Danica Patrick is getting ready to race her final stock car race, the Daytona 500. She is slated to start in 28th place when the race kicks off. The #10 car was taken over by Aric Almirola after she retired last year, so she is back in a familiar number with a familiar sponsor for her final race. She'll be driving the #7 car with GoDaddy as her primary sponsor. I wonder if she will race hard and try for a good finish, or if she'll race conservatively and try to run the entirety of her last hurrah? I also wonder if there will be any on-track drama between her and former boyfriend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.?
This is a pretty bland-looking card, but it pictures Patrick in her familiar green GoDaddy suit. The card come from 2012 Press Pass Total Memorabilia, and features three different relic swatches, a bit of tire, a piece of firesuit, and a chunk of sheet metal. It is numbered # 68 / 99. The black color of the tire is pretty much expected, but it would be hard to find two swatches of the other materials that blend into the card design so well. It's too bad they couldn't find a piece of green fabric and maybe some sheet metal that wasn't the same silver as the card's background.
I never really rooted for Danica because it seemed everyone made her to be the first female NASCAR driver and she wasn't. I also felt she got a lot of attention for such little results. Having said that, I wish her luck today. I hope she has a solid finish, even top 10, same as her final Indy 500 race. I don't think we'll see friction between her and Stenhouse, but you never know. I hope in the next 5 years though another female makes an attempt in one of the series, I know Jennifer Jo Cobb is in the Truck series, but it would be nice to see one or two in the Xfinity or Monster series. Maybe having 2 in the same series will put less pressure on them and allow them to have more success.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like often people call someone the first to do something when really they mean that this is the first time they noticed a person doing something. Danica's popularity probably does outweigh her results, but that's a tribute to her marketing team and her unique spot as the only woman in the room.
DeleteI agree that having two or more woman in the same series might relieve some of the pressure that comes from being the only one.