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Michael Waltrip has had candid closed-door conversations with Danica Patrick and her representation regarding her potential racing future, and he says any aspirations for the IndyCar star in NASCAR have nothing to do with money.
“We never even discussed it,” he said. “The thing I liked about her, and appreciated, was it was intense—it was just about racing a car. Her people have studied the industry and they’ve chosen a path for her to get experience in a car. That includes Nationwide.”
“And anybody in this garage area will tell you the margins aren’t there in Nationwide to pay anybody hardly anything at all. Kyle Busch makes nothing. When I drove my car I drove for nothing. I drove it because I wanted to drive it. That’s exactly where she is.”
“She just wants to race and learn. I’m inside these conversations. I know, it’s not about money. It’s about racing a car and learning. It’s fun to feel her intensity. It’s refreshing to see how serious she is about being in this car, and learning how to do it.”
So, then, recent reports that she asked for $1 million per race…
“Is false,” he said, cutting off the question. “Fortunately she’s surrounded herself with people that are smart enough to know that. Because there’s just not any money in it. You’re not going to make any money going to race a Nationwide car, doesn’t matter who you are.” ESPN
She has spoken numerous times with Michael Waltrip Racing and the team’s general manager and vice president Ty Norris is saying that he has talked over a lot of very specific details with Patrick in the past weeks.
“In recent weeks, I would say the discussions have become a little bit more detailed and intense to where you’re talking about ifs, ands and buts,” Norris said. “When you get to that level, you try to figure out what are the next steps, if there are next steps. Any owner of a Nationwide team or a Cup team with a racing operation would love to have Danica there after you talk to her because of her passion to race.” Yahoo! Sports
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday his JR Motorsports team has talked with her. Roush Fenway Racing officials have said they have talked with her but the talks fizzled over what it would take financially to build a program around her. Joe Gibbs Racing President J.D. Gibbs said Sunday that it would be hard for his team to put her in a car for next year because it would likely need to be a third car.
JGR uses sports company IMG to help in its sponsorship search, and IMG also represents Patrick, who finished fifth in the 2009 IndyCar Series standings.
“She would be great for the sport,” Gibbs said. “She works with the IMG guys, who we think a lot of, too. So I think they will have a good plan there when it’s all said and done. … At this point, it would be kind of hard [for us] to do next year and do it right. That’s my biggest thing, make sure you do it right. We’ve got two great teams but probably not enough room. You would have to add another team.” SportingNews.com
