Advertisement

If it's Daytona, it's time for the question: When will Danica win a race?

 
Danica Patrick’s lone win as a pro is the 2008 IndyCar race in Japan.
Danica Patrick’s lone win as a pro is the 2008 IndyCar race in Japan.
Published Feb. 23, 2017

DAYTONA BEACH — It has been five years since Danica Patrick made her Daytona 500 debut, and NASCAR is still waiting on her to live up to the hype.

She has yet to win a race. Her results have been mediocre. Sponsors have pulled out.

"I wouldn't say it's the success that I hoped for," Patrick said Wednesday, "but it's definitely not a failure."

The reality is somewhere in the middle, in the gray area of okay. And it's time to start wondering if Patrick will ever be more than a middle-of-the-pack driver in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series, which opens its new season with Sunday's Daytona 500.

Patrick has had flashes of success, mostly at Daytona International Speedway. She won her only Cup pole at the "Great American Race" in 2013, when she finished eighth. She was eighth again here a year and half later at the Coke Zero 400.

The problem is she has only four other top-10 finishes in four full Cup years, plus a partial season in 2012. She has led just 57 laps and never finished higher than seventh.

Go back to her IndyCar days and include her time in NASCAR's second-tier Xfinity series, and her 330 races have resulted in one victory — an IndyCar win in Japan in 2008.

Patrick's team isn't the issue. Since her first full Cup season in 2013, Stewart-Haas Racing has won 19 races, finished in the top five 98 times, put nine drivers in the playoff and claimed one series title. Patrick is responsible for none of them. Her average finish (23.8) is eight spots lower than the rest of her team (15.7).

"I still feel like I have more to learn," she said. "I don't think as a driver you ever really regress or stop learning, for that matter."

But how much learning does Patrick have left? She turns 35 next month — not old in the sport but not young either.

Racing comes down to strong results and sponsorships; Patrick hasn't consistently delivered the first, and she might be slipping on the second.

The GoDaddy green disappeared from her car before last season. The replacement, Nature's Bakery, bailed this offseason, sparking an ongoing legal battle with her team. Stewart-Haas Racing is trying to patch together deals to cover the rest of the season, but how many big-money sponsors hope to jump onto a car that hasn't sniffed the top five?

Granted, Patrick's success comes on the sliding scale of open-wheel drivers who have switched to stock cars. The differences between the two types of racing are giant, from the team dynamics to engine temperatures to handling. A.J. Allmendinger won five Champ Car races in 2006 before jumping to NASCAR; he didn't win again until 2014.

"It's almost like you're learning to walk again," Allmendinger said.

Perhaps Patrick is starting to figure that out. She led a career-high 30 laps last season. Her average finish (22nd) was a career best, too.

But her realistic goals this season — aside from the wide-open superspeedways of Daytona and Talladega — still seem modest. She wants to consistently run in the top 15 and eventually the top 10. She believes she's close to them, as shown by her fourth-place finish in Sunday's exhibition race at Daytona.

Stay updated on Tampa Bay’s sports scene

Stay updated on Tampa Bay’s sports scene

Subscribe to our free Sports Today newsletter

We’ll send you news and analysis on the Bucs, Lightning, Rays and Florida’s college football teams every day.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

"It was an honor to be out there with so many great drivers," she said. "My job is to mix it up with them and beat them."

If that doesn't happen soon, it's fair to wonder: How many more chances will she get?

Contact Matt Baker at mbaker@tampabay.com.