Has Danica Patrick Proved Anything To You?

The answer to that is a simple no, she hasn't proved to me that she can drive a stock car.

Now for those of you that believe that she has proven that i say, that's nice that you think that. There are some of you that will say that i should look at where she finished, and i know that she finished in 6th which is respectable for a rookie.

But what gets me is, and i believe almost everyone has forgotten, is that she raced in a 80 LAP ARCA race. Now sure the race was at the famed Daytona International Speedway and it was 200 miles, but considering that The Sprint Cup is 500 miles and 200 laps, The Nationwide Series is 300 miles and 120 laps, The Camping World Truck Series is 250 miles and 100 laps. The ARCA race seams smaller compared to the Nascar races huh?

I mean i bet you could put a Monkey in a ARCA car and it could spin out and still come back to finish sixth.

Now i mean no disrespect to all the ARCA drivers by saying a monkey could probably driver a one of their race cars, i have the up most respect for Frank Kimmel, Bobby Gerhart, Alli Owens, Patrick Sheltra, and the countless other drivers in the series.

I needed a way to point out to you readers that for a driver who races in the IZOD Indy Car Series, where they go that far on most of the road courses the race on, and race almost the same amount of laps as a Nascar race at their oval races, then an 80 lap ARCA race shouldn't be a problem.

Now if Danica hadn't raced in a race car, including a IZOD Indy Car and still finished 6th, then i would be impressed and would probably agree that she has proven that she can drive a stock car.

Now sure the ARCA race at Daytona is one where a driver could use for practice or to get a kind f test, but it ISN'T one in my opinion to use for proven oneself. Why, because you teams in that series who are serious about that series, and have almost no money, and they just want to win a championship.

Now, some of you are probably saying well the Nascar Nationwide series and Sprint Cup series are the same way, and you may be right, but there is one BIG difference.

The Nascar Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series get NATIONAL coverage by FOX, TNT, ESPN, and ABC. That not only means that they, they are Marketed heavily by those networks, but can be seen not only Millions of fans across the country or even the world, but they are also seen by potential sponsors. That means that even the smallest, barley funded team, if they run well enough or get spoken about enough, can find a sponsor.

But ARCA is only seen on SPEED, a sister channel to FOX, but its only marketed on that channel and i doubt any potential sponsors would be watching that channel, they aren't getting noticed as much as a Nascar Sprint Cup Team, or Nascar Nationwide Series team would be.

So if Danica were to have wrecked another car in the ARCA race, which she came close to almost doing when she was doing a "great job" at avoiding Dakoda Armstrong (but i doubt anyone besides me saw that), they would lose hundreds if not thousands having to either rebuilding the car, building a new one, or buying a new one for a Nascar team; which could spell the end of that team because unlike most Nascar teams that have the money to rebuild or build a new race car, some ARCA team don't.

So sorry Kelly Earnhardt, Danica may have in your words "proved to everyone that she can compete in stock cars at a high level" to you, you brother, and cousin, as well as her millions of fans; but she hasn't proven anything to me.