NASCAR BADLY needs star power to revive its popularity. This season, the stock car racing league needs some life injected into it. Danica Patrick, if she can finally close the deal and win a race, would be that boost NASCAR needs. Of course, if Patrick can develop into a solid driver, not just mediocre, but actually solid, and legitimate, it would be PHENOMENAL for the sport.
Jimmie Johnson winning every single race and saying the exact same boring corporate platitudes before and after every race got stale a long time ago. In the words of Spandau Ballet “I know this. Much is. True.”
On Sunday, Danica Patrick earned her first top-10 of the season and the fifth top-10 of her 88-race Sprint Cup career. She is now tied with Janet Guthrie for the most top-10 Sprint Cup finishes by a female driver. In points standing, Danica is currently 15th (148 points, 115 out of first) on the very young season.
Perhaps the days of “One Lap Downica” are over? If she can move up into the top ten in points, we could finally say that Danica Patrick has arrived and grown into her role as a legitimately good driver. Of course, we’ve been down this road, figuratively and literally, before. Last May, the media greatly exhausted the “Patrick has turned the corner” narrative as she had a good month, but flopped at the Daytona 500. Then she had a summer that was pretty bad, before finishing okay (sort of) down the stretch.
We made a couple of good changes in the middle of the race that really made the difference, and I said if we could just do a little bit more and make me just a little bit better, we’re going to be good,” said Danica Patrick
“And that’s what we did. I’m proud of everyone for not giving up and for keeping their head in the game today.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. You can read Banks’ feature stories and op-eds in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and hear his regular guest spots on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)
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