Folks, I love the Beatles song, "Baby you can drive my car
— yes you're gonna be a star." I would wager that Dale
Earnhardt Jr., his sister Kelley and Danica Patrick are all singing
that song to themselves as we speak.
As you all know by now, Patrick signed a deal earlier this
week to drive a part-time schedule for Kelley and Dale Jr.'s
Nationwide Series team in 2010 and 2011.
One of the positives they will have going for them is that
car she'll drive will be a fast car. You can take it to the bank
that with Hendrick Motorsports equipment, you are going to have a
great car. I won't be surprised if Patrick goes down to the ARCA
test next weekend and has the fastest time testing. It wouldn't
surprise me if she even sat on the pole for that race in February.
Now, she has been on that track before for the Rolex 24 Hours
of Daytona. so she will pretty much know where the bumps are and
how the cars move around at Daytona International Speedway.
Naturally these stock cars will move around a little more than
those cars do. So I don't think there will be any problems
adjusting to that.
But where I have seen the problem and where I have seen
Danica struggle is on the fast, high-banked racetracks where you
have to run wheel to wheel with folks — Kentucky, Texas,
Kansas and Michigan.
I just haven't seen her be real comfortable running side by
side, wheel-to-wheel yet. In fact, I have heard her complain in the
past, a lot actually, about her car not being good in traffic. I
think a lot of that is her simply not being comfortable in traffic
yet. Indy has those long straightaways so you really don't run
side-by-side there. You pass people and get back in line. You run
through the corners there mainly single file. I think that is a key
to why she always runs well there.
I see being able to run side by side on a consistent basis
being the bigger adjustment for her. Learning how aggressive the
stock car crowd will be is something she is going to have to adapt
to.
Now, no disrespect to the ARCA guys, but I sure would go look
at the last four or five races at Daytona and make sure this is the
right step to make. Those ARCA races down there can be pretty wild
and crazy and you sure don't want to start her off getting her
involved in a crash. That would simply start her stock car career
off on the wrong foot. Now I realize they don't have a choice. If
she is going to run that Nationwide Series race down there, she
needs to get out there and pick up all the seat time she can get in
a stock car. I am just concerned that she is really going to find
out how difficult these cars are and how much trouble you can get
yourself in is when you go three-wide into the corners at Daytona
or someone bump drafting you around the racetrack. That's where I
believe the struggles are going to come in.
At Daytona she will be running an old Cup car with the 110"
wheel base. ARCA has approved a 105" wheel base for all the other
racetracks, which is a Nationwide Series car. My point is, if she
runs more ARCA races after Daytona, it will basically be in a
Nationwide car. So there is benefit in that.
Speaking of cars
You know, nothing ever happens fast enough to suit me. When I
see something that I believe will help racing, well I want to make
the changes now, not a year from now. NASCAR moves at a different
pace because obviously they have to take into consideration
everybody, not just a few.
So now the Cup teams can sell not only their old Cup cars,
but also their old Nationwide Series cars to ARCA. So there's an
outlet for those cars. This will give the Nationwide Series teams
the chance to build the second generation of the Car of Tomorrow,
as I refer to it.
I just think I would do it differently. If I were in charge,
I would make today's COT Cup cars eligible to run in the Nationwide
Series. That would allow the Cup teams the chance to reduce their
inventory by selling their old cars to the Nationwide teams. Then I
would have the Cup teams building this new second generation COT
car.
I personally think the new car is going to be a big hit and a
big success. So why isn't this new car going to the Cup side of
things? They are the big show. Why are they being forced to
continue to struggle with this car we have now? To me, that's not
right. I don't want to wait for this newer, better car to make its
appearance in 2011. I want to see it now.
Folks, you can use the current COT chassis and simply put the
new body on it. That's what I would do because our premier series,
the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, would benefit from this new car and
put on a better show. To set on that new car, knowing that it's a
better car, but to only run it four times next year in the
Nationwide series sure seems like a travesty to me.
Now I know we are only a couple months away from heading to
Daytona, but teams today build cars in about 10 days now. I sure
would be getting this new car in the hands of these Cup teams and
let them start working with them. I just believe it would make it
better for everybody.
