ELKHART LAKE, Wis. — For Danica Patrick, the fireresistant shoe might finally be on the other foot.
Still relatively early in her transition to NASCAR, Patrick isn’t used to having any kind of experience advantage over the rest of the Nationwide Series field. But she believes things will be different today at Road America, ascenic four-mile road course that winds through central Wisconsin.
While road-course racing wasn’t Patrick’s favorite thing to do during her time in the IndyCar Series - she prefers oval tracks - she does have more experience at it than many drivers who came up racing stock cars.
“I suppose the tables have turned a little bit, coming from so much road racing over the last couple of years in IndyCar,” Patrick said Friday. “I kind of get the feeling froma lot of drivers who came up through the stock car ranks that they don’t always love coming to road courses, and that was kind of how I felt in IndyCar, going to all the road courses all the time. Now I come to a road course and I’m like, ‘Yeah, all right. Let’s do this.’ ”
Road America wasn’t among the handful of NASCAR races Patrick ran last year in preparation for her full-time transition to stock cars, but Patrick did finish fourth in a Formula Atlantic race at the track in 2004.
“Oddly enough, this is one of those tracks that I actually pretty vividly remember,” Patrick said. “That’s probably because it has so many hills and it’s a memorable track.It’s definitely unique from a road course perspective.”
While Patrick believes she is making steady progress in her transition to NASCAR, she is also encountering new challenges.
After a rough race at Michigan last week, crew chief Tony Eury Jr. told USA Today that there’s “not a lot of respect for her out there right now” and seemed to imply that Patrick needed to be more willing to mix it up with other drivers.
“These guys will certainly take advantage of the gender situation and think she won’t do it,” Eury told the paper. “I’m going to help her get her head right where she can do it.”
Patrick acknowledged Eury’s comments Friday but stopped short of saying she would drive more aggressively to make a point to other drivers.
“Tony’s a great teacher, and he’s been around for a really long time and he’s seen a lot of stuff go down on the track,” Patrick said. “So for me, I feel like as my speed has come up and I’m racing further up the grid, I’m racing against new people now.
“I said it from the very beginning when I got into NASCAR, you’ve got to earn the respect of the folks that you’re driving around. And, again, I feel like I’m racing against some newer drivers as you get further up the grid. So it’s just a matter of finding limits with each other and earning respect.”
To prepare for today, Patrick has watched footage of last year’s race and will continue to pick the brain of her JR Motorsports teammate this weekend, Canadian road-racing ace Ron Fellows.
“We’ve got some collected data that we’ve both been looking at in terms of comparisons,” Fellows said.
While Road America isn’t home for Patrick, it’s close. She was born in Beloit, Wis., and was raised in Roscoe, Ill.
“I just feel like I see a lot of familiar faces when I come up here, people that have been around racing for a long time, especially some of my dad’s friends, ” Patrick said. “He used to race snowmobiles and those kinds of folks show up, the people that I remember from childhood and obviously longtime friends of my family.
“My parents, and a bunch of other people have got motorhomes this weekend, and they’re cooking out and stopping by for a beer after the race. That’s the plan. It just has a comfortable feeling, I think, being here. I’m familiar with the pace of life, I suppose.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 06/23/2012