Daily NASCAR

by Holly Cain

Filed under: IRL, Danica Patrick

The joke goes — in several variations — that if former Professional Bull Riders CEO Randy Bernard can hang on more than 8-seconds in his new job as CEO of theIZOD IndyCar Series, he will have some serious potential.

He grabbed the IndyCar reins officially March 1 and gets his first true ride this weekend as the series opens Sunday in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Loaded with Brazilian drivers, sponsored by many Brazilian companies in a country that adores auto racing, it’s fair to say the IndyCar series will get a larger and warmer reception in Sao Paulo this weekend than at many other stops on its expanded 17-race schedule.

And that goes to the heart of Bernard’s greatest and most pressing challenge: Promotion! Promotion! Promotion!

Now unified as the country’s premier open-wheel circuit, the IZOD IndyCar Series has exciting racing, close finishes and the top championship dramas of any major racing series.

But it’s the best racing show people aren’t watching enough of.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: NASCAR Rumors, IRL

On the bright side, Graham Rahal figures by the time the IZOD IndyCar Series begins March 14 in Brazil, he will have essentially earned an advanced degree in marketing and promotion.

What the 21-year-old really wants, however, is a job behind the wheel of a race car — preferably a car without fenders.

“I know there have been a lot of NASCAR rumors, but right now my focus is 100 percent on being in the IndyCar Series,” Rahal told FanHouse this weekend.

“I’m not just an IndyCar driver, but very much a fan of the sport and to make a big switch like that takes time to consider. As of this second, everything I have going is for IndyCar.”

So instead of joining Danica Patrick in the stock car ranks — even as a part-time gig — Rahal has been visiting America’s corporate boardrooms hoping to attract financial backing for the 2010 IndyCar season. The timing, however, couldn’t be worse.

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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Nationwide Series, Danica Patrick

The most challenging part of Danica Patrick’s stock car schooling may prove to be the extended Spring Break she’s about to take.

Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be Patrick’s last NASCAR competition until June 26. She is leaving the “dough” to return to her bread-and-butter, the IZOD IndyCar Series and her very real chance at becoming the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend.

She said Friday that she intends to keep testing her No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet in between her duties in the IndyCar Series, which starts its season March 14 in Brazil.

This week was the first time she split time in both the Indy car, which is part of MIchael Andetti’s multi-car team, and her stock car, which is owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. And judging by her comments Friday, her Indy car was nearly as challenging during the preseason test as her transition to stock cars has been.

“I feel like some of it was circumstantial, getting into the Indy car again and getting used to how fast they are and the down force,” Patrick said from Las Vegas. “Unfortunately, I didn’t have a very good car so I didn’t feel very comfortable.

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In retrospect, it all turned on the morning of the Daytona 500. Up until that point, everything had been perfect. Since then, everything has gone awry.

It doesn’t mean that bad luck isn’t involved. It doesn’t meant that conditions won’t improve. They will. Two races do not a season make.

But … a lot has gone wrong since the Daytona 500 began. The first two race weekends have actually been full of potholes.

Remember those heady early-February days. Danica Patrick was widely praised even though finishing sixth in an ARCA race wasn’t really all that impressive. The qualifying races both ended in side-by-side finishes. Timothy Peters pulled off an upset in the Camping World Truck Series. Tony Stewart glazed to his fifth victory in the last six Nationwide Series openers. The front row for the 500 was Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt Jr., for gosh sakes.

It wasn’t as good as it seemed then, and it’s not as bad as it seems now.

Even though:

• Danica Patrick flopped when she had to race at a track where she couldn’t go wide open all the way around. That’s not a surprise. This transition is hard. No one should have been so optimistic in the first place.
   
• The biggest race of the season was run on Barrel Stave Road, a track normally used for logging.
   
• The best stock car racers in the world tried to run two laps without wrecking three times, and failed all three times. Exciting? Yes. Impressive? No.
   
• The second Sprint Cup race drew roughly the same crowd as a Tuesday night game at Dodger Stadium (by all reasonable estimates, that is, which exclude those published by NASCAR).

The Auto Club 500 was interesting, though most of it wasn’t all that exciting. But NASCAR, having delivered enough stocking stuffers to charm the heart of any starry-eyed kid, ending up feeling as if all the little brats were ungrateful. So what if the sparklers were duds? It’s the thought that counts, you little punks.

The Lords of NASCAR are feeling a bit surly these days. They reportedly confiscated the car of Dave Blaney after the race, issuing all sorts of "no one is safe" remarks while, by claiming possession of a struggling team’s car, they were likely eliminating any chance of that team being able to race (or, allegedly, "start and park") in Vegas. Hmm. Can you say "Carl Long"?

NASCAR, after opening the season with all sorts of "back to the good old days" story lines, now seems to equate "good old days" with those of ruthless authoritarian rule.

One can almost envision Don Brian (admittedly, this image doesn’t work) saying, "Dave, my son, you disappoint me."

Oh, OK. Maybe Brian Keith. Or Mr. French.

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Racin’ at Fontana wasn’t so much exciting as … interesting. Not enough to draw many fans to the track, though. (photo: Getty Images)

- This should have been crystal clear from the outset. Moving from Indy cars to stock cars is very, very difficult, just as the reverse would be. It’s not going to be easy for Danica Patrick, who has a lot to learn and not enough opportunities to do so.

- Attendance for the Stater Brothers 300 was "officially" estimated at 36,000, and many at the track thought 20,000-30,000 was closer to the truth. Patrick is a boon to the Nationwide Series, but Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., remains a tough sell, apparently, to the fans of Southern California.

- One of those routine Darrell Waltrip remarks: "This is the second time Jamie (McMurray) has been a first-time winner for Chip (Ganassi)." First of all, that’s impossible. Secondly, McMurray’s first victory was in his second race in Ganassi’s Dodge.

- Racing would be much better if cars were equivalent, not equal.

- TV didn’t have much to say about the crowd in Fontana. It was way too sparse for even Mike Joy to declare a sellout.

- Crowd estimates from Fontana - estimates more trustworthy than NASCAR’s assessment of 72,000 — ran from 40,000 to 55,000. Expect a management shakeup … at least.

- Someone in NASCAR apparently decided make pit-road speeding a priority item at Auto Club Speedway.

- Races in Fontana aren’t often exciting, but they are often interesting.

- The last Daytona 500 winner who made the Chase (and won it) was, yes, Jimmie Johnson in 2006.

- The California kid who drives No. 48 got career victory No. 48 at the track closest to his El Cajon, Calif., home.

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