As the Indy Racing League season winds down, officials with the sanctioning body are placing a lot more focus on Danica Patrick.
Not because she's closing in on a championship.
She's not.
But she is the champion of their cause, and their cause is to maintain some level of interest and popularity in the United States.
Simply put, the IRL needs Patrick in order to stay relevant. Not relevant to the hardcore open wheel fans -- they watched the sport long before she came along and they'll still be watching if she decides to jump ship. But IndyCar racing has become an afterthought to many American TV viewers, and if Patrick is no longer in the mix "casual" fans might just start viewing something else.
The fear, of course, is that Patrick is going to make the move the NASCAR. It's a rumor that surfaces every year, and has grown more pronounced in 2009 since her three-year contract with Andretti Green Racing is about to expire.
Patrick has been coy about her plans. On the one hand she hints that she's happy in IRL, but then she also leaves the door open for an exodus.
NASCAR, obviously, would love to have her. Although it remains the most popular form of motor sports in the country, its stranglehold on the public has been eased.
A sport that once seemed bulletproof is now riddled with holes, and could use a jolt.
Sign up Danica, and suddenly complaints about the Car of Tomorrow, rainouts, boring events and drug tests move to the back burner.
Plus she has a temper. Who wouldn't love to see her first clash with Kyle Busch?
But while NASCAR wants her, it doesn't need her.
Problems aside there are still hundreds of thousands of fans that will gladly plunk down some cash to watch guys like Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. turn left.
For the IRL, however, Patrick is a one-woman P.R. machine.
Watch a commercial featuring an IndyCar driver, and she's in it.
If you want to see an IRL competitor on a talk show, it's going to be her.
Although Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon have four victories each and Ryan Briscoe has three wins and the points lead, it's Patrick who serves as the face of the league.
My guess is that Patrick will stay put thanks to some huge money deal.
She already has one IRL checker, is competitive week in and week out, and I doubt she wants to work her way up to Sprint Cup.
It would be quite a blow to her considerable ego if she had to run an ARCA race and then a truck event before getting the green light to take a spin in a stock car.
And that's standard procedure. All the drivers who've made the switch from open wheel to stock cars have had to ease their way in, and she'd be no exception.
Regardless of what she decides to do, however, she'll continue to be in the news.
And that's just the way the IRL likes it.
(Contact Scott Adamson of the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C., at adamsons(at)independentmail.com.)
column
Post new comment