Common Pro-Danica Patrick Excuses Hold No Water

By Asher Fair | Jul 4, 2017

Jun 11, 2017; Long Pond, PA, USA; NASCAR Cup Series driver Danica Patrick (10) races during the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports /

Despite a terrible NASCAR Cup Series career through four-plus seasons, people still defend Danica Patrick’s driving skills. A few particular excuses they use hold no water whatsoever.

Danica Patrick has now driven full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series for nearly four and a half seasons. In her 171 career races, she has severely underachieved. She has captured one pole position back in 2013 for the Daytona 500 and she has finished in the top 10 in just seven races. Also, she has never finished in the top 5, and her career-high finish is only a 6th place effort at Atlanta in 2014.

Over the past 81 races, she has just one top 10 finish, and that was just a 10th place effort at Dover earlier this season. Naturally after so many seasons of consistent underachievement, with the worst of which being recently, there has been talk about her retiring from the sport.

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However, a lot of people have not been graceful after hearing these rumors and recommendations that Danica Patrick will and should retire. They have resorted to arguments that hold no water whatsoever to back up Danica Patrick’s driving skills of all things. In fact, those “arguments” are pretty much just poor excuses.

Some people say that if her team would give her a good race car, she would perform well every week. That is simply not true, especially seeing as how she has a fast race car but still have been unable to deliver good results through almost five seasons driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, one of the sport’s top teams. What more can you ask for?

That excuse ties in with the next one. People also say that if she leaves, other drivers who perform worse than she does should leave as well. Yes, there are drivers that finish lower than her during races and in the standings on a regular basis; that much is true.

However, those are drivers driving for small and underfunded teams that many people probably haven’t ever even heard of before. Meanwhile, she is driving for Stewart-Haas Racing; she is expected to beat not only those other drivers every race but other drivers on top teams!

Patrick is currently in 29th place in the championship standings, which is the lowest among full-time drivers driving for top-tier teams. She is higher than just three other full-time drivers, of which none are driving for teams that have anywhere close to the speed that Stewart-Haas Racing has.

And it’s not like this is the first season she has been at the bottom of the barrel in terms of drivers driving for top-tier teams. In 2013, she finished in 27th in the standings and was also the lowest full-time driver in the standings among those driver for top-tier teams, and in 2014, she finished in 28th in the standings and was the lowest full-time driver of a top-tier team as well.

In 2015, she finished in 24th in the standings and was higher than only one other full-time driver driving for a top-tier team (Tony Stewart, Stewart-Haas Racing, 28th). And then last season, she also finished in 24th in the standings, and she was not higher than any full-time drivers driving for top-tier teams.

From 2013 through 2016, Patrick was only a total of one spot ahead of last place every season among full-time drivers driving for top-tier teams. That one spot was taken up by a driver who has since retired. So why should she have so many excuses made for her when the other driver, a three-time champion of the sport, has stopped racing?

Next: Should Danica Patrick Go Back to the XFINITY Series?

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