Danica Patrick Give Good Impact fo NASCAR Sponsorship
It's easy to find Danica Patrick at Daytona International Speedway. Just look for the pack of photographers, the whirring of their cameras capturing the every move of NASCAR's newest star.
Those racy photo shoots and GoDaddy.com commercials are not the only reasons Danica Patrick is the most brazen driver in Nascar. Just listen to her. “Do I think I can win the Daytona 500? Yeah,” Patrick told reporters Thursday at Daytona International Speedway.
And that's what she is, even though she won't have started a race in the sport's top series until Sunday, when she will become only the third woman to appear in the Daytona 500. But Patrick's relative lack of experience in the NASCAR realm -- she's started only a few dozen events to this point, all of them in lower circuits -- hasn't stopped the former open-wheel standout from having an impact larger than even some more experienced and more established drivers on North America's premier racing circuit.
As the veteran driver Denny Hamlin said last month, “If she’s got the confidence that she can win the Daytona 500, then I can guarantee you she’s got as good a shot as anyone here right now.”
Patrick, who is 5 feet 2 inches when she is not glamorizing Nascar in spike heels, has never been short on confidence. As she moves from IndyCar and prepares to race full time in the Cup series in 2013 by driving regularly in the lower-level Nationwide Series for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports and in 10 Cup races for Stewart-Haas Racing this season, Patrick appears at ease with the attention she has drawn.
The driver of the bright green GoDaddy-backed race car also drives television ratings and merchandise sales. She's an almost constant topic of conversation among those in the media and the grandstand. NASCAR hopes her crossover appeal translates into more ticket sales and a broader fan base.
She could be right. Trevor Bayne, a rookie part-timer in his second Sprint Cup start, won it last year to prove once again that the Daytona 500 is one of Nascar’s least predictable races. But for Patrick to declare herself a contender before her first Cup event says as much about her as it does about the race.
“Hey, I want to do well just as much as other people want to see me do well,” said Patrick, who will turn 30 on March 25. “I’m sure there’s people who don’t want to see me do well as well. But no, I put plenty of pressure on myself. I’ve gotten better about it in my old age, setting realistic goals for myself. And you know, it’s all part of the game. It’s about a story. It’s entertainment. It’s a story, and everybody’s trying to dig in it from different directions, creating their own expectations. But it’s really opinion, and I have one, too.”
Maybe the calm comes from standing at the precipice before. In 2005, Patrick burst into the national consciousness by becoming the first woman to lead laps in the Indianapolis 500; she finished fourth. She has been a focal point and lightning rod in auto racing ever since. Patrick has titillated some male fans by posing for Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue and in other risqué spreads. She has angered some women by baring skin to cash in and raise her profile instead of relying on her performance to stand out.
“I do what feels comfortable to me and then I’m good with it,” she said. “I’m a girl, and so to say I can’t use being a girl doesn’t make any sense. In this world, there’s so much competition out there that you have to use everything that you have to make sponsors happy, to attract them, to be unique, to be different.”
Even as she chooses a sexy image to garner fame and fortune, Patrick criticizes the news media for calling her sexy.
“It’s like if there is a pretty girl, they don’t know how to describe a pretty girl other than being sexy, and it has such a negative connotation to it,” she said. “You don’t say those kinds of things to frame it like that for a guy, or even sometimes talk about it. But it seems like with female athletes if they are pretty, they only know how to describe them in a sexual way. I don’t care, but I just wonder why we can’t talk about it in a different way. Why can’t there be other words for it? Why does it have to be somewhat negatively twisted?”
Patrick’s decision to race full time would seem to be all positive for Nascar. She proved competitive with men as the first woman to win an IndyCar race, at Motegi, Japan, in 2008. And she was the most popular driver in that series for six years.
Nascar, which has felt the effects of the recession in terms of dwindling sponsorship dollars, could have an increase in fan interest and television viewership because of her. And that could be the hook that draws sponsors back to the sport.
“She attracts a lot of attention,” Earnhardt said. “We need a bit of a rebound in some areas. She can provide that spark, sort of refresh some corporate sponsors’ interest in the sport and do things like that.”
Patrick does not have to win races. Nor is she expected to, given that she raced only part time in the Nationwide Series the past two seasons. Last year’s Nationwide champion, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., won only two races, and he has far more experience in stock cars than Patrick.
And all of it may be just the beginning, given that Patrick is only now venturing into the elite Sprint Cup Series, and carries with her a sea of untapped potential -- on the track as well as off. NASCAR.com: Danica's Sprint Cup plans "It's great for the sport," said four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon. "Who doesn't want to see a female driver come in here and be able to race with the guys and do well and be marketable? It's great for the sport."
Success on the race track, of course, will ultimately determine how much of an impact Patrick can make. For the past two seasons Patrick has competed in a limited schedule in NASCAR's No. 2 circuit, the Nationwide Series, while maintaining her full-time status in open-wheel cars and chasing the dream of an Indianapolis 500 victory.
