ISC Makes Great Hire, Danica Says No To F1, And Thanks From My Heart
Here’s lookin’ at you kid, with three mini-columns in one:
* First of all, NASCAR’s sister company, International Speedway Corp., made a great hire Monday when it announced Joie Chitwood, president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will become ISC vice president of business operations in a few weeks.
An heir of the famous Chitwood high performance and stunt driving family, Joie is one of the most intelligent and innovative executives in motorsports administration today.
His move to ISC will help in a number of ways, particularly when it comes to attracting new business opportunities to ISC and NASCAR, as well as new innovations to put more fans back into the stands at all the ISC race tracks around the country.
* Everyone thought I was crazy when I said here on ARD last month that Danica Patrick might be looking at Formula One, in addition to NASCAR and/or remaining in the Indy Racing League.
Well, Danica confirmed last Friday to the Los Angeles Times that she indeed did have interest from teams in F1 to race overseas, although it appears she wants to stay put on American soil for the time being. Ironically, Patrick said the new upstart U.S.-anchored F1 team that is supposed to debut in the series next year, never contacted her. Bad, bad move on their part, if you ask me.
“I’ve had opportunities to take it a step further with Formula One, and I don’t want to lead anyone down a path,” Patrick told the Times. “It’s not in my heart to go there. I’ve explored Europe before. I particularly like to be here and I like my family and I like my friends and I like my creature comforts of my home country.”
Danica, you’re 27 years old, soon to be 28. Your time to become an international superstar in F1 is quickly slipping away. And the chance of you being a star in NASCAR is far from being assured. If I were you, I’d strongly reconsider the possibility of F1 before you wake up one day, are 35 or 40 years old, and say to yourself, “I should have tried F1 while I had the chance and while they still wanted me.” If you think you’re making big money now in the IRL, that’s chump change to the kind of money and prestige you’d have in F1.
And then, finally, we could stop all those silly rumors about you coming to NASCAR. We all know you’re never going to come there because you’d be eaten alive by the competition.
But damn, I would sure love to see you and Kyle Busch tangle fender to fender just once.
* Lastly, and most importantly, a personal thank you for all the prayers, kind e-mails and responses following Monday’s column. My wife went through the first of what will eventually be six procedures quite well, and we finally have some promise that her condition may start to show some improvement, hopefully. From the bottom of my wife’s and my hearts, thanks again to all of you who showed concern. My mind is finally starting to feel a bit of relief, although my wife still has a very long and hard road ahead of her.
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