BY GODWIN KELLY, MOTORSPORTS EDITOR
August 21, 2011 1:00 AM
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NASCAR's biggest race, The Daytona 500, is still 188 days away but there's already a possibility it could pull in a record-breaking audience.
ESPN has reported Danica Patrick will announce Wednesday that she will leave the IndyCar Series to run a full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule in 2012 with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s team -- JR Motorsports.
She is also expected to enter a select number of Sprint Cup Series events for Stewart-Haas Racing -- a team co-owned by driver Tony Stewart. One of those Cup races could be the season-opening Daytona 500.
"Two of the greatest things that could happen for our sport is if Danica Patrick runs the Daytona 500 and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins it," Fox commentator Larry McReynolds said in a phone interview Friday afternoon from Michigan International Speedway, where the Sprint Cup Series is scheduled to race today.
If Patrick joins NASCAR full time, she's expected to make a major impact in many areas, including TV ratings and ticket sales.
She has been tight-lipped about her plans, and told the media on Thursday, "Sorry to bore you, but there's nothing new to report."
Daytona International Speedway president Joie Chitwood III says he will monitor Patrick's upcoming news conference in Phoenix closely.
Patrick made her NASCAR debut at Daytona in 2010, prompting then-DIS president Robin Braig to send her a bouquet of flowers and spring for a lavish dinner.
"I'm eager to see what her limited Sprint Cup schedule might be," Chitwood said, "but I can't believe they wouldn't take a shot at the Daytona 500. I think it would be great for the sport, great for our fans, great for Daytona."
Chitwood said he can't draw a direct correlation between Patrick racing at Daytona and a boost in ticket sales, but said the attention she gets from media is a tide that will raise every boat.
And TV ratings.
According to ESPN, the network's highest-rated Nationwide Series race was Patrick's NASCAR debut. ESPN scored a 3.2 rating with some 4.2 million people watching that telecast. A typical ESPN Nationwide Series event gets a 1.5 rating, ESPN vice president of programming Julie Sobieski said.
"Danica has a history here as far as moving the ratings needle," Sobieski said in a phone interview from the company's campus in Bristol, Conn.
"When we recognize there is someone new coming into a series and think there is an opportunity to generate excitement with new fans and bring in new fans, it's a great opportunity. Danica has that ability."
For the last two seasons, Patrick has scurried back and forth from IndyCar to Nationwide Series events. Her first stock-car season was rough, almost exasperating. McReynolds said she lacked any humility.
"I like her attitude this year," said McReynolds, one of NASCAR's most successful crew chiefs until he turned to broadcasting in 2001. "When I met her the first time at Daytona a year ago, I was thinking, 'You are gonna have a long way Miss Patrick. You are not a very humble individual.'
"She never turned that around last year. It was always somebody else's fault when she wrecked no matter what the circumstances (were)."
McReynolds is old-school NASCAR. He worked as Dale Earnhardt's crew chief for a couple of years at Richard Childress Racing. Patrick's attitude touched a memory circuit of past racing experiences.
"She reminded me of what Richard Childress told Mike Skinner one time," McReynolds said. "He said, 'When you are involved in a wreck three or four weeks in a row, the one thing you need to evaluate is the common denominator.'
"I have seen a much more humble attitude from her this year. I don't care if you win races over here or don't win, but you better keep a humble attitude because this sport can put you up on the highest pedestal one week and shove you 20 feet under the next week. It will humble you out fast."
If Patrick were to win a Nationwide or Sprint Cup race, she would become the first female driver to visit Victory Lane in either of the two touring series.
Only two female drivers have raced in the Daytona 500 -- Janet Guthrie in 1977 and 1980 and Shawna Robinson in 2002 -- but neither had the horsepower Patrick will bring to the table.
Both of her prospective 2012 teams are supplied and supported by NASCAR behemoth Hendrick Motorsports -- whose stable of Cup drivers includes five-time champ Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt Jr.
Wins and losses aside, NASCAR's television partners are eager to have Patrick in the fold.
Every national series is broadcast by Fox, ESPN and TNT or their affiliated networks.
ESPN has a lot of skin in the game. It airs every Nationwide race and the second half of the Sprint Cup season.
Former Cup champion and ESPN commentator Rusty Wallace thinks Patrick will help bring a new audience to stock-car racing, which is trying to get the attention of the all-important 18-34 demographic.
"I'm happy she's going to be here," Wallace said by phone. "It's the right thing for her to do. She's struggled with jumping all over the place between IndyCar and NASCAR.
"She's wanted over here big time. For her to come over here and get completely involved is going to make her feel good. She'll have twice the fans cheering for her than she has right now."
Wallace and Patrick share a common bond. They were teammates in a Daytona Prototype for the 2006 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
Wallace got a glimpse at Patrick's competitive nature during that weekend of racing.
"She's very intense," Wallace said. "She wanted to do good really bad. I was impressed with her getting involved in the mechanical part of the car. She was not shy about throwing her opinion around."
Chitwood understands the nature of NASCAR. He says it's more than racing -- it's racing and the interaction of the people inside the sport.
"For us, the sport is built on personalities and the stories behind them," he said. "Danica is a great personality, and she has a great story in terms of how she has become so successful.
"From a very early age, she wanted to be a race driver and now she's enjoying all that hard work and effort. That's the story. Those kinds of stories attract new fans to our sport. That's really the element that can work for everybody."
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