Part 1 of the so-called “Danica Double” takes place Sunday, when Danica Patrick drives in the Daytona 500. She has said that will be her final stock-car race, and after she drives in her final Indianapolis 500 in May, she plans to walk away from racing.
Patrick won only one of 366 races on the IndyCar series and the top two NASCAR series, but you can’t sell her portfolio short. She was able to compete consistently against fields of mostly male drivers, building an enormous following in her sport among women and girls.
Just how much of that following will be tuning in Sunday? Patrick, who finished 14th among 20 cars Thursday in the second 125-mile Daytona Duel and will start 28th among 40 cars Sunday, could be a key factor in determining Daytona viewership. She did not participate in the by-invitation Advance Auto Parts Clash last weekend, and viewership suffered.
The race, on Fox Sports 1, drew a 1.35 rating and 2.3 million viewers. That was the lowest-rated and least-watched Clash in at least 20 years, not including rainouts. The previous lows were a 2.0 rating and 3.5 million in the 2014 race, which was also carried on Fox Sports 1.
Last year’s race was rescheduled because of rain, but the 2016 numbers were a 2.8 rating and 4.8 million viewers. The last two Daytona 500s each had 6.6 ratings, 20-year non-rainout lows. And this year's race goes up against the Winter Olympics.
Patrick has virtually no chance of winning Sunday — finishing in the top half of a 40-car field would be viewed by most fans as a solid run. A $100 bet for her to win on 5Dimes.eu would net $8,000 (plus your $100 back).
Martin Truex Jr., the 2017 Monster Cup champ, will try to make it two championships in a row. Jimmie Johnson, literally a graybeard at 42, will be attempting to win his eighth championship to pass two legends, Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt Sr.
And then there is Patrick. She will be in the 40-car field at Daytona for the last time, but this seems like overkill. She is five years removed from her sterling moment as a stock-car driver, and that was not even a victory. Longtime race fans say they are tired of her.
It would be different if Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to run one more Daytona 500 because he has won two Daytona 500s and because this race marks the 17th anniversary of the death of his father at Daytona. But Dale Jr. is retired. Danica’s last run feels like a gimmick.
She secured funding from GoDaddy.com for what she says will be her seventh and final Daytona 500, but she was only able to post the 28th-fastest qualifying speed Saturday in the Premium Motorsports Chevrolet. She will start right next to Dale Jr.'s nephew Jeffrey Earnhardt, who looked as if he would not be driving at Daytona.
Premium Motorsports, which used to be called Jay Robinson Motorsports, is not a NASCAR power. In 168 races over four years at NASCAR’s top level, Jay Robinson Motorsports has one top-10 finish, with no victories, pole positions or top-five finishes.
Patrick has been reunited for the race with crew chief Tony Eury Jr., but it is unlikely that she will threaten to win. She was not among 26 drivers given Daytona 500 odds earlier this month by sportsbook.ag. You can bet on her as part of the 15-1 “field” of 14 other drivers.
Patrick has certainly helped NASCAR generate interest among females. But she is 0 for 190 in the Cup Series — 0 for 251 if you include the second-tier Xfinity Series — and was unable to secure a ride for a full 36-race season. Her average Cup finish in 190 races: 24th.
Patrick, who said Wednesday that she will drive for Ed Carpenter in the Indy 500, has done a little better in an Indy car than a stock car, winning a race in Motegi, Japan, 10 years ago in April. In her first Indianapolis 500, in 2005, Patrick became the first woman in history to lead the race, finishing fourth in a car co-owned by David Letterman.
She won the pole position in her second Daytona 500, in 2013, in a car co-owned by the versatile champion Tony Stewart, but she faded to eighth, the first of only seven top-10 finishes. She has never finished higher than sixth in a Cup race — and that was in a good car.
Even Patrick has moved on, in a way. GoDaddy, which has aired racy Super Bowl commercials focused on Patrick in the past, plans to air ads focused on Patrick’s transition, well underway, to being a businesswoman and entrepreneur.
GoDaddy could have done that without paying a lot of money to slap its name on a bright green race car. At a news conference Saturday at Daytona, Patrick still sounded as if the decision to retire had not really been hers.
But she has one more chance. Imagine what a boost NASCAR would get if she actually won.
