Danica Patrick 2007 Rittenhouse Indy Racing Autograph - Can-Am 500

A few weeks ago I busted a box of 2007 Rittenhouse IndyCar racing cards, chasing the coveted Danica Patrick autograph. I didn't pull the card, and I was on the fence about purchasing more boxes in search of it. Lucky (?) for me, the cosmos presented me with a solution. A copy of the card popped up on eBay for about 20% less than the usual price. I put in my bid and waited. There were no competing bids, and that made me the winner!

I think it's a pretty nice card overall. There is some chipping along the edges and the marker used for the autograph was running a bit dry, but the chipping is an issue on most examples of this card and the autograph is still clear and complete. This card jumps right up into the top handful of cards in my driver collection, considering it is one of only two autographs in my possession so far. I think this is her first certified trading card autograph, so that carries a bit more weight for me than a random auto from some later product.

This week's race is the Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. Danica hasn't had great luck at this track, with an average start of 31.8 and an average finish of 26.0 in 8 races. There is some hope this time around, though, as she qualified in 16th place for today's race. Hopefully she can turn that into a Top 10 finish, or at least hang in there for a Top 15 or Top 20 in the next-to-last race of the season. The racing at the top of the order figures to be pretty tough, though, as six Chase drivers will be fighting over the last two spots in the Championship 4.

Update: Danica finished the race in 29th place, which dropped her one spot in the season standings to 24th. She finished last season in 24th place, so she needs to move back up at least one spot to have a better finish this year.

Pack of the Day 143: A Box of 2007 Rittenhouse Indy Racing League

My recent order from Blowout Cards included a box of the 2007 Rittenhouse IndyCar Series trading cards. I don't really know anything about IndyCar at all, really. This is basically just a lottery ticket to see if I could pull the Danica Patrick autograph.

There are 17 drivers on the autograph checklist and you get two per box, so the odds seem pretty good of pulling one of Danica's autos. I don't know if any of the autographs are short-prints or anything, but if Danica's autograph is a short-print I don't want to know about it. I prefer to live in a reality where I can realistically expect to pull her autograph from one of these boxes. Each box has 24 packs, and each pack has 4 cards. The sticker says my box is # 1455 / 3000.

Here's what the pack looks like. Pretty standard foil pack fare.

The checklist is made up of 54 cards, with each group of three cards making a little puzzle that probably looks nice in card pages. Each group features the same format. Driver card, then car card, then another driver card. I wrote the numbers down somewhere, but I can't find them. I got a full base set and some doubles, but no triples in the box.

The card backs also make a puzzle. One card features the driver's basic info like height, weight, hometown, birthday, and racing team. The middle card features a picture of the car. The last card has a few bulleted career highlights for that driver.

One insert set is Indy 500: Road to Victory, which is all about Dario Franchitti's victory at the 2007 Indianapolis 500. I got three cards from the 9-card set. 

The card backs make up a puzzle. If I put them in order it looks like they would make up an image with the Indianapolis 500 logo, some kind of tire-themed thing, and more photos of Franchitti.

I got two Shades of Victory cards in the box. This is a black and white insert set about sunglasses. Racing card sets seem to have a lot of cards about sunglasses. Apparently Vitor Meira didn't get the memo about wearing sunglasses for the photo on the back of his card. There are nine cards in this insert set as well.

A.J. Foyt 50th Anniversary cards fall one per box and have a print run of 500 each. I got the sixth card in the nine-card set, numbered # 447 / 500. This one commemorates his 1967 Indianapolis 500 victory. 

Lastly, here are my two autographs. No Danica Patrick this time. I got Scott Dixon and Milka Duno. Dixon has had a lot of success as a racer, winning the 2008 Indianapolis 500 and his 4th IndyCar Series championship in 2015. Duno seems to be famous mostly for being a former model and for making other drivers angry at her slow driving. She appears to be out of racing now after making appearances in several racing series.

This is a decent product to break if you can find a good price on a box of it. The Danica Patrick autograph seems to be the only really big hit available, but recent eBay sales on the two autographs I pulled from this box suggest that I was close to breaking even on this one. That's better than I can say for a lot of my breaks, so I'm happy. I'll probably keep picking these up from time to time in search of that Danica card.