NASCAR Driver Danica Patrick Shows us she will Succeed

The 2013 NASCAR Daytona 500 is in the record books. The race was definitely different than last year. To some it was better and to others, it was not. Either way, the big race garnered NASCAR more attention than it has had in years and the TV ratings also reflected that. Danica Patrick getting the pole was only the start.

Patrick had a less than impressive full time stint last year in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. If it was any other driver with that kind of record, they wouldn’t have been moved up to the NASCAR Sprint Cup level. Alas, Danica’s sponsor Go Daddy needs the added exposure that the Cup Series has in order to make their investment make sense, hence she moves up whether she’s ready or not.

Danica drives for a great team, backed by great equipment. It is obvious that they mean business and have given her everything that the other great drivers get. This is evident by her winning the pole for the Daytona 500. It is also evident by the fact she was running up front almost all day.

“Overall steady day, steady day for me, nice day for Go Daddy, and the crew did a nice job in the pits.” she said. “So really nothing super‑duper eventful.”

The only problem that was obvious about her day was that she had a very hard time getting out of her pit stall and onto the race track after service on pit road was complete. This shouldn’t be the case because she had the first and best pit stall. She didn’t seem to understand when asked about it.

“It was different. I mean, I definitely felt like I had a lot of wheel spin. I don’t know if that’s the fact that there’s no rubber in front of me really, being in that first pit stall or not. I’m sure there’s great reason why you pull into that first pit stall.”

She had an eighth place finish, arguably her best finish and race in NASCAR to date. Her race at Daytona was 1,000 times better than any other time she raced there in any of the NASCAR divisions.

She showed us in the Daytona 500 that she is going to make her NASCAR career happen. Her team showed us that they will see to it that she does.

Brian Berg Jr. is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com.

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