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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by Holly Cain

Filed under: Daytona Int’l Speedway

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Plenty of cellphone cameras greeted Danica Patrick as she arrived for Friday’s ARCA ReMax Series drivers meeting at Daytona International Speedway. And that was just her fellow racers.

Such is the life of IndyCar’s most famous driver as she prepares to make her much-anticipated stock car debut next February in the ARCA ReMax Series race that traditionally opens Daytona Speedweeks.

With about 30 reporters, photographers and television cameras following her every step, Patrick drove her No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet on track at 1:59 pm ET and got all of five laps in before lingering rain showers finally forced the cancellation of the first day of the three-day test.

Nonetheless, a smiling Patrick, who also participated in a brief double-secret test session at Walt Disney World Speedway earlier in the week, said she was quite pleased with her limited seat time.

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