LAT PHOTOGRAPHICDanica Patrick says not much development work is being done on the current IndyCar chassis, which is finished after this season.
Published on 8/03/2011
It has been a mixed season for Danica Patrick as she juggles a full-time Izod IndyCar Series ride with Andretti Autosport, a part-time ride in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports team, and as spokesperson for her multiple sponsors and the Drive4COPD.com cause.
So what will she do next year--IndyCar or full-time NASCAR, as is widely believed? Patrick still has not confirmed her plans, but all signs seem to point to NASCAR. And she had a little more to say about her 2011 season in a conversation with AutoWeek.
AutoWeek: You had a rough but character-building July, with the NASCAR Nationwide race at Daytona International Speedway, then the IndyCar race in Toronto. You were doing great at Daytona; you led some laps, until the end when wandering Mike Wallace decided to update his Twitter postings or something right before the checkered flag. And at Toronto, you got Takuma Sato-ed, when he just ran into you from the rear. Did you know there are people involved with his effort who call him Takuma Wallbanger?
Danica Patrick: My forté is to not crash and make it through to the end, but that didn't happen in Toronto with Takuma Wallbanger. I don't know what happened; maybe he blacked out for a minute. He does a lot of silly stuff, and it's unfortunate that I was part of it.
Daytona was better. You knew something was going to happen on the last lap or two--I don't know what Mike was trying to do, if he was trying to find a place to run, or trying to block people from passing him, but he wasn't holding his line on any level and made himself a bit of a roadblock. And nobody was going to lift on the last lap, and he turned into a pinball.
AW: IndyCar is going to a new car and a new engine for 2012. So it seems from our perspective that there isn't the effort and money being put into working on this current package, knowing it's a lame duck. True?
DP: Definitely, I think that's the case, especially on the cars themselves. I was taking to Tony Eury Jr. [her NASCAR crew chief] about how much they go to the wind tunnel, and he said like every other week. And I remember hearing before the IndyCar season started that we hadn't been to the wind tunnel at all. I imagine it has been a year since we've been to the wind tunnel. So there has definitely been a halt on spending money on this car, because soon it'll be irrelevant. But that doesn't help right now.
AW: In February 2010, you debuted in stock cars in the ARCA race, and then the Nationwide race, at Daytona. You had some trouble with drafting, with closing up right to the bumper of the car in front of you. In the Nationwide race this past July, you sure didn't have that problem.
DP: Yeah, at Daytona, you've got to be on them, and I believe you get a little nervous getting into those situations for the first time. But when I came back to Daytona for the July race, my teammate Aric Almirola went out behind me, and I spent just one lap out there by myself with him right behind me, and then the next lap he started pushing me.
I was kind of nervous to start so quickly, but that's what you have to do. And I know that you always get nervous when you're doing something you haven't done before, but it's the only way to go fast at Daytona. The only way you're going to win the race is by bump drafting all day.
AW: Last year you ran the ARCA race at Daytona, and you ran the NASCAR K&N series race at Dover to get some experience. Why not do more of that? No time, or it just doesn't help?
DP: I ran ARCA before Daytona because I hadn't done a stock-car race at all, and it was easy to get there to do the race the week before, learn drafting and get some experience. And the K&N race was to get some experience at Dover, because it's a tricky little place. But sometimes driving multiple cars on a weekend, especially when you go from the bias-ply tires on the K&N cars [to] the radials in NASCAR, it was a very different feeling. So when I went out and qualified for the Nationwide race after doing the K&N race, I sucked in qualifying because I couldn't feel the entry.
I think for me, this early in the process, it's tough to jump around to different cars because I'm not really able to identify major differences. People ask me if I can tell the difference between the new Nationwide car and the old Nationwide car, [but]I couldn't tell you the difference. No idea. Keeping it simple for me is good at this point. But it is a good way to get some experience on tough tracks. So I'm sure if I went to, say, maybe a Darlington, I'd try to do an extra race. But we're going to a lot of the same tracks that I've raced on in IndyCar.
Danica Patrick got drafting help from Tony Stewart at the Nationwide race at Daytona.
AW: You've done your NASCAR racing with JR Motorsports, headed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. But Tony Stewart has said he'd like to have you drive for his NASCAR team, and there are rumors you could sign with both teams for 2012. Should we read anything into the fact that you and Stewart drafted together at Daytona in July for a long time?
DP: That was daunting. But it was a total coincidence. I was behind Trevor Bayne and worked with him for a while, but he peeled off to go work with Ricky Stenhouse, his teammate, and I was left alone. And my spotter T. J. [Majors], who spots for Dale Jr., said on the radio, "The 9 car's coming to you, coming to you, drag your brake and let him catch up, that's Tony Stewart, get going!" I think something happened to Clint Bowyer, Tony's drafting partner, and Tony was all alone, so it was a perfect scenario. But it was not planned.
AW: It was announced in July that GoDaddy, the Web site domain registry and your longtime main sponsor, was sold for $2.2 billion to a private investment firm. GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons was instrumental in bringing you aboard; he said he'd sponsor you if you raced on ice skates. Any concerns about GoDaddy continuing with you now that it has a new owner?
DP: Bob was good enough to call me--he always calls me and updates me on what's really going on with his company, and I really have a lot of respect for him for doing that. And he told me that he's still the majority owner, and they love the marketing, and they don't want to change what's working, and that everything is great and that this is a step forward for the business, especially with regard to being able to expand internationally. This is really more a boost for GoDaddy than a change, necessarily. There will be more technology available as well. I feel like for me, it's a great thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment