Danica Patrick's New Deals Are Good Business
— -- Danica Patrick still hasn't won a race or finished in the top 5 in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series, and she gets shown up by two of her Stewart-Haas Racing teammates almost every week. And yet she absolutely deserves the contract extension and new sponsor deal that she and her championship-caliber team announced Tuesday.
She is a very special circumstance.
We make racing about trophies and championships, and of course it is, but to those who do it, it is first and foremost about business. Keeping Danica Patrick is good business.
Patrick's unusually wide appeal draws in fans, sponsors and media from outside racing. How many fans check in on the Sunday race telecast just to see where the No. 10 car is running? Even the haters want to know how Patrick is doing.
She elevates the profile of her team, too, which is fighting as hard for corporate dollars as it is for wins. And to hear her boss and teammate Tony Stewart tell it, Patrick is making acceptable gains on the track.
"We're proud of her progress," he said. "She's probably the most detail-oriented race car driver I've ever worked with as far as her feedback, attention to detail, describing what the car does, the feel she has in the car. She's much better at it than I am."
And when you measure winning, you might want to consider your definition. Patrick is No. 8 on Forbes' 2015 list of highest paid NASCAR drivers, with an estimated $13.8 million in earnings ($7.8 million in salary and winnings, and $6 million in endorsements and merchandise). So who is really winning?
Patrick's contract extension and new sponsorship with Nature's Bakery -- a smaller company than the Fortune 500 types that usually take on primary sponsorships at NASCAR's top level -- ensure that she'll keep getting the resources to improve, and at least have the chance to do some amazing things in the sport.
"She has certainly had the longest run with more money than any other woman driver has ever had," said trailblazer Janet Guthrie, who raced in NASCAR and IndyCar from 1976-80. "Money is all-important for success. You can't win without the money, and you can't get the money -- normally -- unless you win."
Patrick has circumvented the cycle some, but not that much. Danica Mania was born with her scintillating runs in the Indianapolis 500 and historic IndyCar win in Japan, and she had the self-marketing savvy to build on it. Those who say Patrick hasn't done much in NASCAR may want to consider how much she's done compared with every other woman who has tried. She's the only woman to run the full season at the Sprint Cup level; the only woman to win a pole and lead laps in the Daytona 500; the only woman to race in the All-Star race. She has the most starts and the most top 10 finishes (six).
"I am just lucky to be at a team with drivers like Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch," Patrick said Tuesday. "Of course, the talent beyond that with the crew chiefs, the crews, the pit crews ... it's a great, fortunate place for me to be in. I have the ability to learn as much as I seek out. I also think that is rare within a team, that I have such great resources that are open books that will help me so much."
And as a very special circumstance, she deserves the opportunity.
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