NASCAR: Five reasons Danica Patrick leaving Stewart-Haas Racing is the right decision
By Asher Fair
She is driving for a top-tier team
Some Danica Patrick fans may complain about this article and say how “she still does better than plenty of other drivers.” And that is, in fact, actually a true statement which no one can argue with. She’s currently 28th in the championship standings with between 37 and 40 drivers driving every race.
However, look who she’s ahead of in the standings in terms of the full-time drivers. She’s ahead of drivers on small teams like Front Row Motorsports, TriStar Motorsports, Go FAS Racing, BK Racing, Premium Motorsports and Circle Sport/TMG. Those teams don’t have great cars, and they don’t have proven great drivers, either. In fact, you may have never even heard of some of those teams before you read this article.
Besides Patrick, the lowest driver in the standings that is actually on a top-tier team is Dale Earnhardt Jr., and he is still six spots ahead of her in 22nd place driving for Hendrick Motorsports despite the fact that he has had a down season, as has his team in general.
Patrick, meanwhile, is driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, which is undoubtedly one of the top teams in the sport. She has the luxury of being on a four-car team with three other race contenders every single weekend and she still is way down in the standings and has been since she started driving full-time in the 2013 season.
In fact, just once since Patrick’s career began has she finished higher than another driver on a top-tier team. That happened in 2015, when she finished in 24th in the standings and Tony Stewart, her teammate and Stewart-Haas Racing co-owner, finished in 28th.
Stewart has since retired despite the fact that he is a three-time champion of the sport, while Patrick still drivers for the top-tier Stewart-Haas Racing organization without a single career top 5 finish to her name.
A seat with Stewart-Haas Racing should go to a driver that is going to have a great chance to be a contender each weekend. Danica Patrick has not been and is clearly not that driver, which makes her decision to step down from her responsibilities with the team an extremely wise one.