The Danica Patrick Publicity Stunt Has Lost The Luster That It Never Should Have Had

There are not many women who have ever driven in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, which is exactly why so many people fell for the publicity stunt and the novelty that was Danica Patrick.

Everybody knows the cliché: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. Well, I don’t, but I won’t. Instead of talking about how terrible Danica Patrick has been in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series since arriving full-time in 2013, which I could very easily do, this is more of a wake-up call to those who still believe she has the potential to be a star and deserves her seat in the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford machine.

Danica Patrick, 35, raced for seven years in IndyCar before coming to NASCAR and was fairly solid to say the least. In seven seasons, she finished lower than 10th in the standings just once. In seven Indy 500 races, she finished six races, and of those six, she finished no lower than 10th.

However, what she couldn’t do was win. She tallied just one victory in seven seasons in IndyCar and was never able to capture that elusive Indy 500 win. Consistency and winning are two different things. While consistency is good to have, winning is what counts in racing, and 2nd place and back often get forgotten.

In 2013, Patrick came to NASCAR as a full-time driver following one full season in the Xfinity Series during which her highest finish was 8th place. She started off her full-time career by taking the pole position for the 2013 Daytona 500 before going on to finish in a solid 8th place in the race.

Unfortunately, that 8th place finish ended up being her lone top 10 result of the season. In the 35 races that followed, she finished no higher than 12th place. And in the three-plus seasons that have followed, she has tallied just five more top 10 finishes, none of which coming in 2016. In fact, she doesn’t have a top 10 finish in over two years (Bristol on April 19, 2015).

The fact is, Danica Patrick coming to NASCAR was nothing more than a publicity stunt that people fell for simply because of the novelty that she was a woman who didn’t do terribly in IndyCar. Through 163 races with the “good ole’ boys”, Danica Patrick has never won a race; in fact, she has never even finished in the top 5, her best finish being a 6th place effort at Atlanta in 2014. Her highest result in the championship is 24th in both 2015 and 2016, and she has never qualified for the Chase.

So far this season, Patrick has just two finishes inside the top 20, and neither one was impressive. She finished in 17th in Atlanta and 18th at Richmond.

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Still don’t believe me about the whole idea of a publicity stunt? Look at social media. Danica Patrick has 1.74 million followers on Twitter and another 381 thousand on Instagram. Take another driver who has struggled as much as she has in her four-plus years in the sport. How many followers to they have? How many people idolize them like they do her?

Let’s have a look. Matt DiBenedetto, who is in his 3rd season, has a career-high finish of 6th place, like Patrick, at Bristol in 2016. He has just 41.7 thousand Twitter followers and not even 8,000 on Instagram. JJ Yeley, who is in his 13th season, has finished no higher than 21st in the championship standings. That’s better than Patrick’s best, and Yeley has struggled to maintain a full-time ride over the years. Yeley has only 73.8 thousand Twitter followers and not even 2,000 followers on Instagram.

To seal the deal, consider this. The only two NASCAR drivers that have more Twitter followers than Danica Patrick are Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Like I said, this was nothing more than a publicity stunt, and the statistics on all fronts back that up.

With how badly Patrick has been struggling since she started and is struggling this season, there have been rumors of potential retirement, and rightfully so, which just goes to show how much the luster that this publicity stunt should have never had has worn off.

In a recent interview, she stated the following when asked about how much longer she would race:

"As long as it’s fun – and it hasn’t been super fun lately. But every year I start the year, I always have hope that it’s going to be the year that things are going to click. I understand my career hasn’t progressed.Maybe it’s regressed? Why is that? Am I worse driver than I was a couple of years ago? Probably not. I don’t think anybody gets worse. So it’s really a matter of all the factors around you."

Next: Buy or Sell: Kyle Larson's Future with Chip Ganassi Racing

What are your thoughts? Was Danica Patrick coming to NASCAR anything more than a publicity stunt? If so, what do you have in mind? Is her racing career coming to an end? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow me on Instagram as well as Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter. Also, be sure to keep up to date with the latest news and analysis in motorsports right here at Beyond the Flag.

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