NASCAR: Who’s Hot And Who’s Not Heading Into Talladega

Peter Casey-USA TODAY Sports

NOT – Danica Patrick and Tony Stewart

Patrick and Stewart caught heat this week for pretty much no reason and in the case of Patrick, literally no reason. Stewart was fined $25,000 by NASCAR for hitting Keselowski during the post-race events at Charlotte on Saturday night. While the fine and the probation that came along with it may not be a big deal, certain media outlets used the incident as an opportunity to thrust Stewart’s name back into the spotlight. In short, Stewart was just being himself and the media had a field day with it. Whether he wants to admit it or not, there is a huge microscope over the head of Stewart and it is going to remain there until all matters are settled with the Ward family. As for Patrick, her own teammate Kevin Harvick refueled the notion that Patrick will not ever bee good enough thanks to some comments that he made this week. Harvick was trying to explain that Patrick will always be at a disadvantage in NASCAR since her background is from IndyCar and as a result she will never have the same amount of experience as many of the drivers she competes against. Of course some media outlets ran with that and the next thing you know Harvick supposedly hates Patrick and thinks she sucks and the rumor mill just kept churning. 2014 hasn’t gone the way that Patrick or Stewart might have hoped for but 2015 could be a nice rebound year for both of them.