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.