By Jerry Bonkowski
JerryBonkowski.com
Due to contractual exclusivity, I'm unable to post my Thursday column from AutoRacingDaily.com here in this spot (although I have linked to it on the left hand side of this page, again due to exclusivity agreements).
I STRONGLY encourage you to go to AutoRacingDaily.com and check out my column on Danica Patrick.
I received information from a very powerful motorsports source in Germany on Wednesday, someone who is very familiar with the Formula One structure, that whispers are growing about Patrick potentially coming to F1 next season and how she may leave NASCAR waiting at the altar.
My source is unimpeachable; I trust him implicitly. If he says word is starting to build in the F1 community that Danica may be going over the big pond to race next year, I take it very seriously.
As I mention in my column, Patrick's contract with Andretti Green Racing in the Indy Racing League is due to expire at the end of this season. Frankly, her tenure at AGR has been fairly lackluster, with the exception of her first win last year in Japan (in a fuel-mileage outcome).
Still, she remains quite in demand. But instead of folks in two racing series wondering where Patrick is going to wind up for 2010, a third racing series -- and the biggest in the world, at that -- could become her new home, rather than a return to the IRL or a move to NASCAR.
I encourage you to read the column at AutoRacingDaily.com and welcome your comments either at the bottom of that column, or at the bottom of this item.
Yeah, Probably more suited to her with her open wheel background. Not many diehard open wheelers ever really amount to anything in NASCAR. But damned if I'll bother watching any F1 follow the leader racing...
ReplyDeleteDon’t really care for Danica, never have, never will. To me she has just as bad of an attitude as Kyle, with much less talent. If she didn’t look good for photo shoots and marketing campaigns, we wouldn’t even be talking about her.
ReplyDeleteI’ll just come out and say it…She’s the Dale Jr of the IRL, over hyped, without the record to back it up.
F1 can have her.
-Taglia
You may have confidence in your source & that's cool. But to be honest? I couldn't care less where she goes as long as its not Cup. She may have flirted with Cup on her last renewal & that really was likely the time to strike. Today? Her 'tude and underperformance in a lesser series have shown me the Cup series would eat her up and spit her out. Can't imagine too many Cup car owners taking her flirting seriously.
ReplyDeleteTaglia, how can you say that about Dale Jr? It is plain offensive to compare his record to hers. Sure he is overhyped, and no, he isn't as talented as the god awful Kyle Bush (and who cares), but he has accomplished much more than Patrick ever has or ever will. I'd put Jr pretty well on a similar level to Greg Biffle, but with more hype...
ReplyDeleteIsn't leveraging NASCAR exactly what she did to get the current contract? I remember her father showing up at the track and being seen talking to, if memory serves me correctly, Jack Roush at Chicagoland? Isn't that where all the rumors really busted out?
ReplyDeleteJust can't see her in NASCAR... her splash into IRL was great, but since she really hasn't done much other than run in the front half of the pack, it seems that the buzz around her really has subsided.
Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti won championships in the IRL. JP Montoya won the International F3000 championship and looks like he could be a decent to good driver in the Sprint Cup Series if maybe he had better equipment. But the bottom line is that these guys who are infinitely superior drivers to Danica Patrick have all struggled on the Sprint Cup level, and in the case of Franchitti his team folded. Why would any team owner with half a brain even consider bringing her in? OK, maybe you get some publicity in the short-term, but when, not if, she starts to struggle, what then? If you think Junior has to deal with a lot, wait until Danica shows up. The media coverage and criticism she receives as an IRL driver is nothing compared to what she would go through in NASCAR.
ReplyDeleteIf I was a team owner in NASCAR, I wouldn't even return her agents' phone calls.