Danica Patrick A Big Achievement: Patrick  has two big name bosses in motorsports. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is a successful driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the legendary Mario Andretti is her team’s owner in the IZOD Indy Car Series. “I’m really lucky that  I have two bosses that know so much about being in a racecar and can see it from my perspective.”

But they can’t see ‘all’ of her perspective. She’s one of few female drivers in motorsports today. Even though she’s not the first female driver in the Indy Car series. She’s definitely the most successful. And she has inspired more women to compete in the IZOD Indy Car Series. Three women are now full-time drivers in the sport.

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Danica Patrick has experienced a few bumps in the road during her rookie year in NASCAR racing. Patrick, who made a name for herself in the IndyCar series, is competing.

In the Nationwide series on a part-time basis for JR Motorsports while still driving full-time in IndyCar for Andretti Autosport.

While Patrick was expected to experience some growing pains in Nationwide, she is also struggling in the IndyCar series.

Still, she is as popular as ever with fans, along with sponsors who continue to jump on board to support her racing career.

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Hype can best be defined as a marketing strategy that excites people about a person or thing, making them want to know more.

Being petite, attractive and able to drive fast has served Danica Patrick well as a marketing dream come true. Expectations are often unfulfilled ideals we place upon people.

Patrick is an example of someone thrust into the limelight with expectations heaped upon her. Many want her to succeed in whatever series.

She chooses to drive in, be it IndyCar or NASCAR.  Others want her to fail and wait for the next stumble, yet everyone watches to see what she will do.

In NASCAR, Patrick is an anomaly because she drives for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at JR Motorsports and she is an attractive female that is a media darling much like Earnhardt Jr.

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If she notches a top-15 or even a top-20 finish in Saturday’s Carfax 250 NASCAR  Nationwide Series race, well, she’ll have saved some face. Patrick, who became the first female driver to win a race in a major closed-circuit event at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan in 2008, made a part-time move to stock cars this season. She is driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports and finding the going rough.

The GoDaddy.com girl hasn’t exactly turned heads in NASCAR with her finishes, with a best result of 24th in five Nationwide starts. But she hasn’t hit the panic button, either. “With limited track time, you just can’t keep up with the greats in the sport,” said Patrick, who drives in the IndyCar Series full-time for Andretti Autosport and placed third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500. “You also don’t want to get in their way.”

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Adding a part-time NASCAR venture to an already full schedule as the IndyCar Series' most popular driver, Danica Patrick had no illusions about this season's demands. "Before the year started, my husband and I were talking and saying it's probably going to be the hardest year I've ever had," she said. "That's probably true."

Patrick soldiered through a rough start in the Nationwide and Izod IndyCar series, scoring only one top-10 in the first four months of the year. But there has been a spark since she salvaged sixth place in the Indianapolis 500 after lackluster practices and qualifying.

A runner-up finish June 5 at Texas Motor Speedway might have been her most impressive IndyCar performance, and she enjoyed her best NASCAR outing yet July 9 at Chicagoland Speedway. While waiting on a flight to Southern California to attend the ESPYs, Patrick spoke with USA TODAY about 2010:

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I’ve never been a huge fan of Danica Patrick’s marketing campaigns or personal brand management. From her partnership with GoDaddy to her spread in FHM, I think Patrick has made missteps from a business standpoint she may never completely realize or ever get over.

Sure, she’s arguably the most high-profile and popular IndyCar Series driver, but by casting a wider net, one that was a bit less revealing in some ways and more revealing in others.

She could have done much better. For every fan she’s attracted by laying on a car in a tiny two-piece, she’s probably chased two away who didn’t think she was the type of role model they wanted for their kids—or maybe for themselves.

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 Kurt Busch was trying to explain how Danica Patrick needs to commit full time to NASCAR before she'll make any significant progress when he uttered the funniest line of a long day at Chicagoland Speedway.

"Right now, she's very limited because she's still committed to the IRL schedule," the 2004 Sprint Cup champion said Friday. "This is just a work in progress. We'll have to wait and see the final product when she decides what road she's going to go down.

"She'll probably have a one-hour ESPN prime-time special when she wants to announce it." Laughter filled the media center. Busch exited with a sheepish grin, knowing he'd landed a funny to Patrick's midsection with his comparison to the LeBron James announcement.

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Chicagoland Speedway is the fifth race in Danica Patrick's 12-race tour of the Nationwide Series and her third race on an intermediate style race track. At Auto Club Speedway, Danica finished the race but was three laps off the pace, and.

At Las Vegas she crashed with Michael McDowell and finished 36th.Patrick's last race at New Hampshire is a throwaway race given her experience level and the fact that IndyCars behave considerably differently on short ovals than stock cars.

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Consider this an interruption to the quick judgments, harsh opinions and commentary overload about Danica Patrick's NASCAR debut. As IndyCar's most famous face prepares to make her fifth NASCAR start this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway -- near her hometown of Roscoe, Ill. -- it's time to step back from all the emotion and hype.

Forget her $1,000 gold-stilettos, police escorts and the unapologetic adulation of NASCAR executives and track promoters. Let's look at her statistics driving a NASCAR race car. Patrick's four-race average of a 33rd place finish in the Nationwide Series may be an easy target for those told-you-so doubters, but it's absolutely respectable compared to other recent open-wheel NASCAR converts. And even some NASCAR champions.

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Danica Patrick says she's increasingly comfortable with her car and crew, and pleased with the reception she has received from NASCAR  fans. But as she prepares to visit Joliet this weekend for just the fifth NASCAR race of her career, the 28-year-old northwest Illinois native says the stock car learning curve remains steep.

"It is really challenging and hard," said Patrick, who races in the Nationwide 300-mile race 7 p.m. Friday at Chicagoland Speedway. "For me, I'm comfortable in the car, it's just that everything is so new that I don't know how to deal with every situation (yet)."

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