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Sep 06, 2009 10:13 am EDT
ESPN: Danica coming to NASCAR, partnering with Tony Stewart
By Jay Busbee
Here's some bombshell news tucked in the midst of a college football-heavy Saturday night: ESPN is reporting that Danica Patrick is coming to NASCAR after all.
According to the report, Danica will run multiple events in NASCAR's Nationwide Series, the final step before the premier Sprint Cup level. ESPN's Ed Hinton cited an unnamed source who indicated Danica "all but certainly" will run in NASCAR in 2010, in both the Nationwide and trucks series, but will continue to run in Indy cars as well.
Further adding fuel to the fire, the source indicated that Tony Stewart is the "star candidate" to help in Danica's transition to NASCAR, which would seem to indicate that those visitsback in the summer weren't just a polite how-do-you-do.
Stewart offered the following quote: "I can pretty much guarantee at some point she's going to be over here." In and of itself, that quote doesn't mean anything; everyone reading this can "pretty much guarantee" that Danica will be racing in the higher profile of NASCAR. But Hinton is making the connection between this and his anonymous source's comments. Since he's got substantial history as a motorsports reporter, you've got to give him a bit more credit than you would a quick-hit reporter off the street. And there's more to the story:
"She doesn't have some misguided idea that it's going to be easy," Stewart added. "She wants to do it the right way. She has the intention of doing everything right." Danica, according to Hinton's source, would run a number of Nationwide races while not leaving Indy until she was certain success was probable in NASCAR. Interestingly, as Hinton notes, that's the exact same path to NASCAR Stewart himself took in 1998, running a full IRL schedule and 22 Nationwide races.
And, just to pin the "speculation" meter in the red, it's worth noting that Stewart-Haas Racing, Smoke's team, does not have a presence in Nationwide. Coincidentally enough, one Nationwide team just lost its driver -- the one owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior, Smoke and Danica -- now there's a NASCAR Dream Team. (Remember: speculation.)
Again, let's remember this whole story deserves to have a big SPECULATION label on it until we hear anything from the principals -- remember, Danica was supposed to be re-signed to Andretti Green Racing in the Indy League by now. And for a story of this magnitude, it seems odd that ESPN isn't splashing this everywhere, even in the midst of the inaugural college football weekend. But if this story does hold merit, and there's enough smoke here -- no pun intended -- to indicate a fire somewhere, this is absolutely the ideal way for both Danica and NASCAR to get exactly what they want -- exposure and experience.
UPDATE: Danica had this to say on her Twitter feed about 10:30 a.m. Eastern: "The rumors are flying about nascar!....I did talk to Tony and he is a great guy. We are looking at nascar as I have always said." So there you go.
Source: Danica Patrick to race in NASCAR's Nationwide Series in 2010 [ESPN]
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ESPN: Danica coming to NASCAR, partnering with Tony Stewart
By Jay Busbee
Here's some bombshell news tucked in the midst of a college football-heavy Saturday night: ESPN is reporting that Danica Patrick is coming to NASCAR after all.
According to the report, Danica will run multiple events in NASCAR's Nationwide Series, the final step before the premier Sprint Cup level. ESPN's Ed Hinton cited an unnamed source who indicated Danica "all but certainly" will run in NASCAR in 2010, in both the Nationwide and trucks series, but will continue to run in Indy cars as well.
Further adding fuel to the fire, the source indicated that Tony Stewart is the "star candidate" to help in Danica's transition to NASCAR, which would seem to indicate that those visitsback in the summer weren't just a polite how-do-you-do.
Stewart offered the following quote: "I can pretty much guarantee at some point she's going to be over here." In and of itself, that quote doesn't mean anything; everyone reading this can "pretty much guarantee" that Danica will be racing in the higher profile of NASCAR. But Hinton is making the connection between this and his anonymous source's comments. Since he's got substantial history as a motorsports reporter, you've got to give him a bit more credit than you would a quick-hit reporter off the street. And there's more to the story:
"She doesn't have some misguided idea that it's going to be easy," Stewart added. "She wants to do it the right way. She has the intention of doing everything right." Danica, according to Hinton's source, would run a number of Nationwide races while not leaving Indy until she was certain success was probable in NASCAR. Interestingly, as Hinton notes, that's the exact same path to NASCAR Stewart himself took in 1998, running a full IRL schedule and 22 Nationwide races.
And, just to pin the "speculation" meter in the red, it's worth noting that Stewart-Haas Racing, Smoke's team, does not have a presence in Nationwide. Coincidentally enough, one Nationwide team just lost its driver -- the one owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior, Smoke and Danica -- now there's a NASCAR Dream Team. (Remember: speculation.)
Again, let's remember this whole story deserves to have a big SPECULATION label on it until we hear anything from the principals -- remember, Danica was supposed to be re-signed to Andretti Green Racing in the Indy League by now. And for a story of this magnitude, it seems odd that ESPN isn't splashing this everywhere, even in the midst of the inaugural college football weekend. But if this story does hold merit, and there's enough smoke here -- no pun intended -- to indicate a fire somewhere, this is absolutely the ideal way for both Danica and NASCAR to get exactly what they want -- exposure and experience.
UPDATE: Danica had this to say on her Twitter feed about 10:30 a.m. Eastern: "The rumors are flying about nascar!....I did talk to Tony and he is a great guy. We are looking at nascar as I have always said." So there you go.
Source: Danica Patrick to race in NASCAR's Nationwide Series in 2010 [ESPN]
___
For more daily NASCAR news and info, click here to bookmark Yahoo! Sports' From The Marbles and follow us on Twitter.
