Friday, February 24, 2012

Danica Wins Nationwide Daytona Pole

From ESPN: In about 24 hours, Danica Patrick went from her biggest crash to her biggest moment in a stock car.
The former IndyCar star won the pole Friday for the season-opening Nationwide Series race at Daytona, becoming the first woman to secure the top qualifying spot in NASCAR's second-tier series since Shawna Robinson at Atlanta on March 12, 1994.
It came a day after she wrecked on the final lap of a qualifying race for the Daytona 500.
"It's a good turn of events," she said.
It also set off a flurry of Twitter traffic that included words such as "Dansanity," "Danimosity," "Danimite," and "Dantastic."...
Patrick turned a fast lap of 49.250 seconds around the high-banked speedway, averaging 182.741 mph.
Defending Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne qualified second, followed by Elliott Sadler, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Austin Dillon.
And there was little, if any, animosity about the qualifying results -- err, Danimosity.
"I think it's got a good shot for No. 1 on SportsCenter," Bayne said. "That's always good for our sport. We look for these kinds of moments. NASCAR keeps talking about star power, and these are the kinds of moments that are going to help our whole sport. Not just Danica or our team, but our whole sport. The more eyeballs, it's all better for us. ... Even though we're just a second-place guy at this point, it's really cool. I think it is good all the way around."
http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/nationwide/story/_/id/7612340/danica-patrick-wins-pole-nationwide-race-daytona
I'm not a fan of Danica Patrick, but she certainly having a pretty good Daytona- other than her wreck she did not cause, she ran up with the leaders in the Daytona 500 qualifying race and now wins the pole in the Nationwide race, beating many veterans of Daytona, including her car owner, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So, let's see how she does this weekend.  I might have to bite my tongue and say she belongs in NASCAR.

No comments:

Post a Comment