Danica finishes 32nd at PIR.

 Danica's 2010 season has been all about learning what it takes to race a stock car. That even includes how to retaliate on other drivers to show you won't be taken advantage of during a long season. On lap 130, Danica was running 24th when the #35 car of Tony Raines nipped Danica's left front and tore up her fender making the tire rub and smoke up. While she was trying to drive the incident off, the #27 car of Alex Kennedy tries to take advantage of a slow #7 and uses her as a right-side bumper. Tony Eury, Jr. gives her the blessing to "express her dismay" at Kennedy's lack of respect and she gives Kennedy a shove into the wall. As she does that, her pit crew started celebrating her revenge. With 43 laps to go, Danica was trying to pass the #15 car of Michael Annet for 23rd spot when she got loose and hit the wall after turn 2. Unfortunately, the hit really damaged the rear track bar and she had to call it a race. If there is anything for her to take away from this race, it would definitely be that sometimes, in stock car racing, you will have to be quite malevolent to other drivers if they keep disrespecting you out on the track. That's what fenders are for...right?

Danica qualifies 28th for NNS race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Danica will start 28th for the Wypall 200 at Phoenix today at 4pm EST. Considering all the PR she has done all week, I'm surprised she remembers how weird the set up is at this track.

Chevy back to Indycar?

The IZOD IndyCar Series has scheduled a press conference for Friday morning in Indianapolis. The news conference, which is scheduled for 10:00am EST, will be held at the Hall of Fame Museum at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There has been a report that appeared online claiming that GM will announce this Friday a return to IndyCar with its Chevrolet brand, to coincide with the new engine and chassis rules due to come into effect in 2012. The report claimed that Chevy will employ a twin-turbo V6 configuration for its new engine, although it did not specify whether the engine would be produced in house or by an independent race engine manufacturer and then be badged as a Chevrolet.

Danica to appear on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" tonight.

Danica will make a guest appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" tonight. Other guests include Chris Pine and Blake Shelton.

Danica finishes 22nd after starting 28th at Texas Motor Speedway.

After qualifying 28th for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway, Danica finishes 22nd. During the 12th lap, she got some right front damage from avoiding a crash. Danica pitted and got back into the field in 42nd spot. As the race progressed, her car seemed to be getting faster running really good lap times halfway into the race. Unfortunately due to the lap12 incident, she fell 2 laps back and really didn't have any chance to make them up.

Danica to make guest appearance on The Simpsons.

 

Danica and actress Rachel Weisz will make guest voice appearances on The Simpsons airing Sunday, Nov. 28 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

Tony Kanaan leaves AA, and Ryan Hunter-Reay stays.

It has been announced today on the Andretti Autosport website that Tony Kanaan and AA have reached an agreement to terminate their current multi-year contract. The signing of today’s agreement releases Kanaan from his duties as an IZOD IndyCar Series driver at Andretti Autosport and allows him to sign with another team, effective immediately. Most likely due to the unfortunate pulling of sponsorship from 7-11. I truly hope TK signs with Target Ganassi and be the third driver on that team, with Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. That would be an awesome trio.

Also, Andretti Autosport and driver Ryan Hunter-Reay announced today they have signed a two-year contract that keeps him with the team through the 2012 season. Should be quite the trio with Marco Andretti and Danica...only if AA can get their team equipment and strategies back to form from the mess it had been this last season.

Danica wins Most Popular Driver in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

Danica and Pippa Mann were honored as the Most Popular Driver in the IZOD IndyCar Series and Firestone Indy Lights, respectively, during the INDY DownForce Banquet Saturday, October 23, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was the sixth consecutive Most Popular Driver Award for Patrick.

The awards were determined by the vote of the fans at all Indy Racing League events throughout the season and on indycar.com. INDY DownForce, the Indy Racing League’s official fan club, facilitates the balloting. And yes, I am a lifetime member of INDY DownForce and voted over 100 times for Danica during the 2010 season. You shouldn't be surprised.

Danica finishes 22nd after starting 41st at Gateway.

This year has not been a very good year for qualifying for races in both Indycar and NASCAR for Danica. I've already "vented" my frustrations on what had been going on this past Indycar season with Andretti Autosport. Hopefully they figure it out for 2011 considering it could be the last season of Danica racing for AA. As for her NNS car, there is so much you can ask her to do if she isn't familiar with either how her stock car handles, or if she never has raced at that track before. Gateway International Raceway, located in Madison, Illinois, is definitely one of those tracks. And although it's within Danica's home state, this is the first time she has ever raced there.

Halfway through the race, she got back to the lead lap being down a lap at 28th position. After that, she started getting racey, slowly but surely moving her way up the field and got up to 25th. Then a 10 car accident happened right in front of her and she was able to "kinda squeak" her way through it, but got tagged in the right rear and tapped the inside wall. The damage didn't seem too bad so Tony Jr. and the JR Motorsports boys got to work on tuning the #7 GoDaddy Chevy Impala. Unfortunately, the rear track bar got bent and despite the pit crew trying to "quick-fix" it, she had to pull the car off again. The crew replaced the track bar after going down 9 laps, but she reentered the race at 24th. With 10 laps to go, Steven Wallace with fresh tires got into the back of Danica's slow #7 car at turn 2 and spun her out. It happens when you're just trying to clock laps in and unfortunately get in the way. Nobody at fault there. She officially finished 22nd. Bottomline, it came down to just surviving and getting to the end of the race. A race pretty much dominatated by the Penske teams of Allgaier and Keselowski.

By the way...hey, Sean Caisse, take your 20 seconds of camera time, and then just go away. Stupid kid needs to learn how to shut the hell up.

Danica has her best NNS finish of 21st at Charlotte.

Danica had quite an interesting race at Charlotte Motor Speedway tonight. From "kissing" the wall coming out of turn 4 on the 8th lap, to being 1 of 37 cars not on the lead lap halfway through the race, this was a crazy race where pit stops really determined how well you could hang with Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer. Then all of a sudden, fellow Michigan boy (Go Blue!), Brad Keselowski, just took over the race out of nowhere. Happy for Brad K. and Penske. Very proud of Danica. She really didn't have a very fast car, but she stuck with it and stayed very consistent since she started 18th.

Danica qualifies 18th for the Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Danica will start 18th for tonight's NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. They are also running the new Chevy Impala car that will be the new standard car for 2011. The last time they ran this version of the car was at Michigan where Danica had the Hot Wheels colors on and finished 27th after starting 33rd.

Danica will race the first four races of NNS in 2011.

In the start of the NASCAR Nationwide Series season of 2011, Danica will race the first four races: the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway (Feb. 13) followed by the 200-mile race at Phoenix International Raceway (Feb. 26), the 300-mile race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, (March 5) and the 150-mile dash at Bristol Motor Speedway (March 19). JR Motorsports also released photos of the new GoDaddy #7 Chevy Impala for 2011 on Twitter.

http://twitpic.com/2xu4o7

I definitely can't wait for 2011, of which I am renaming "DanicaStock" (more like "Danica-Stalk"...hehe). I'm planning on seeing her for at least five races, both in NASCAR and Indycar. But I was disappointed to see Las Vegas didn't make the 2011 Indycar Series schedule. It definitely bugs me, also, that there are more road courses in the Indycar Series schedule than ovals. What is up with that?!

So, so close...James Buescher sucks.

In the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Fontana yesterday, Danica started 14th and was on her way to possibly finishing within the top 15 until she got spun around with only 8 laps to go. According to what I saw in the replay of the accident, Buescher had plenty of room on the outside to stay in his line on the front straight. Apparently he, too, needs to learn how to handle a car in a side draft. Oh well...at least that #7 Tissot Chevy Impala and her race suit looked pretty sweet. Considering how well she did this time around, I gotta feeling we'll be seeing more of both soon.

Danica gets a comic book about her life.

Independent comic book publisher, Bluewater Productions, is releasing Fame: Danica Patrick this December in hopes to "reach out to the members of NASCAR nation" (what about us Indycar fans?!) and cashing in. Of course, I will be one of the suckers buying a few of these. Apparently Bluewater has made a decent existence by creating these biographical comics with personalities that range from Mark Zuckerburg, creator of Facebook, to Taylor Swift and Barack Obama. I will admit...I am a "comic book snob", and my expectations of the writing and artwork will be extremely high. All I can say right now is Danica better be getting a share of the profits!

http://www.bluewaterprod.com/news/fame_danica_patrick.php

Tissot to continue sponsorship of Danica's NASCAR Nationwide Car in 2011.

It has been announced that watch maker Tissot will continue to sponsor Danica's Chevrolet through the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide Series season. I always thought it quite ironic since I've been a happy owner of Tissot watches since 2003. Danica has been an ambassador of the brand since 2005. Looking forward to seeing more of the Tissot car and race suit hopefully next season because the GoDaddy green can get a bit nauseating.

Danica finishes 2nd at Miami-Homestead in Series Finale.

Do I know this girl, or what?!? Last night in the Indy 300 at Miami-Homestead during the Indycar Series season finale, Danica finishes 2nd behind Scott Dixon. Tony Kanaan finished 3rd by less than an eyelash. Apparently my prediction came true since I felt Danica really needed to show up at this one, being the last race of the season. With that second place finish, she finishes in the top 10 in the points championship for the fifth year in a row. Whew!

Of course, I was also right on Dario stealing the championship from Will Power. Twice in a row has a Penske driver, who possessed the championship points lead going into the last race, lost it to the same Ganassi driver in Dario. Last year it happened to Ryan Briscoe. Ashley is happy.

Interestingly enough, all of the Andretti Autosport cars finished in the top 10 despite sub-par qualifying performances. I've been "bitchin' and moanin'" about AA all season. Seriously, can you blame me?! The same driver who won the last two Indycar Series Championships, Dario Franchitti, won his first championship with Andretti Green in 2007, the same year Danica arrived from Rahal Letterman Racing. AGR was always very competitive with "the red cars" up to 2009. I'm asking the question, "What the hell happened?" Well, whatever the answer may be, they better fix it in 2011. Because if they don't, I bet you Danica will opt-out of the third year of her contract with Andretti Autosport...and possibly leave Indycar. Especially when (not if) she wins the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 in 2011. Yup, I'm saying it! I'm making that prediction now! And I'm putting money down on that, too!

Danica will start 11th for the Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

During qualifying for the Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Danica qualified 11th for tomorrow's Indy 300 race. This whole season, Danica hasn't really qualified for races very well. And this problem has been shared with all the Andretti Autosport drivers. What's interesting, and most important, is how much better the AA cars are during the race. Which raises the question, "Do the AA teams do anything during testing or practice?"

Considering how bad Danica's luck was at the "Monster Mile" in Dover last week during her NASCAR Nationwide race, I foresee a very angry and aggressive Danica getting "racey" tomorrow. And, oh yeah...Mr. Ashley Judd is gonna steal the Indycar Championship from Will Power. Just for the record, I'm rooting for Power to win it...even though I am a big fan of Ashley Judd and her husband.

Danica finishes 35th after hitting the wall...doh!

Damn. I understand Danica has been known to have what I call "Cole Trickle Disease". Like the character from the Tom Cruise film Days of Thunder, Danica can definitely drive the wheels off a race car. But ask her on the radio what could possibly be hindering her progression on a technical level, and you'll get a "What?". All she knew was that there was a "strange vibration" with the car, but couldn't really explain to Tony Eury, Jr. what it could possibly be. Then BLAMO!...the front right tire explodes and she goes into the wall at turn 4. Considering how well she did the night before, it's a shame that the race that did matter would result into something like this. It's the kind of unfortunate season she is having in her first go into NASCAR. Fortunately though, Mark Martin was there to help explain a few things to her at the end. And that is knowledge you can't buy...

Danica finishes 6th at Sunoco 150 after starting 13th.

I don't wanna say, "I told you so." But considering she never raced this track before, I knew she'd do well. Why? BECAUSE SHE HAS SKILLS, DAMMIT! I'm really looking forward to the NASCAR Nationwide Series race tomorrow since she got a good feel for both the car and the track. I'm predicting a top 15. And no, I really don't think I'm reaching here.

Danica to race NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Sunoco 150 tonight.

As a "warmup" for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Dover 200 tomorrow, Danica will be driving the JR Motorsports #83 car tonight at Dover International Speedway. Makes sense since she needs more seat time in a stock car. If anything, I think she should do pretty well tonight. It's a way for her to show all her critics that she definitely deserves to race in a stock car and compete at any level. Too bad SPEED is not televising the event until Thursday, October 7th. Still, it beats Versus.

Danica finishes 5th at Motegi Twin ring in Japan.

Danica ran a pretty good race last night in Japan's Twin Ring Motegi. I just love how Danica "questioned" Milka's inability to truly understand the situation going into pit lane on the last round of pit stops. Also, I had a good laugh on how Danica was analyzing how Will Power moved up three spots during that same round of stops. She does have a valid point. Hmmm..

Anywho, as it has been for the last three years, it was a battle between "the red cars" owned by Penske and Ganassi. Rightfully so, since the championship is on the line going into the last race at Miami in two weeks. I still don't understand how Andretti Autosport seems to just be getting mediocre performances from their cars. I honestly believe, considering how skilled Danica, Tony Kanaan, and Ryan Hunter-Reay really are, the only thing to blame for the absolute mediocrity and inconsistent placings throughout the last two seasons is the equipment. Also, ever since Kim Green left to "concentrate on the Andretti Green Promotions company", the team has literally gone to shit. Despite Danica's 2nd place at Texas (thanks to her being damn aggressive), Kanaan's win at Iowa (thanks to TK's damn good oval racing skills), and Hunter-Reay's win at Long Beach (thanks to RHR's damn good road racing skills), the AA cars seem to be all over the place in the standings all year.

I can only imagine what it would be like if Danica was behind the wheel of one of those "red cars". If there were ever a true testament about that, ask Will Power. Don't get me wrong, Power has always been a damn good driver. But would he be challenging for the championship this year if he was driving one of AA's cars? I highly doubt that.

Danica to race at NNS Dover 200.

According to Danica's website (www.danicaracing.com), Danica and JR Motorsports are planning on running in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Dover International Speedway, the Dover 200, September 25th. Should be fun to watch Danica try to figure out and conquer "The Monster Mile".

Jillian Michaels new GoDaddy girl.

I definitely enjoy watching The Biggest Loser on NBC. And like most guys who do watch it, I watch it to see Jillian Michaels boss overweight people around. Next thing you know, Michaels gets her own "spin-off" Losing It With Jillian, of which she does more bossing around of overweight families. I always thought Jillian was a hottie. I have this "thing" for athletic women. But what makes her more attractive to me, besides her physical attributes, is the fact I like how she tells it like it is. She is never one to "pull any punches". And that is awesome! Today, she has been named as a new GoDaddy girl, along side Danica, Candice Michelle (WWE Diva), and Vanessa Russo (pro poker player).

Surprisingly enough, I have not been a huge fan of GoDaddy's marketing campaigns. I think they're pretty sad. As a GoDaddy account holder since 1997, the campaigns just confirm how founder Bob Parsons is making up for a few inadequacies. Still, they are effective in bringing awareness and traffic to GoDaddy.com since they are the most used domain registrar on the Internet. Ironic since the GoDaddy company itself is up for sale. Anybody got a cool $1 billion?

Anywho, I will be looking forward to whatever collaboration the "inventive" GoDaddy marketing team has in store for Jillian and Danica. Let me guess...potential disrobing that forces me to watch some "ever-so-clever" writing of a video that will waste 10 minutes of my time. Who cares?! All that matters is that GoDaddy continues to pay a lot of money to sponsor Danica to race.

2011 IZOD Indycar Series Schedule.

Here is the 2011 schedule for the IZOD Indycar season:

http://indycar.com/schedule/55-izod-indycar-series/139-2011-izod-indycar-series/

I will definitely be going to Long Beach, CA (April 17, 2011) and the Indy 500 at Indianapolis, IN (May 29, 2011). Hoping the finale is in Las Vegas, I could have a year chock full of "Danica-goodness". And that doesn't include the NASCAR Nationwide races I will be attending to support her. Since I missed out on the 2009 and 2010 seasons, I think it's time for me to make-up for it. Besides, I want to be there when she wins and proves all the "haters" wrong.

No more Watkins Glen.

One day ahead of the release of the 2011 IZOD Indycar Series schedule, Watkins Glen is the first confirmed track to be taken off the schedule. I always thought it was a nice circuit, but Danica never did very well there. So in turn, I have no problems with Indycar dropping this track. Besides, I never liked New York.

IZOD Indycar Series coming to Vegas?

The owner of the Kentucky Speedway, Bruton Smith, also owns Las Vegas Motor Speedway (must be nice!). Before the Kentucky race this past Saturday, he "hinted" that he was looking forward to the IZOD Indycar Season for 2011 having its finale in Las Vegas! All I can say is, "JOY!". Indy Racing League CEO Randy Bernard said they are "still in discussions" about Las Vegas, even though the 2011 season schedule will be released Friday, September 10. So despite losing my chance to see Danica in my hometown of Detroit, I will hopefully get to stalk, er...root my girl on LIVE in my new town!

Indycar needs a REAL TV partner.

First of all, I was watching the Kentucky Indy 300 on Versus and was really pissed-off on how little coverage Danica got. Especially toward the end of the race where the only thing that was mentioned about her was where she got loose and recovered real quick. She was flirting with the top 5, currently in the top 10, and although she started 17th...nothing.

Anywho, while the top 5 teams are figuring out fuel strategies, where does color commentary go with less than 20 laps left? They talk to Gil DeFerran whose car, being driven by Raphael Matos, is in 17th place. WTF?!? Versus's coverage of Indycar is pretty pathetic. What makes it worse for Indycar fans and followers is that Versus is a premium channel for most cable TV providers. On top of that, Versus gets 12 of the 17 races scheduled for the next seven seasons, the other five going to ABC/ESPN.

Does Indycar want people to watch their races on TV? Does Indycar seriously want to try to keep their very loyal fan base, or scare them away? Can you blame Danica for possibly leaving the series for NASCAR since their drivers get more "air time" on and off the track than Indycar drivers? As a lifetime member of Indy Downforce, the official fan club of the Indycar Series, I get e-mails asking to fill out online forms on my opinion as to which drivers I believe are "marketable personalities". And I usually vote in favor of most of the drivers that truly compete well and present themselves in a personable and professional manner, which is most of them. But the reality is this: if Danica decides to leave Indycar in the near future, the series would be in a "world of hurt". And this deal the series has with Versus will not help their cause at all.

Yea..that's me.

Yup...that's me getting ready to race karts in Sterling Heights, Michigan last April. And yes, that is an authentic pit crew shirt from Team Motorola 2009 before they switched to the Boost Mobile orange. Gotta love EBay! Thanks to RSBoy for the photo.

It's about staying consistent.

I know Danica is having a tough year. Who wouldn't be if they had to compete in two totally different racing series? Yes, I also know she brought it upon herself in hopes to establish her "brand" and marketability. Was it a good decision? If you want to analyze the results so far, I would say probably not. Despite how well she did in Texas at the Firestone 550K three months ago, or her incredible recovery and finish at her very first NASCAR ARCA Series race at Daytona in February, it's been "slim-pickens" in the highlights category for 2010. And right now, she's getting a lot of shit for it.

I won't go into her being the first female to lead the Indy 500 or her win at Motegi Twin Ring in Japan in 2008. What I am going to bring up is the simple fact that no matter what you read or hear about her driving performances this year, the one thing always said is that she is damn consistent. Even despite being taken out a few times by other drivers, or that her car, either stock car or Indycar, is just not handling the way she wants it, she tends to be fairly competitive and always finishes. Can you say the same thing about her female counterparts, nonetheless all of the drivers in both series? Nope.

I have my own opinions of how Andretti Autosports seems to be running their teams. All I have to say is that AA has definitely lost it's competitive edge as a whole since the mid-2009 season. And this totally effects Danica's performance in Indycar considerably. She is not the only one suffering in that organization, and it shows. As for JR Motorsports, it's still way too early in Danica's relationship with the team to form a true analysis. But so far, the equipment is there as we see the #7 Chevy Impala race every week and do pretty well under different drivers. It's just a question of can Danica truly learn how to race in the draft.

I believe Danica will win many more races. She does possess the skills to compete with the best in both stock cars and Indycars, and it shows even through this tough year. In my opinion, over the years of following her career, I think if she drove more aggressive and took a few more risks in her race car, she would definitely be a consistent winner and a championship contender.

And thus it begins...

I became a fan of Danica since I saw her host Powerblock TV at the end of 2004 on Spike TV. And, of course, the first thing that came to mind when I saw her was, "This little hottie is a race car driver?" Since then, I've been following her career. I had an inkling she would become popular within those who truly followed Indycar then. Interesting what she has now accomplished since then, huh?