was sixth while Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was seventh as the Spaniard was sidetracked by a mechanical problem.
Virgin Racing’s problematic start continued as Lucas di Grassi ran into the tire wall near the close of the morning session to end the team’s running for the day.
Franchitti knows all to well the expectations on Patrick (NASCAR.com)
February 25, 2010
On the eve of the fourth race of her stock car experimental tour, Danica Patrick would do well to study the path of another open wheel explorer—though it's quite likely she's already picked his brain.
He says they're friends, after all.
And since unfounded expectations can lay low the strongest man or even the strongest team—even a strong woman need beware. And if that team is weaker than expected, look out—the crash landing of those expectations would rival the Hindenburg disaster.
But thank God life goes on.
Just ask Dario Franchitti, Patrick's former IRL teammate, whose championship race car driving legacy was secured with the 2009 IndyCar title—or his car owner, multiple champion Chip Ganassi.
The Chip Ganassi Racing pair, with their brutally interrupted 2008 expedition into NASCAR cut short by lack of finance, lack of results and an injury Franchitti suffered in a savage, yet typical superspeedway stock car crash, could advise Patrick on the equivalent brutality of those expectations.
Before discussing Patrick, Ganassi didn't miss the chance to praise his latest champion, Franchitti.
"Let me tell you something, that guy can drive a race car—he can drive any race car," Ganassi said. "When we tried to do that NASCAR experiment, we thought our cars were a little better than they were and we thought our team was a little better than it was. And the problem was our program was a program that really couldn't afford any hiccups, whatsoever—it was being run that tight.
"The fact of the matter is we had difficulty getting some sponsorship we otherwise thought we'd have—he had a crash in which he broke his ankle, which was no fault of his own. But he shows up at a place like Bristol and he led over 100 laps in the [Nationwide] race.
"I look back at that whole thing fondly. Sure, it didn't turn out like we wanted it to, but I'll tell you what—it made us all grow a lot. It was good for our team and it was good for him. Did it turn out like we wanted it to? No. But it was a learning experience that in the end everything worked out."
And anyways, it's too late for any alarms of warnings they would give Patrick. In the three races she's already run: The ARCA Series opener, the Nationwide Series' Daytona opener and last weekend's Nationwide race at Fontana, Patrick has already discovered the weight of those expectations.
"Expectations are a tough thing," Franchitti said. "I think when I went NASCAR racing the expectations might have gone too far. I think if you keep the expectations in check, it's OK. But it's a learning experience—like starting from ground zero all over again when you try stock cars."
Ganassi has raced against Patrick since she came to IndyCar, so with his involvement with Franchitti he has the perfect perspective.
"The good news is, I think she's been dealing with that at every step in her career," Ganassi said. "So I'm sure that's nothing new to her. Handling expectations, managing expectations is nothing new for her since she's dealt with at every step of her career.
"I hope she does well—believe me—it'll be good for all of us if she does well. And anything I can do to help her, I'll do."
Franchitti's already done it—first, by taking a few bullets, figuratively speaking, in 2008, and then supporting his IndyCar foe.
"We're friends anyways, so we talk a bunch—about different stuff, whether we're at the track or if her and Ashley and I and her husband Paul go to dinner—or we pick up the phone and have a chat," Franchitti said. "But we talked a fair bit about [NASCAR], and some of my experiences. And she came to a couple of the races, like Phoenix a couple times. So she had seen it, and she asked certain things and that was it, really."
And to her credit, as Patrick's adventure blossoms, she's held up well.
The expectations she never asked for and never created—though you figure in this day and time as inevitable—haven't yet been stifling. And that's somewhat amazing when it seems the current level of hype and expectation are worlds different than when Ken Schrader, who was the first open-wheel standout to really make an impact; than to those foisted upon more recent transplants like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne.
Patrick's fits of pique have been amusing—not confounding or aggravating like similar, seemingly long-ago episodes featuring Stewart and Kyle Busch. Her driving has been adaptable, steadily improving in each event. And most notably, she hasn't made any boneheaded errors—a claim a lot of the guys who've driven stock cars around her with a lot more experience in the genre, can't make.
And since she hasn't really made any, we know she's not prone to repeating errors. That's a rather sizeable attribute to have in this game. Heck, even former champion Carl Edwards had two pit-road speeding penalties last weekend.
Patrick is measuring up. But after this weekend at Vegas—where the measuring stick will be placed at her back again—she steps off to IndyCar. When she returns, how ridiculous, or measured might the expectations be?
"I think to jump back and forth will be very, very difficult—very tough because they are such different cars—you can't believe it," Franchitti said. "I think if you took the best guy in Sprint Cup—Jimmie [Johnson], obviously, winning all those championships—and stuck him in an Indy car, it would take him a good while to get up to speed. To jump back and forth would be very, very tough."
But Franchitti didn't say it would be impossible.
"Danica's done what she thinks is best for her," Franchitti said. "And I'm 100 percent behind that if that's what she thinks [is best]. As I said, I think it's going to be very, very difficult but she's thought about it, and with her advisors and her family she's certainly made what she thinks is the right decision.
"And I'm not going to second-guess it."
Sounds like that might not be bad advice for the rest of us.
The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.
Related: •
Defending winner Busch a first at Vegas; well, sort of (NASCAR.com)
February 25, 2010
Kyle Busch celebrates his victory last year at Las Vegas.
Race No. 3: Shelby American from (3 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX). Green at 3:16 p.m. ET.
1—Drivers to win from the pole: Kyle Busch in last year's race. However, Busch actually started from the rear of the field after an engine change in practice. It's the only time Busch has won the pole and the race in the same Cup weekend.
1—Drivers with an average finish at Vegas in the top 10: Jeff Burton (9.8). He has been has been running at the finish in all 12 of his races there and finished on the lead lap in the past eight races.
1—Teams which have had a car finish in the top 10 in every race at Las Vegas: Roush Fenway Racing. Roush drivers have led the most laps in seven of the 12 LVMS races.
1—Drivers to post a top-five finish in the past two races: Greg Biffle. He is one of only three drivers—Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr.—to score a top-10 in the past two races.
3—Drivers with multiple victories at Las Vegas. Each of those driver's victories came in back-to-back races: Jeff Burton (1999 and 2000), Matt Kenseth (2003 and '04) and Jimmie Johnson (2005, '06 and '07).
4—Drivers who have competed in all 12 races at Las Vegas: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin. Labonte is the only one without a win; however, he's also one of four drivers—Kyle Busch, Dale Jarrett and Kasey Kahne are the others—with multiple poles at LVMS, each with two. Both Labonte and Busch have raced to their poles in Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 18 car.
5—Most top-fives at Las Vegas, shared by three drivers: Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin. Gordon has three top-fives in the past five years and a sixth-place finish last year. Martin leads all drivers with nine top-10s.
5.7—Average starting position at Vegas for Kurt Busch, best of any driver with more than one start. He has never started outside the top 10. However, he has only two top-10s in his nine starts and hasn't finished better than 16th in the past four races. His average finish: 20.4.
11—Drivers who broke the old track record in time trials during last year's qualifying. Kyle Busch set the track record at 185.995 mph (29.033 sec.), breaking the old record of 184.856 mph. (29.2212 sec.) set by Kasey Kahne in 2007.
11—Kyle Busch has finished 11th or better in five of his six career start at Vegas. He finished 41st in his first start in 2004, crashing out after 11 laps. It was the first career start for the then-18-year-old Busch.
11—Times the driver leading with 10 laps to go has won the race. However, the leader at the halfway point of the race has won three just times.
14—Cautions in last year's race, a track record, for a total of 66 laps. It was just the third time a race at Vegas has had 10 or more cautions, all in the past five years including the past two in a row.
17—Laps led by Jeff Gordon in last year's race, surpassing 20,000 career laps led. He is one of only seven drivers with 20,000 or more laps led. Richard Petty leads all drivers with more than 50,000.
438—Laps led by Matt Kenseth, most of any driver. Kenseth completed all but one lap in his first nine starts at Las Vegas, 2286 of 2287, but completed only six laps last year (engine).
Shelby American (Yahoo! Sports)
February 25, 2010
