Danica will be behind the wheel of a Nationwide Series car this year and has announced that she expects to debut on the Nationwide Series during the race at Fontana, a week after the opener at Daytona. She has also announced that she is definitely planning to be behind the wheel during the Auto Club Speedway race in California, the Feb 27^th Nationwide competition held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but hasn’t finalized a ride in the opening race at Daytona.

Well be seeing Danica behind the wheel of a similar car in 2010

This is a big move for this racing lady who has shown great talent and the ability to stay bumper to bumper with the big boys during her races. She appears to be taking her time in her decisions, which is probably a good idea. If she was to falter at the beginning the press coverage would probably be bad and some of the boys might start tearing her down a bit. It’s definitely important that she have a good start to her Nationwide Series career, as she is hopefully going to pave the way for other ladies to get behind the wheel of a race car and give the boys what they don’t want.

Her indecision as to whether to show up for the opener at Daytona is maybe a good thing because the best racers usually show up for the opening Nationwide Series race of the year, with a majority of the previous openers at Daytona being won by the best the Sprint Cup Series has to offer. The Daytona opener will therefore actually be more of a Sprint Cup race, rather than a true Nationwide Series race, and she’ll get a better feel of her true competition on the track, if she delays her debut a week, or so.

“Image: Zuma Press”

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Danicia Patrick Will be Racing the Boys

2009 was an eventful year on the NASCAR track

Also notable in 2009 was the financial problems of NASCAR and the state of the financial institutions around the world, which definitely made the ground the racers’ were racing on a little more hazardous and put the future of some teams and races in jeopardy. Chevrolet and Chrysler were on shaky financial ground the whole year and had to make cut backs in the spending of teams in order to make it through the season. We saw teams merge and a few had to put the wraps on their racing and hundreds of NASCAR industry professionals lost their jobs. Still others went with a start and park routine to try to reduce costs and keep the teams working. The drug problems of a few racers surfaced during the year and took the focus away from the racing, and Danica Patrick’s continuous talks with team owners kept interrupting the racing.

Add to these problems reduced attendance at many of the race venues, which certainly can be partly blamed on the financial crisis for many Americans, and 2009 wasn’t the best year in NASCAR history. Media professionals also saw a decrease in advertising budgets and revenue, which resulted in cut backs and downsizing in order to compensate for the reduced funding. 2010 is expected to be a better year for NASCAR, but things can change so quickly that making assumptions can cause real problems.

Jarrod Breeze’s problems with NASCAR dominated the events in the last few days of the season and this still has yet to be resolved. Jarrod’s problems could just be starting and the facts surrounding this whole affair could bring an end to his career. He may win the fight, but his chances of getting behind the wheel of another race car in a NASCAR race, is probably zero.

The events and facts of the 2009 season were often more about the events surrounding the races and racers, than the actual races. Hopefully, in 2010 we’ll get back to concentrating on the racing, as long as the financial situation settles a little and the financial ground becomes a little more secure for the teams and racers.

“Image: Zuma Press”

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2009 Nascar Wrap-Up

Derrick Rose is currently at the center of NCAA investigation into his academic eligibilty at Memphis.

According to the Chicago-Sun Times, his high school grades were even altered to help him stay academically eligible.

The investigation has once again brought attention to the NBA’s age regulation rule, in which players have to be at least 19 years old in order to play professional basketball.

Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports, asks: “Why the heck did he have to take [the SAT test]  in the first place?”

He makes a good point. Rose could have avoided this scandal altogether if he had simply been able to jump directly to the NBA from high school instead.

As Wetzel argues effectively:

“No one cared when Danica Patrick went pro as a race car driver at 16. No one tried to prevent Shawn Johnson from winning an Olympic gold at the same age or Miley Cyrus from making millions singing and acting with her dad even younger than that. And no one ever required them to recognize analogies before doing so. So why do we make Derrick Rose?”

Why, indeed.

Image: Zuma

Post from: EveryJoe

Derrick Rose’s Reputation At Risk

And she replied, “Well, then it’s not cheating, is it? If nobody finds out? Yeah, it would be like finding a gray area.”

Dara Torres sees the interview, and gets all bent out of shape, saying:

“As an athlete that has been tested a thousand times whether through blood or urine samples – I’ve even offered DNA samples to prove that I’m clean – I really can’t ever imagine saying if you don’t get caught that it’s not cheating.”

Now, I’ll admit I haven’t been a huge fan of Danica Patrick, but even I got that she was kidding. When an interviewer like Dan Patrick asks you questions, you know part of the interview is about play and joking around. I really believe Danica was joking around. I suppose if she would have said something REALLY outrageous in response, then it would have been crystal clear that she was joking around.

So, after Torres hears that Danica was joking around, she still wasn’t laughing. She said:

“Just by reading it, you hope that she was just kidding. After her great performance in the Indy 500 this past weekend, it was so impressive what she did, it just kind of spoils it a little bit. As the strong role model that she is, I would encourage her to rethink what she said.”

Is she now implying that Danica actually took drugs to get that great showing at Indy? I think this whole thing is being blown out of proportion, and Torres really needs to let it go. Like I said, I’m a fan of hers, but she needs to simmer down on this one.

What do you think?

Image: Zuma Press

Post from: EveryJoe

Dara Torres Ticked at Danica Patrick

Apparently Danica was “running ninth in the 22-car field on Sunday when rookie Raphael Matos tried to pass as the two went into one of the tightest turns.” Danica patted Matos on the helmet as they walked away. A little condescending tap to let the world know the crash could not have possibly been her fault.

Image: splashnewsonline.com.

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Danica Patrick Crashes at Honda Grand Prix

A Stateside Perspective – NASCAR and F1

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Do You NASCAR Hits the F1 Pitlane

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Video: Danica Patrick’s Mid-Ohio Catfight With Milka Duno

Image details: 2007 ESPY Awards – Arrivals served by picapp.com

The annual 2008 ESPY Awards will air live on ESPN on Sunday, July 20th at 9 pm est / 8 pm cst, and keeping with their tradition of including outdoor sports and motorsports within their equation, NASCAR will be represented with nominees in three separate categories this year.

Every year, the ESPY’s select from a pool of nominees for their racing-specific athlete category for “Best Driver“. A NASCAR driver has won this award in 9 of the 15 years, and 4 of the last 5. The most recent winners of this award were Jeff Gordon in 2007 and Tony Stewart in 2006. Representing NASCAR this year are 2006 and 2007 Sprint Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson (whom has never won the award), current Sprint Cup points leader, Kyle Busch, and Dario Franchitti (though Franchitti was nominated for his win in the 2007 Indianapolis 500 and for winning the IndyCar Series championship last season). They will compete against Lewis Hamilton, Tony Schumacher, and Scott Dixon.

Kyle Busch’s surge to 7 wins this season in the Sprint Cup Series and 14 altogether in NASCAR’s top-three series has also earned him a nomination as the “Breakthrough Athlete of the Year“, but he’s going to be looking at some pretty stout competition in this category, particularly as he goes against Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings. Also nominated for this award are Stephen Curry (basketball) and Ana Ivanovic (tennis). Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears won the award last year.

Much to his own surprise, Jamie McMurray is up for an award himself. He’s been nominated for the “Best Finish” award for his 0.05 second victory over Kyle Busch in the 2007 Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. He will be up against Western Kentucky’s 3-point buzzer shot to advance over Drake University in the NCAA Tournament; the San Antonio Spurs’ victory over the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals in double overtime; and the Pittsburgh Penguins triple overtime win against the Detroit Redwings in Game 5 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.

Additionally, IRL star, Danica Patrick, is nominated for the awards of “Best Moment” and “Best Female Athlete.”

Go here for a complete list of the 2008 ESPY Nominees and go to ESPN.com for listing information on the event itself.

Post from: EveryJoe

NASCAR Represented in 2008 ESPY Award Nominations

Image details: 92nd Indianapolis 500 served by picapp.com

Making her fourth Indianapolis 500 appearance this past Sunday, Danica Patrick started the race from the fifth position, but was taken out of contention on lap 171 of the 200 lap event when the no. 6 Team Penske car of Ryan Briscoe got into her as they attempted to exit pit road. The damage that the incident left on Danica’s car was too extensive for her to continue on, and she was left with a 22nd place finish after running up around the top-ten for most of the day.

Following the accident, Danica stormed out of her wrecked race car and immediately went looking for Briscoe’s pit as she proceeded to remove her gloves. The confrontation was stopped short by track security, and eventually cooler heads prevailed before it could progress any further.

“I was ready to take it all off, my helmet and everything, because it’s hard to talk through the helmet,” she said following the race. “It’s probably a better idea that I didn’t make it all the way down there anyway because, well, as you guys know, I’m a little emotional.”

After watching the replays on video, Briscoe remains adament that he left Danica plent of room, and was unwilling to offer up any sort of an apology. This could be a feud to keep an eye on as the series heads to the Milwuakee Mile on June 1st. After four attempts now, Danica’s best Indianapolis finish remains to be her fourth place run in her rookie season back in 2005.

Recommended Reads:
- Wrapping the Weekend That Was (Full Throttle)

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Danica Ready to Rumble at Indy

Image details: Goody’s Cool Orange 500 Qualifying served by picapp.com

The Sprint Cup Series was off this past week while the Nationwide Series took to the streets of Mexico City for the Corona Mexico 200 as Kyle Busch cruised to his third consecutive Nationwide Series victory. That, however, was not the headline that the sports world took away from auto racing on that day because while Kyle Busch was debating whether or not to dump Scott Pruett, Danica Patrick was out in Japan making history en route to winning the first IRL race of her career, as well as becoming the first female driver to ever win a race in that series.

In a pure incident of coincidental timing, just days before Danica broke down the barriers for females in racing, Chrissy Wallace inked a deal with Germain Racing that will have her competing full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009.

Chrissy made her NASCAR debut just a few weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway in the Truck Series’ Kroger 250. Despite starting that race all the way back from the 35th position, she was able to find her way up to 18th by the final lap of the race. Her run was impressive enough to force the hands at Germain Racing to offer her up a contract, and they finalized the deal this past Wednesday. Chrissy will run another six races this year in the no. 03 Toyota Tundra – the first of which will be on June 20th in Milwuakee, and from there she will begin to prepare for her 2009 rookie campaign.

Regarding her signing with Germain, Chrissy stated, “I’m extremely excited. This is a big deal for us. When I saw my name on that contract, I almost couldn’t believe it. But, I’m thrilled about this opportunity.”

Chrissy comes from a long line of racers in her family, to include her father Mike Wallace, and uncles Rusty and Kenny. She has spent the majority of her amateur career racing late model stock cars, and became the first female driver to win at Hickory Motor Speedway in 57 years.  She has also earned herself the backing of the unofficial NASCAR spokesman himself, Tony Stewart, and that just simply can’t hurt matters.

The official signing of Chrissy Wallace is a huge step for NASCAR as they continue to work on building diversity within their garage areas. In recent years, the sport has added a number of drivers with foreign backgrounds, to include such names as Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and Patrick Carpentier. They have also created and contributed to a multitude of diversity programs in an effort to help this cause. Although Chrissy certainly is not the first female to dawn a NASCAR firesuit, it certainly appears as though that she may potentially be the first to have the necessary combination of talent AND proper equipment afforded to her that it takes to win at NASCAR’s highest levels.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You Nascar also asks its readers …

1) Do you think that Chrissy Wallace will be successful in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009, and will she win Rookie of the Year?

2) Are female drivers often given some of their driving opportunities simply because of their market value as women?

3) Have NASCAR’s diversity programs been successful, and is the diversity they’ve added been good for the sport?

4) What could NASCAR do to expand their diversity programs?

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Women Charging on Cup Series’ Week Off