Full Throttle

Danica Patrick ended months of speculation when she announced on Tuesday a deal to race part-time in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series. The only woman to win an IndyCar race will suit up for JR Motorsports, a team co-owned by Dale, Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt, as well as Rick Hendrick and Tony Eury, Jr.

The 27-year-old Patrick who signed a three-year IndyCar contract extension with Michael Andretti’s team last week will serve as a part-time driver looking to enter NNS events prior to and after the IRL season and possibly an occasionaly NNS event mid season.

“I’m finally able to talk about it and I want to show you the car,” Patrick, 27, told reporters before unveiling her green and orange No. 7 Chevrolet Impala.

“It’s going to be a challenge and I have a lot to learn,” said Patrick. “But with the resources that Kelley has at her team, with Dale and the extended Hendrick family, I think this is a great opportunity to learn as fast as possible - but there’s no necessary time frame on that. We’re just going to hit the ground running and do the best that we can.”

Danica Patrick will make her stock car debut at NASCAR’s most famous venue - Daytona International Speedway (DIS) - in the ARCA Series season opener the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 on Saturday, Feb. 6.

Patrick, will use the 80-lap, 200-mile race to prepare for the partial NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule.

“Our plans are to be at Daytona for the ARCA test,” said Patrick in a news conference in Phoenix, Arizona. “So that’s our primary focus right now.

“I’m very excited,” continued Patrick. “We’ve all been working so hard to make this all come together. It’s no doubt going to be challenging. It’s time to get down to business and learn these cars.”

The Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 event on Saturday, Feb. 6 is part of a racing tripleheader day at Daytona International Speedway with Daytona 500 Qualifying presented by Kroger and the Budweiser Shootout All-Star race all being held on the same day.

Patrick is scheduled to test at DIS later this month in the Dec. 18-20 ARCA test session, which is open to the public with free access to the Oldfield Grandstands through the lobby of Daytona 500 Experience. In addition, trams will be available to transport race fans into the Sprint FANZONE to view all the testing action for $15.

“There’s not a better venue for Danica Patrick to begin her foray into stock car competition than historic Daytona International Speedway,” Track President Robin Braig said. “Her entry into stock car racing on the daunting 31-degree high banks of Daytona is going to be a storyline that race fans are going to want to witness in person.”

“She’s obviously going to be in a quality car, [a] competitive car,” said Kelly Earnhardt who reportedly brokered this deal. “I think it’s reasonable for her to be in the top 15 of the series when she’s running.

“Obviously the first few races will see what that brings but she’s got to get in there and get used to the cars and hopefully everybody will remember that and not be so quick to judge, which is easy to do, and so give her the same respect and time to get the feel for these cars as other people have had.”

Kelley Earnhardt confirmed that former Sprint Cup series crew chief Tony Eury Jr will work with Patrick in her debut season in NASCAR.

EDITOR’S NOTES: Well, anyone with the equivalent brains cells of an Amoeba could see her switch coming. Patrick spent far more time in NASCAR garages this past season than previously receiving some pretty sage advice from Tony Stewart among others.

This could also be predicted with some degree of certainty, the ink is still wet on the contract and the Kleig lights just extinguished post press conference and she’s already being courted by race tracks.

“We believe we have an excellent chance of attracting Danica Patrick and the GoDaddy.com team to the ‘Meijer 300’ when one considers her familiarity with our facility, our large event purse, record of generating capacity NASCAR Nationwide Series audiences to our 66,000-seat venue and the fact that our race falls on an open date for the IZOD IndyCar Series,” Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger said.

Auto Club Speedway officials are also in the throws of a Danica wet dream screaming, “pick me, PICK ME.”

Geesh, maybe they should hold a lottery. The winning ticket gets Danica, and all that entails.

If you ask me how will she do in NASCAR, I haven’t clue number one, but you’d get the same answer if asked about any driver making the crossover.

She does have the advantage of joining a winning team something other recent crossovers haven’t had. Dario Franchitti was saddled with questionable equipment, hampered by a broken ankle and sponsorship problems. Minus the ankle Jacques Villeneuve had similar problems.

On the other hand it has taken three years for Juan Montoya to become competitive at the Sprint Cup level. Marcos Ambrose has been the second most successful crossover in his first full time shot in Cup but has the advantage of having run full bodied sedans for five plus years in Australia.

Despite what naysayers say, she has improved each IRL season and finished ahead of her much more experienced teammates in this years point standings. Not an easy fete considering one is a past series champ and the other is a multiple winner in the series.

One last point, and something I spotted on NASCAR’s website. One commenter named Dave Marcis (the ex-NASCAR driver, or not, you’re guess is as good as mine) made this astute observation: “NASCAR.com just doubled its staff size — half to cover Junior’s every move, half to cover Danica.”

Let Danicamania begin. As I remarked on “Twitterville,” this is one way to get Tiger, and his harem, off the sport page headlines.

NOTE: Somehow the included video shot three years ago was divine omniscience, to say the least. Wonder if Jay Z will be a tire changer? Or something.

UPDATE: Well, this isn’t surprising.

The LA Daily News reports “informed,” and need I add the anonymous kind, Danica will make her NNS debut Feb. 20 at Auto Club Speedway Nationwide Staters Bros. 300.

“We have not heard anything,” said David Talley, director of communications for the speedway. “I know our race fits into the window of racing before and after the IndyCar Series.

“We think it would be great for our fans to have her make her first NASCAR start at our track.”

Great for the fans and the track. The multiple, far in excess of the normal, ringed circus following her every move, or lack thereof, in each of Danica’s NNS starts will be near epic.

If track president Gillian Zucker plays it right by recalling Danica’s last trip around the Fontana oval the prerace press releases will write themselves.

During Danica’s rookie year, and at the final IRL event at Fontana in 2005, Danica and Jacque Lazier “got together” on the track and in the ambulance when both were being transported to the infield care center.

Although all parties involved deny Danica punched out Lazier in the ambulance she did offer this quip; “So you’re telling me that Jaques is saying he got beat up by a girl?” Patrick told the Star through a Rahal Letterman Racing spokesperson.

“The first person I saw after the accident was Jaques and that wasn’t a good thing,” Patrick told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. “I confronted him. I told him how I felt. I was mad at him.”

At first, Lazier said Patrick punched him in the head, but then backed off that story, agreeing with Patrick’s version that she had simply poked him in the forehead.

“Look, we had a difference of opinion about what happened, and we were both emotional,” Lazier told the Indianapolis Star. “If she said she hit me on the temple with her fingers, that’s fine. It doesn’t matter.”

If Gillian Zucker can use Eddie Gossage’s playbook, who uses these type of incidents for all they’re worth in pimping races at Texas, maybe she can fill a few more seats than usual.

UPDATE: No sooner tha Danica’s presser was completed she jumped on a plane landing in Walt Disney World Speedway and was testing her NNS ride. Here’s a picture posted on Junior’s Facebook page.