Before and after every race, Danica Patrick, and every NASCAR driver for that matter, send out “an interview” to their media mailing lists. There’s a race recap and preview sent to journalists in which the driver is interviewed and “quoted.” I have to use “quoted” and “an interview” in “air quotes” because these media packets are prepared statements.
They’re written by PR people so I’m guessing that most, or at least some of these quotes are fake, as they’re “said” by press agents not, buy the driver. Think of it as official Twittter accounts. You know that’s not the actual celebrity doing the tweeting, it’s a impression management professional. These “advances” and “recaps” are no different.
The Danica Patrick advance Speedweek advance was sent out at 1:44 PM CST today, so a good 30 hours or so after Richard Petty made his hilarious, albeit mean stab at Danica Patrick yesterday. But the team and/or Danica herself decided not to craft a response. There’s over a 1,000 words but nothing about Petty’s slam at Patrick yesterday morning.
Which is sort of to be expected. I guess. I mean Danica Patrick is going to have to respond to that criticism eventually, and when she does it will be in a way that is extremely focus-group friendly, you know that. There’s also nothing in her Twitter feed about Petty’s remarks either. However, you will get EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NEWS in her tweets such as this BREAKING SCOOP about banana bread:
It’s a great day when mom comes in to town and makes banana bread!!! Glad I had some ripe bananas! pic.twitter.com/DOxOQO6Ows
— Danica Patrick (@DanicaPatrick) February 8, 2014
The advance also brings up the success that Danica had at the Daytona 500 last year, because well every single Danica Patrick advance brings that up. Patrick accomplished a lot during the NASCAR Super Bowl speedweek, and accomplished a few things in the actual race. Unfortunately for her, the Sprint Cup season went all downhill after the season’s first race.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)