Iam disgusted of how TBR was able to take the 10 car points away, what little they were at 33rd but better then nothing if she has trouble qualifying or someone wrecks her in the qualifying races. Also her qualifying on speed as ive stated before may be difficulat as lots of good qualifyers as one-offs, PT etc like Dillon, Bayne and many more who can easily out qualify her on speed even if she makes it through Daytona there are tough tracks after that before she builds up points to be protected somewhat.. Oh well like many are saying if she cant qualify then she doesnt belong in Cup and dont forget she may have to qualify in NNS also but should be fine there?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Damon on January 25, 2013 at 7:12pm

Why are you disgusted at TBR? It was part of a business deal with SHR. Allow Danica to get into her 10 races without having to qualify to get her the seat time/experience. They were under no obligation to give her those points once the year ended and won't be. Not a big deal.

As for qualifying on time and not falling back on owners points, that only goes for the first three races and after that those cars out of the top 36 in qualifying fall back on owners points. If anything I think this will be a good thing for Danica to have a little pressure under her to qualify well/race decently (top 25 finishes) just to give herself a safety net after three races and if she does that maybe, just maybe the dopes will give a little tiny bit of credit whereas last year they whined about the points swap that got her into the Daytona 500.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Becky on January 26, 2013 at 11:33am

Here's a good article from the Media tour with comments from Tony Gibson, Dale Jr, and Danica...

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nascar/story/2013-01-24/danica-patrick-...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by vern m on January 27, 2013 at 12:03pm

Damon said:

Why are you disgusted at TBR? It was part of a business deal with SHR. Allow Danica to get into her 10 races without having to qualify to get her the seat time/experience. They were under no obligation to give her those points once the year ended and won't be. Not a big deal.

As for qualifying on time and not falling back on owners points, that only goes for the first three races and after that those cars out of the top 36 in qualifying fall back on owners points. If anything I think this will be a good thing for Danica to have a little pressure under her to qualify well/race decently (top 25 finishes) just to give herself a safety net after three races and if she does that maybe, just maybe the dopes will give a little tiny bit of credit whereas last year they whined about the points swap that got her into the Daytona 500.

Youre right but--Wait till she crashes out of Daytona or one of the first 3 races and has NO owners points to keep her in and shes OUT of the race as that IS what could happen with no owner points for the first 3 races. Look at last yr where she was crashed out of daytona only luckily had owners pouints to stay in.. TBR made a deal and that deal was to get points for the 10 car which was always Danicas and SHR car, NOT TBR car so him taking the points from that for this yr is nascars screw up as usual to allow that and they were supposed to fix it after all the scrutiny over last yr doing this. Better hope for no crashes or she wont be racing, much like franchitti yrs ago who couldnt qualify on time, course all her haters would throw a party if or when that happens.. The other 2 of the 3 races to build points are tough as well and if she doesnt make even one of them she wont have points going into the rest and some tough tracks for after that and as i said lots of PT and one-off drivers and even S&P drivers who are better then her at qualifying and could knock her out of the top 36--check last yr as she would have missed several races without points to fall back on--just saying--Iam concerned.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Damon on January 27, 2013 at 4:43pm

You're assuming a lot of things that HAVEN'T happened yet, there's no need to, just watch the races and react to what actually happens on track and not speculation as to what can happen.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Becky on January 27, 2013 at 6:39pm

Just a couple of points on Danica's qualifying in 2012 and looking towards 2013...

* I think there were a few races in the first part of the schedule where she wouldn't have qualified if not for points but in the 2nd half of her Sprint Cup schedule her qualifying efforts were good enough to get her in the race without points.

* At Daytona last year, she had plenty enough speed in practice but Zippy said they forgot something on the qualifying setup and that is what led to the slow time there...then she was taken out by Almirola on the last lap of the duel...so I'm not sure you can blame that one on Danica.

* Remember they did the deal for points in 2012 so they didn't need to focus on qualifying early in the weekends...I have no doubt if they put more focus on qualifying they would have had better early qualifying results.

* After Daytona, they head out west (Phoenix & LasVegas) and you'll probably be lucky to get 45 cars attempting to make those races.

* Finally, I don't think any of the pressure relating to Sprint Cup qualifying can be as much as she had on her shoulders at the Indy 500 in 2011 when her team screwed up and missed/failed inspection thus sending her to the end of the qualifying line so she had to wait through a long rain delay hoping just to get a shot at a qualifying effort...what did she do? She put down the fastest lap of the day.

Danica's qualifying will be fine and if she has some hiccups along the way she'll be a better driver for the experience. If SHR didn't think Danica could qualify on her own they would have given her Tony's points. A little pressure is a good thing.

I believe in Danica's ability to 'git r done'!!!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Bob on January 27, 2013 at 7:49pm

Thank you Becky for posting these videos. Very interesting.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Scott on January 28, 2013 at 12:16am

Good points Becky, especially about how few cars will make the western trip after Daytona. And that's been the case even when there hasn't been an expensive new car for the smaller teams. Something also to consider is that Nascar is going back to a random draw for a qualifying order, which will likely be more beneficial to her than if they had kept the order based on top practice speeds. Even if she has a slower time in practice she won't necessarily have to be one of the first cars out on a green track.

No reason to get worked up about how she qualified in races where they never even practiced in qualifying trim because they knew they were locked in.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Scott on January 28, 2013 at 12:23am

As for TBR. They were always going to get the points from last year's deal. It is part of why Nascar was willing to improve the deal.

Because Tony Stewart won races last year he is eligible for the winner's circle program so his points earn more cash this season. If Tony gave Danica his points then her results would receive the winner's circle bonus instead of Tony's this season. So it is worth taking a little risk with Danica's qualifying. I feel pretty confident she'll be fine.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Becky on January 28, 2013 at 9:36pm

I've not posted any of the articles about Danica's confirmation of a relationship with Ricky because I personally didn't feel the need to comment on my favorite driver's personal life (I'm just glad that she is happy).

But after listening to some SiriusXMNascar radio over the weekend and reading some of the articles...I had to post this article because it sums up many of my feelings about the overreaction of some in the media.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1504252-nascar-danica-patrick-ri...