Danica Patrick is set to make her IndyCar return in the 102nd running of the Indyin 500. While this is great news for the sport on many levels, IndyCar cannot afford to have her win the race.
Danica Patrick, 36, is set to drive for Ed Carpenter Racing in the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500 in May. The race is set to be her final IndyCar race and her final race as a professional race car driver, and it is the second race of the “Danica Double”, which also included the 60th annual Daytona 500 of the NASCAR Cup Series.
Patrick last drove in the Indy 500 in the 2011 season, which is also the last season during which she drove in any IndyCar race. She has not started in an IndyCar race since the 2011 seasons finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway that was canceled as a result of the death of Dan Wheldon, which happened as a result of a 15-car crash on the 11th lap of the race.
Patrick began driving in IndyCar in the 2005 season, and she drove full-time in each season from 2005 to 2011. In six of those seven seasons, she was the sport’s Most Popular Driver Award winner. Had Wheldon not have been killed in 2011 and been posthumously awarded the honor that year, she likely would have won it in each of her seven seasons in the sport.
Danica Patrick returning vs. Danica Patrick winning
The fact that Danica Patrick is returning to the Indianapolis 500 for the final race of her professional career is great news for IndyCar on many levels, as her amazing popularity and the fans that she has that come with that amazing popularity provide a huge boost to the sport as a whole.
This popularity boost was seen clearly throughout all seven seasons of her full-time career in IndyCar and throughout her time as a full-time driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for one season in the and the NASCAR Cup Series for five seasons.
However, Patrick actually winning this year’s Indy 500 would do damage to the sport. Here’s why.
Patrick was moderately successful in IndyCar, so it would not be shocking to see her do well in the race even after seven years away. In 115 career IndyCar starts, she won one race and finished on the podium seven times.
In seven career seasons, she finished in the top 10 in the championship standings six times, and in seven career Indy 500 starts, she also finished in the top 10 six times. She never finished outside of the top 10 when she actually finished the race. Her career-high finish in the standings was 5th place in 2009, and her career-high Indy 500 finish was 3rd in 2009.
However, as referenced above, she hasn’t driven in IndyCar in seven years. In her 191 career Cup Series starts, which all took place since she left IndyCar, she finished no higher than 6th place in a single race, and she recorded just seven top 10 finishes. Her best finishes in the championship standings were 24th place finishes in the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Recent similar situations?
IndyCar had a similar Indianapolis 500 situation last year with Fernando Alonso, who competes full-time in Formula One but had never driven in an IndyCar race prior to last year’s Indy 500. In fact, after he qualified in 5th place for the race, four-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton called into question just how good the IndyCar field is seeing as how Alonso, a Formula One driver, qualified 5th on an oval track with no prior IndyCar or oval track racing experience.
However, Alonso is not Danica Patrick. What his speed showed is just how good he is, not how bad the IndyCar field is. Alonso is a two-time Formula One champion whose victory total in the sport is 32, which ranks sixth on the all-time wins list, so despite the fact that last year’s Indy 500 was his first IndyCar start, him winning the race, which he had a great chance to do before his Honda engine let go on him with 21 laps remaining, would not have been all that detrimental to the sport.
IndyCar had another similar situation in 2014 with Kurt Busch, who competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series and was actually a teammate to Patrick in four of her five full-time seasons in the sport at Stewart-Haas Racing. Busch finished in 6th place in the race, his first career IndyCar race, after starting in 12th.
But again, Busch is not Patrick. He entered the 2014 Indy 500 as the 2004 Cup Series champion with 25 career victories in the sport. Him having success in the Indy 500 certainly did not make the field look bad; it simply made him look really good.
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.
Conclusion
Let’s face it. Danica Patrick’s statistics in the NASCAR Cup Series in 191 starts despite the fact that 180 of those starts were made driving for a top-tier Stewart-Haas Racing team are atrocious. In all of that time, she never finished a single race in the top 5 and she never finished in the top 23 in the championship standings.
More from Danica Patrick
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- Danica Patrick to host 2018 ESPY Awards
- NASCAR: Jimmie Johnson/Danica Patrick comparison is completely inaccurate
Despite having moderate success in her seven-time IndyCar career, Patrick winning the Indianapolis 500 after not driving in the sport for seven years and having no success in NASCAR during her time in between IndyCar starts would cause there to be serious doubts about the overall talent level of the full-time drivers in the IndyCar field more so than it would show how great she is.
Patrick winning the race would produce far more doubt about the talent level of the full-time drivers in the IndyCar field than Fernando Alonso or Kurt Busch winning the race would have. Because again, let’s face it. She really isn’t all that great, and her statistics illustrate that on many levels.
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Can IndyCar afford to have Danica Patrick win the 102nd running of the Indianapolis 500, her final race, or would her winning the race be detrimental to the sport? Tune in to the race at 11:00 am ET on ABC on Sunday, May 27th to watch the action unfold live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.