Daily NASCAR

by Holly Cain

Filed under: Daytona Int’l Speedway, Nationwide Series, Danica Patrick

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — After a top-10 taste of stock car racing over the weekend, Danica Patrick has decided to accelerate her learning curve and will enter Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series season-opener at Daytona International Speedway.

Patrick announced her decision Monday, two days after finishing sixth at Daytona in an 80-lap race in the ARCA Series, which is an entry-level, training series for many drivers. The Nationwide Series is NASCAR’s version of Triple-A baseball and a significant step up.

“Racing in the Nationwide Series race was my goal during this entire two-month preparation process,” Patrick said, “but we wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do.

“The ARCA race was a blast and I’m not ready for my first Daytona Speedweeks to end just yet. I want more racing.”

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As the Danica Patrick bandwagon steams toward the Daytona Nationwide Series race next weekend, don’t worry about saving me a seat just yet.  Finishing sixth in her first ever stock car event is commendable, but I think it’s a bit early to crown her the next big thing.

In case you missed it, Patrick recovered from a late race spin through the tri-oval grass at Daytona to finish sixth in her debut race in the ARCA Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200.  She kept her nose clean, didn’t give up, and brought home a car with all the fenders still on it.  Which in itself is quite an achievement in the ARCA Series.  But lets try and remember what she was up against.

Stop by Jayski’s story links page for February 7th and you will find no less then 15 articles about Danica’s debut.  Most of which contain quite a bit of praise for the 27 year old driver, some of which she deserves, and some she doesn’t.

Danica took on the ARCA Series at Daytona in an ARCA car powered by Hendrick and put together by JR Motorsports.  She had a veteran crew chief on the box (Tony Eury Jr.) and had a combination of JR Motorsports Nationwide Series guys and Hendrick Motorsports Cup guys working on and pitting her race car.  Not a bad way to start off a stock car career.

And not to knock the ARCA Series, as it’s a great place to gain valuable experience on bigger tracks, but this is the same series that David Stremme once won a race at Michigan by lapping the entire field once, and up to ninth place twice.

So before we crown her and heap a ton of ridiculous expectations on her, let’s allow her to run a few races and gain some experience against some tougher competition.   I think it’s only fair.

And just as a side note, I know there is a certain motorsports writer (ahem Jeff Gluck) who, before the season started, posed an interesting question and bet to his readers and Twitter followers.  He wanted to know who would outperform the other this season, John Wes Townley or Danica Patrick.  Give round one to Townley, who followed up a fourth place run in last year’s ARCA opener with a third place run this year.

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And awayyyyy we go: The ARCA wreck ballet included this one by Bryan Silas, 11, Mikey Kile, 25, and Frank Kimmel, 44, spinning through turn four the ARCA Racing Series Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 at Daytona International on February 6 2010.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It may not unsafe, but it’s fair to say that the racing this year is going to be more dangerous.

NASCAR officials have loosened the reins. They have upped the ante. They have damned the torpedoes in order to let the drivers go full steam ahead.

Not that this had anything to do with NASCAR, but what caused me to ponder this subject was the Automobile Club of America (ARCA) race in which Danica Patrick made her NASCAR debut. The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 - which could have been run with the aforementioned "slick mist" coating the pavement - went almost seven laps before a wreck - no, that’s not the word; conflagration, maybe; or riot; or, simply, mess - enveloped the back straight of Daytona International Speedway in what seemed a never-ending string of crumpling metal and spewing smoke.

It looked as if the cars weren’t equipped with brakes. On television, Darrell Waltrip said, "Those last three or four cars shouldn’t have been in that crash."

Imagine the Keystone Kops at 180 mph. Or … Ricky Bobby.

Thankfully, Ms. Patrick was in front of a crash that looked as if it ingloriously snipped off the final third of the field.

ARCA is always an extreme example. This is a race where the sponsors set the tone. Among the sponsors on Saturday were Rip It Energy Fuel, PowerTrac Machinery, Monster Energy, ElectrifyingCareers.com, Anti-Monkey Butt Powder and, last but not least, the Drug Testing Centers of America.

But enough about ARCA.

NASCAR has backed off the control freakiness of recent times. The openings in the restrictor plates are larger. The "aerodynamic package" has been loosened and is scheduled to be loosened still more whenever the teams trade in their wings for spoilers. It’ll be a "spoilsport" again. (Drum roll, please.)

The name could be "Dr. Strangerub: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Draft."

Racing is starting to be about going fast again. For better or worse.

Mark Martin isn’t just the oldest pole winner in Daytona 500 history. He is the fastest Daytona pole winner (191.188 mph) in more than a decade. Joe Nemechek qualified at 194.860 mph before the July race in 1999.

Back to the frontier racing of ARCA. A chill went down my spine when a Dodge driven by Jill George of Cedar Falls, Iowa, hit the fourth-turn wall at an angle harsher than the one that killed Dale Earnhardt nine years ago.

No. Please.

George climbed out of the car. Whew. Turns out she is, in addition to a race-car driver, a chiropractor. That’s solid career planning.

What was left of Jill George’s car after smashing into the wall of Turn 4. (photo: Ovalscream)

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Kevin Harvick crosses the finish line of the Bud Shootout; wife Delana looks on during Kevin’s back-and-forth, heated battles for the lead with the likes of Tony Stewart, Jamie McMurray and Carl Edwards. (Photos: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Kevin Harvick won the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway for the second consecutive year.

Greg Biffle’s flat right-rear tire set off a chain-reaction crash in turn three that sealed the outcome. Harvick was leading when the caution flag came out on the 75th lap, and the race ended that way.

Neil Bonnett, Ken Schrader and Tony Stewart were the other drivers who won the race, once known as the Busch Clash, in consecutive years.

Biffle spun into two Roush Fenway Racing teammates, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. Harvick’s victory was the record seventh for Richard Childress Racing.

Harvick celebrates with his team. (Photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

Edwards took the lead at the green flag and led Kevin Harvick for the first 13 laps. Then Tony Stewart moved up at the head of the outside line to contest Harvick. Edwards took turns blunting the advances of Stewart and Harvick for a time. On the 17th lap, Stewart finally pulled alongside Edwards, but Edwards held on by less than a car length for the next two laps before clearing Stewart again.

Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had qualified second for the Daytona 500, earlier in the day, dropped to 22nd place.

Kasey Kahne and Jamie McMurray moved up to swap second and third while Stewart and Harvick retreated for a spell. The first caution flag waved at lap 25 when Michael Waltrip’s Toyota spun around.

At the end of the opening, 25-lap segment, the top five, in order, were Edwards, Stewart, Kahne, McMurray and Harvick.

Edwards continued to lead, but some new contenders joined the free shortly after the latter segment began. Brian Vickers and Greg Biffle moved up, but still, Edwards steadfastly held on until lap 30, when McMurray finally wrested it away for the first time. That exchange broadened the dogfight, with Edwards reassuming the lead by a half length over Vickers the next time around. On lap 32, Kurt Busch’s Dodge took a wild ride through the tri-oval grass, eventually skidding back across the track into the wall. The contact that began Busch’s ride came from Mark Martin’s Chevy.

Busch quipped, "I’m making more laps in the ambulance than I am around the track."

Leader Edwards didn’t get the field cleared on the restart but still clung to the lead for two laps, at which point the racing was interrupted again by Jeff Burton’s spin off turn two.

Stewart took the lead on lap 44. Harvick, the 2009 winner, led the next lap. Biffle was credited as the leader on the 51st lap. With 20 laps remaining, Edwards, who had dominated the early going, was running in 15th place, and Harvick had regained the lead. Denny Hamlin’s Toyota materialized in third place, though only briefly.

Stewart moved up to challenge Harvick on lap 61. He led the 62nd lap, even though his Chevrolet had grazed the wall a lap earlier after a bump from Vickers’ Toyota. Harvick’s Chevy regained the lead with 10 laps to go, and Stewart’s faded. McMurray led the 67th lap. Waltrip’s Toyota popped the wall on the back straight at lap 70, slowing the race again.

On radio, Waltrip said, "I can’t believe that just happened." His crash occurred after contact with Ryan Newman’s Chevrolet.

With only four laps to go, Biffle and Kahne passed up the opportunity to pit. The order on the subsequent restart was, in order: Biffle, Kahne, Harvick, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Hamlin and Vickers.

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Wininng the Bud Shootout is cool, but except for a nice-sized purse, Kevin Harvick (above, racing against the No. 16 car of Greg Biffle) didn’t gain much. (photo: John Clark/NASCAR This Week)

Some late-night observations on an eventful day/night tripleheader at Daytona International Speedway:

Danica Patrick did OK. She made some mistakes but acquitted herself nicely. There were some lessons in the ordeal, and it was probably a good place to start. The odds heavily favor a Monday announcement that she will race in the Nationwide Series race. That will be much harder, and the following race at Auto Club Speedway in California will be harder yet.

Kevin Harvick’s 2009 victory in the Budweiser Shootout meant almost nothing. Matt Kenseth’s Daytona 500 victory meant almost nothing (though the money was nice). Neither made the Chase. That doesn’t mean they won’t this year, but there’s no need to get carried away.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who qualified second for the 500, was a no-show in the Shootout.

The three most impressive drivers in the draft were Harvick, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart. Edwards clung to the lead with all the desperation of a cornered lynx, but once he lost it, he dropped off the lead pack. Stewart’s final pit stop cost him any chance.

The current rules configuration seems to have improved the racing. The runner-up, Kasey Kahne, said, "I like everything. It’s more exciting. I was excited and on edge the whole race. I think the changes are good."

But … more excitement could also mean a crashfest in the Daytona 500, which some fans will enjoy even if they won’t admit it.

"Here’s something that no one’s said," said third-place finisher Jamie McMurray. "It rained all day (Friday), and in the past we’ve had tire problems under those circumstances. I think Goodyear deserves a lot of credit."

Qualifying means almost nothing here. It’s boring and isn’t the slightest challenge for the drivers. Racing is tough. It isn’t seat-of-the-pants racing, but it’s so close that the slightest mistake is disastrous. Drivers who fare well at Daytona (and Talladega) are the ones who can go 500 miles without ever having a lapse in concentration.

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