How well do you think Danica will transition from open-wheel racing to stock cars?
It’s anyone’s guess. It’s a very different animal from what she’s driven in the past. When you look at how long it took drivers of such tremendous talent as Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti and others to come to grips with it, I think it’s going to be a tough job for her. One advantage she has certainly is being with a great team. How much did we learn from her appearance in last weekend’s ARCA Series race at Daytona, ahead of her Nationwide Series debut this weekend? Let’s face it: So many of the ARCA teams are essentially amateur teams and guys just scraping by. Then a team backed by Rick Hendrick rolls in and you have a whole different dynamic. Driving around the track by yourself is one thing, but stick her in the middle of 20 other cars fender-to-fender and it’s a whole different story. We saw that in Indy cars, certainly in the beginning of her career. Going flat-out in an Indy car by yourself at a track like Kentucky or Kansas [or] higher-banked places like that seems pre
It’s anyone’s guess. It’s a very different animal from what she’s driven in the past. When you look at how long it took drivers of such tremendous talent as Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti and others to come to grips with it, I think it’s going to be a tough job for her. One advantage she has certainly is being with a great team. How much did we learn from her appearance in last weekend’s ARCA Series race at Daytona, ahead of her Nationwide Series debut this weekend? Let’s face it: So many of the ARCA teams are essentially amateur teams and guys just scraping by. Then a team backed by Rick Hendrick rolls in and you have a whole different dynamic. Driving around the track by yourself is one thing, but stick her in the middle of 20 other cars fender-to-fender and it’s a whole different story. We saw that in Indy cars, certainly in the beginning of her career. Going flat-out in an Indy car by yourself at a track like Kentucky or Kansas [or] higher-banked places like that seems pre