Indy 500: IndyCar cannot afford a Danica Patrick victory

Implications of a Danica Patrick Indianapolis 500 victory

If Danica Patrick is able to come back to IndyCar after seven seasons and win the Indianapolis 500 after years and years of essentially being a backmarker in NASCAR, what would that say about the IndyCar field?

This is Patrick’s final race. After this race, she will be an ex-race car driver. If she wins, there will essentially be a retired race car driver in Victory Lane who just won the Indy 500 despite the fact that she had not driven in a single IndyCar race in seven seasons and had absolutely no success in NASCAR throughout her six full-time seasons driving there since her most recent Indy 500 attempt and her most recent IndyCar race back in 2011.

Patrick winning the race would cause many fans to wonder whether or not the drivers in the IndyCar field truly are as talented as advertised. These fans would echo the thoughts that Lewis Hamilton had last year about Fernando Alonso doing so well in the race.

Are these IndyCar drivers, who, unlike Formula One drivers, drive on oval tracks, and, unlike NASCAR drivers, spend considerable time driving on road and street courses, really all that great? Is the growing popularity of IndyCar justified based on the talent level of the sport’s full-time drivers?

Is this situation similar to those of Fernando Alonso and Kurt Busch? In many ways, it definitely is. However, those drivers are far more accomplished than Patrick is in the racing world, so even had either of them won the race, it would not have been all that detrimental to IndyCar.

In Patrick’s case, IndyCar cannot afford to have her win.