Meet Danica Patrick ... IndyCar driver and marketing machine.Danica, 27 years old, drives a 230mph IndyCar for Michael Andretti. She is a competent driver - anyone who drives these cars for a living has to be. But, looking at all the hype surrounding her, you'd think she's God's gift to racing. Her career so far has one win to show for it, a fuel mileage strategy win at a track in Japan.
She is pretty, she is a hothead, she is the face of IndyCar racing. Her name is recognized throughout the world, even outside of racing where folks don't have a clue what an IndyCar is. She was groomed for this since an early age - exposure on TV hosting Sunday morning car shows was our first glimpse of her as a teenager - we knew the name before we knew she was a racer.
There are two other good looking young ladies that drive in the IndyCar series - but hardly anyone knows it because they don't have the marketing machine behind them.
She is in the final contract year at Andretti-Green Racing. Rumors are hot and heavy that she will move to NASCAR. Jack Roush, NASCAR Ford team owner, has publicly stated he'd be interested in signing her, though his insistence that she wold have to spend a couple of years in the Nationwide developmental series before moving up to a full Sprint Cup ride may throw cold water on her interest. She seems too self absorbed to spend any time out of the top league. However, the lure of NASCAR money and exposure may be enough to bring her over.
She's on the cover of this month's NASCAR Scene magazine. She's the 'Go Daddy' Girl. She's all the buzz in both IndyCar and NASCAR garages - amazing for a driver who has one win.
IndyCar and the public love her. Her teammates and competitors can't stand her.
The picture above is from her Sports Illustrated photo shoot, one of the milder photos. Thank goodness we don't have any other NASCAR drivers posing like this (sorry, all of you Junior Nation fans!).
One might think that she'd be too small to handle the big, heavy stock cars. IndyCars are light, and not a handful to steer. I don't think that will be a big issue - Mark Martin, 50 year old NASCAR driver, has won three races this year, and only weghs 130 pounds!
If she does get a fat contract to come over to Roush or some other big team, I fully expect her to fall flat on her face, and go right back to IndyCar - just as almost every other driver who has preceded her on that path has done.
1 comment:
Isn't this just like Anna Kornakova -- she can play tennis, but she's not all THAT good, but she's got the money bec. of her looks and all the guys know who she is from her "photos".
Best of luck to Danica, but . . . don't really expect much.
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