Stewart Haas Racing is working on an alliance with Tommy Baldwin Racing that will guarantee Danica Patrick a starting spot in the Daytona 500 and keep her No. 10 car on the track for much of the Sprint Cup schedule, sources said on Monday.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Patrick will be locked into the February 26 Sprint Cup opener with the owner's points accumulated last season by TBR driver Dave Blaney, who was 33rd in the standings. The top 35 in owner's points from last season are guaranteed a starting spot in the first five races of 2012.

Since Patrick is scheduled to compete in only 10 Cup races while participating full time in the Nationwide series, TBR driver David Reutimann would drive the No. 10 in as many of the remaining 26 Cup races as is financially feasible.

Any other races Reutimann runs will be for TBR. Sources said TBR will receive technical and pit crew support as a part of the deal. Patrick said during a recent test at Daytona International Speedway that, despite showing good speed during her first run in a Cup car, it wasn't worth taking a chance on making her first Cup race. She said during the recent media tour in Charlotte, N.C., that there's a "real chance'' she could win the Daytona 500 with a little luck.

But first she has to be in the field. "There's not that many spots (open),'' Patrick said in mid-January. "You've got cars that they'll put everything into just running this race. I've heard they tend to be pretty quick.

"You don't want to take chances. It's not the right time to do that. Everyone wants to get into the race, and I'm sure (sponsor) GoDaddy would like to be sure of that happening. Eliminating as many questions is probably a safe route."

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As the 2012 race season approaches, an abundance of changes are on tap in the various series that compete at Watkins Glen International. Most notably for Glen fans will be the return of Danica Patrick to the Schuyler County facility. The popular 29-year-old driver is making a full-time transition from the open wheel ranks to stock cars.

The former IZOD IndyCar driver, whose last appearance at the Glen came in the Camping World Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 2010, will compete in the Zippo 200 Nationwide Series event on Aug. 11. The off-season has also been marked by the shuffling of some key drivers and personnel in NASCAR's Sprint Cup ranks. Watkins Glen's premier race returns for the 27th time on Aug. 12.

The Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series, which makes two stops at the Glen this year, will sport a new look in its top Daytona Prototype division and two new manufacturers spice up the GT class. The 31st Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen was moved from the early June date it occupied since 2006 to June 29-July 1. The Canadian Tire 200 returns on Aug. 11.

The 65th Glen Nationals, the Sports Car Club of America amateur road race, returns on July 6-8. The Glenora Wine Cellars U.S. Vintage Grand Prix, a Sportscar Vintage Racing Association event, again anchors the Glen season on Sept. 7-9.

Faces in new places
No Sprint Cup driver has seen such a shift in fortunes as the 2006 Watkins Glen pole sitter Kurt Busch. The 2004 series champion, who exhibited some bad behavior in 2011, was released from Penske Racing after the season. Busch hooked up with Phoenix Racing, a second-tier team, to drive the No. 51 Chevrolet.

Busch's dramatic decline is in stark contrast to A.J. Allmendinger, whose star is sure to rise. Penske hired the former open-wheel race winner to drive No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. Allmendinger, who has yet to win at the Cup level, should be a clear favorite at Watkins Glen. Other notable driver changes include Clint Boyer, who has left Richard Childress Racing and joined Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) to drive the No. 15 Toyota.

Kasey Kahne replaces Mark Martin in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevrolet while Martin joins MWR in the No. 55. David Reutimann left MWR to drive for Tommy Baldwin Racing and former Roush-Fenway driver David Ragan found himself at Front Row Motorsports.

Among the cars not returning this season are the No. 83 and No. 4 of Red Bull Racing, which shut down its operation. Brian Vickers, one of its drivers, is still without a ride for the 2012 season. The No. 6 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford and No. 33 RCR Chevy will run limited schedules that likely will not include Watkins Glen.

Patrick, who will drive the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Chevrolet Sprint Cup car in 10 races this year, currently is not scheduled to compete at Watkins Glen. At least nine key personnel changes have also taken place among the Sprint Cup teams.

Among the most noteworthy came at Stewart-Haas Racing. Tony Stewart claimed his third driver's title in 2011 but dropped his crew chief, Darian Grubb. Stewart strengthened his team by adding crew chief Steve Addington from Penske Racing and Greg Zipadelli from Joe Gibbs Racing. Zipadelli will oversee Patrick on the Cup side.

Grubb, meanwhile, hooked up with Joe Gibbs Racing, where he'll try to turn around Denny Hamlin's fortunes. In a long overdue technical update, the traditional Holley carburetor has been replaced by electronic fuel injection.

Grand-Am's new look
This weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona at in Florida marks the traditional start of the North American race season.

Grand-Am came up with a rules package this year to integrate exciting new exotic cars from Ferrari and Audi into its top Rolex Series GT lineup this season. Its flagship Daytona Prototype division, introduced in 2003, is getting a major outward makeover this year with new bodywork that features a more aerodynamic cockpit-canopy. In an effort to increase manufacturer interest, the series is allowing the new designs to incorporate styling cues from popular road cars.

General Motors, the first car-maker involved, has produced a stunning entry based on its flagship Corvette sports car. Four teams will run under the Corvette moniker. Rolex Series drivers will also compete in a new three-race North American Endurance Championship, featuring the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Six Hours of Watkins Glen, and the new race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Nationwide
Danica-mania will return to Watkins Glen when NASCAR's junior series rolls into town.  Patrick, who ran a part time Nationwide Series schedule in 2010-2011, will compete for the series championship in 2011. She'll drive the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. Patrick competed in six IndyCar races at Watkins Glen, with a best finish of eighth in 2006. Carl Edwards, who has been a long-time Nationwide runner, is not planning to run in the series in 2012.

New safety standards
In the wake of last years' driver death in the Glen Nationals, the first at Watkins Glen since 2005, comes a new safety measure instituted by SCCA this year. All club racers will now be required to wear a head and neck restraint system.

The devices can reduce the possibility of a severe head injury or death in certain accidents. Such a device may have saved the life of Ken Buchel, who died Aug. 9 from head injuries he sustained after a crash on the first lap of the F-Production race during the Glen Nationals on July 9.

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Danica Patrick became a worldwide sensation as a rookie at the Indianapolis 500, challenging for victory and becoming the first woman to lead laps in the showcase race. Those Indy days are fading fast.

Patrick's shift to stock cars is long under way and her ties to IndyCar were cut even further Monday — she said she won't run in this year's Indy 500. Her focus is entirely on NASCAR, and on May 27 she'll race in the Coca-Cola 600. She said skipping the Indy 500 was a "business decision."

"I hope to do it in the future, the Indy 500 that is, and maybe it will be a double," she said. "But at this point in time, after a lot of conversations, it's just going to be the Coke 600 and I think it's going to be a big challenge. It's just is something that didn't work out, as far as the business side of things. ... For this year, it just didn't happen."

Patrick led 19 laps late and finished fourth in 2005. She was a career-best third in 2009. When she jumped full time to NASCAR she said the Indy 500 was still under consideration. Her NASCAR season includes the full second-tier Nationwide Series schedule for JR Motorsports and 10 races in the elite Sprint Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Patrick had previously announced eight of her races. The Coca-Cola 600 — Patrick jokingly called NASCAR's longest event of the season "The Coke 6,000," — is the ninth announced race. The Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 are both May 27. "We didn't tell her she couldn't run the 500. It was left up to her," team co-owner Tony Stewart said. "It shows how dedicated she is to making this transition."

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Danica Patrick plans to take a more aggressive approach in her first full season of Nationwide Series competition. She’s more comfortable in the cars. She knows most of the tracks. This is her time to learn just how hard she must push the car to run it on the brink she will need to compete against the top drivers in the Nationwide Series as well as those in Sprint Cup.

Patrick, who spent the last two seasons continuing her full-time IndyCar schedule while also running a part-time Nationwide slate, will turn her entire focus on NASCAR starting this season.

“I’m going into this season with a little bit more of a ‘I’m going to do it attitude,’” Patrick said Saturday after unveiling a special paint scheme for the St. Patrick’s Day Nationwide race at Bristol. “I’ve got a lot to learn, and I know that.

“I’m going to make lots of mistakes I’m sure and there are going to be a lot of things I’m going to learn to do better. But I’m mentally wrapping my head around not just learning but being successful and running well and getting to victory lane and thinking about that so my thoughts translate to the real world and really happen.”

Having set a standard for a female driver in a NASCAR national series with her fourth-place finish at Las Vegas last March, Patrick will run a full Nationwide slate for JR Motorsports while competing in 10 Cup races for Stewart-Haas Racing with an eye on full-time Cup competition in 2013 with SHR. She will leave behind her IndyCar career that included a historic victory and several solid runs in the Indianapolis 500.

“There’s still going to be moments for sure where I’m going to be patient and I’m probably am not going to go all the way, but I’m getting more comfortable around the drivers,” Patrick said. “I didn’t want to come in and start pushing my way around because that’s not my style.

“Now I’ve been here for a little while, I feel more comfortable with the style of racing, when you can push and when you can’t push. Ultimately, just having a bigger comfort zone with the car is going to give me the ability to push harder and put the car on the track wherever I want and do more with it.”

After an average finish of 28th in her first partial Nationwide season and 17th in her second, Patrick appears more confident. Her first Cup race will be the Daytona 500 and she won’t back in Cup until Darlington in May.

One of the intriguing questions is if she would attempt a non-companion double the week following Darlington, where the Nationwide race is at Iowa on the day after the Sprint All-Star Race. By running in the Daytona 500, she’ll be eligible for the Sprint Showdown and the fan vote to get into the all-star race.

“That’s not even entered my mind – I don’t think I’m an all-star in Cup yet,” said Patrick who didn’t seem all that familiar with the fan vote process. “I suppose brighter minds will think about that one. I go where the schedule tells me right now.

“I don’t own my own private jet so I think I’ll probably be in Iowa [only] at this point.”Tony Eury Jr., her Nationwide crew chief and co-owner at JRM, isn’t sure that running the all-star race would be a good idea.

“When she does go do that race, she’s going to want to be competitive,” he said. “She’d be in the car one time [after Daytona] before that race. So I think she’d need more experience in a Cup car before we go throwing her in an all-star race like that.

“I would tell her to concentrate on Nationwide [that weekend].”Eury Jr. described this as a learning year for Patrick, and his goal is to have her in the top 10 in points after 10 races, and that should put her in position to vie for the title. He also believes that as she said, she will be more aggressive.

“Being more aggressive is just a sign of being more comfortable,” Eury Jr. said. “She’s [gone] to a lot of these tracks. Before, she wasn’t running for points. She was more, ‘Hey, I’m coming here running 13 races [a season], I’m going to make sure I don’t create enemies, I don’t get in anybody’s way and I want to be competitive.’

“This year, she’s here for the reason to win the championship so she’s not going to be that person that kind of lays over.”Patrick has known for a year that she would run NASCAR full time in 2012. Her IndyCar owner, Michael Andretti, said last week that Patrick had to let him know in January 2011 whether she would return to the team in 2012.

“It was just part of my contract – it was just the date I had to tell them what my decision was,” Patrick said. “That’s just a contractual thing. There are lots of contractual things that go on behind the scenes with drivers and teams.

“At the end of the day, we had a lot of good times and a lot of success. We won together and I’ll never forget that. But that was just a contractual obligation I had to do. I was pretty sure the NASCAR thing was going to work one way or another.”

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The future queen of NASCAR was on center stage Saturday afternoon in uptown Charlotte. Former open wheel sensation Danica Patrick appeared at the rowdy Whisky River club owned by Dale Earnhardt, Jr., to unveil the green car she will drive in the March 17 St. Patrick’s Day NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Seated next to Bristol Motor Speedway general manager Jerry Caldwell, Patrick said she embraces the chance to return to the unique half-mile. “I really had fun at Bristol last year,” Patrick said. “I was a little afraid at going there, and definitely when I pulled up to the track I was a little astonished at the banking and just how small and cathedral-like it was.”Patrick, who failed to finish her debut race at BMS race, admitted that she was surprised by the features of the track.

“Honestly, the track itself surprised me the most,” Patrick said. “I was there a day earlier and you could barely walk on the banks it was so steep. The track looks small, and it is small.”

BMS officials plan a variety of events to capitalize on Patrick’s return in a big way. George Wendt, who played the surly character of Norm on the iconic television series Cheers, will serve as the official St. Patrick’s Day ambassador and host a festival in the hospitality area.

Green coloring will be added to Beaver Creek while the outside stadium lights will switch to green at night. Patrick will be available for a question and answer session just before the Nationwide race, and a special ticket package will be available.

After surviving last year’s NASCAR apprenticeship, Patrick said she enters the 2012 season with a big dose of confidence. “I guess that I’m going into the season with a more ‘I’m going to do it’ attitude,” Patrick said. “I’ve got a lot to learn, and I know that. I’m sure that I’m going to make lots of mistakes and there are things I’m going to learn to do better. But I’m really trying to not just learn but to be successful.”

Patrick was criticized at times last year for projecting an aloof attitude. With her many male admirers offering encouragement Saturday, a glib Patrick entertained fans with jokes. Caldwell was pleased to add the special promotion with Patrick to one of the country’s largest holiday celebrations.

“We’re going to host the country’s largest St. Patrick’s Day party,” he said. “What a better way to celebrate than in Bristol, Tennessee with 100,000 of your closest friends. It’s going to be a great time.”

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Andretti Autosport was far more prepared for the exodus of driver Danica Patrick than most anyone expected.
At a preseason IndyCar test at Sebring International Raceway on Tuesday, team owner Michael Andretti said Patrick, as required by the terms of her final contract with his team, informed him early last year that she would not return.

"January of '11 she had to let us know what she was doing for '12," Andretti said. "We purposely put it in the contract so in case she decided to leave, we had time. I'm glad we did that."Patrick signed a two-year deal with Andretti Autosport in 2009. It contained a mutual option for 2012. She asserted throughout the summer, with cover from Andretti, that her business team was exploring "all options," including returning to Andretti and IndyCar.

Patrick, who raced part-time schedules in NASCAR's Nationwide Series in 2010 and 2011, announced in late August that she would leave IndyCar for a full-time Nationwide slate this season with JR Motorsports and 10-race Sprint Cup deal with Stewart-Haas Racing that will likely begin with the Daytona 500. She is expected to join the Sprint Cup series full-time with SHR beginning in 2013. Patrick has made 25 starts for JRM, and became the highest-finishing female in NASCAR history with a fourth-place result at Las Vegas last season.

Patrick's only IndyCar victory in 115 races came with Andretti at Motegi, Japan in 2008. Her third-place finish in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 is the best for a female in the sport's prime race. Andretti had signed Dan Wheldon, who won the 2005 series title and Indianapolis 500 with Andretti, to replace Patrick, but Wheldon died in a 15-car wreck in the final race of the IndyCar season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October. This month, Andretti signed 2011 Rookie of the Year James Hinchcliffe to assume Patrick's GoDaddy.com-sponsored program. Andretti called the atmosphere in the team's first preseason test since 2007 without Patrick "very positive, really, excited."

"I think, actually, Danica ran her course here and I think she was really valuable to the team and the series," Andretti said, "but I think it started to overshadow all the other talent we have in the series and we have so many great personalities and talents, now they're going to be a little more to the forefront. I think it's just going to be more of a positive for our series on the whole."

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Auto racing driver, model and spokeswoman Danica Patrick will discuss her transition from IndyCar to full-time NASCAR racing in 2012 at a National Press Club Speakers Luncheon, February 21. Her remarks will come just five days before she suits up for her Sprint Cup Series debut at the season-opening 54th Annual Daytona 500.  When she takes the green flag later that week, Patrick will become only the third woman to compete in the iconic race.

In six years, Patrick has risen from IndyCar Rookie of the Year to a racing sensation whose appeal "hits just about every demographic," reports ESPN.com, "from casual female fans to hard-core gearheads." The first woman ever to win an IndyCar race, Patrick has been named the series' most popular driver four times. Her 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Daytona resulted in a 35 percent increase in viewership, as reported by Nielsen Television Research. In addition to auto racing, Patrick is well-known as a spokeswoman for GoDaddy.com, having done 13 commercials. "Enhancement," the 2009 Super Bowl commercial in which she starred, was the most-viewed commercial that day, according to TiVo.

Patrick is considered by many to be the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel racing, being the only woman to win in the IndyCar Series as well as holding the highest finish by a woman at the Indianapolis 500 (3rd place). In 2010, Patrick finished the season 10th in championship points, setting the IndyCar Series record for consecutive races finished running. That same year, she made the crossover to NASCAR racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, driving the #7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet Impala for JR Motorsports part-time. She had her best career finish of 4th place in series on March 5, 2011 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway - the best finish by a woman in a NASCAR top-circuit.

The Press Club luncheon will begin promptly at 12:30 p.m.  Remarks will begin at 1:00 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session. Advance reservations should be made through (202) 662-7501 or reservations@press.org.  The cost of luncheon admission is $19 for National Press Club members, $30 for their guests, and $37 for the general public. Tickets must be purchased at time of reservation.

National Press Club Luncheons are webcast live on press.org.  Follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #NPCLunch, or on Facebook at (facebook.com/PressClubDC) and Twitter (@PressClubDC). Submit questions for speakers in advance and during the live event by sending them to @QNPCLunch on Twitter.

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Editor’s Note: Each week, SceneDaily.com’s Bob Pockrass takes you inside the garage, providing insight, perspective and the latest news on the hottest topics in NASCAR. The big question that continued throughout testing was whether or not Danica Patrick would be locked into the Daytona 500. Or Mark Martin. Or Trevor Bayne.

It likely will be a few weeks before teams know the answer. When practice begins Feb. 18 for the Daytona 500, the issue of who is guaranteed a spot in the race and who isn’t has to be settled. The top 35 teams, based on 2011 owner points, that are entered in the race get automatic spots for the Daytona 500. So if a top-35 team doesn’t show up, then the team 36th in owner points would be the first to get the available spot.

NASCAR does not allow for points to be sold outright, but does allow for the transfer of points if the original owner retains a minority stake in the car. So if a team wants to “buy” points, it must make a deal that includes some sort of partnership with the original owner of the points.

With Red Bull Racing having closed, there could still be a deal done for the points earned by the No. 4 car (14th) and the No. 83 (25th) last year. If those points aren’t used, next in line is the closed TRG Motorsports No. 71 car. If it does not enter and a deal is not done to use those points, next in line are the Wood Brothers No. 21 car (Trevor Bayne) and Robby Gordon Motorsports No. 7 car, which Gordon will drive in the Daytona 500.

Among those looking for points are Stewart-Haas Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing. SHR needs points for Danica Patrick, who will run a limited Cup schedule for the organization in 2012. Team co-owner Tony Stewart said last week the organization is still figuring out what it will do. The simplest option would be transfer the points of Tony Stewart to Patrick. Stewart could then rely on a past champion’s provisional if for some reason he failed qualify for one of the first five races until the sixth race when 2012 owner points are used to determine the 35 guaranteed spots. The other benefit is that if qualifying gets rained out in any of the other races Patrick attempts during 2012, she gets in the race because she has owner points of a car that won in 2011.

There has been speculation that SHR would put together a deal with Tommy Baldwin Racing, possibly for points from the No. 36 car (33rd in 2011 owner points) to be transferred to Patrick. But it also could include a partnership where TBR would field a No. 10 car for David Reutimann in the 26 races in which Patrick doesn’t compete, thus allowing that car to continue to earn owner points all season.

Team owner Tommy Baldwin, though, said last week that a deal SHR would be “news to me.”MWR attempted to purchase Red Bull for the points and equipment, but that deal fell through. Team co-owner Michael Waltrip said last week no final determination of which two of his three drivers would have the MWR points from 2011, but it is expected those would go to the two drivers competing for the drivers championship – Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer – while Mark Martin would have to get in the race on speed.

It appears that Richard Childress Racing will enter a fourth car for the Daytona 500 and use its points from the No. 33 car last year. That fourth car would only run a handful of races throughout the year, possibly with Austin Dillon for select events although RCR could put in a more experienced driver such as Elliott Sadler or Brian Vickers for the Daytona 500.

Will there be 43?
The idea of purchasing points has to frustrate car owners as only 32 teams showed up for the Daytona test. Included in those 32 teams were two – the No. 6 of Roush Fenway Racing and the No. 21 of Wood Brothers Racing – not expected to run the full season.

At least four full-time teams that plan on racing the entire season – two from Front Row Motorsports (David Ragan, David Gilliland), one from JTG Daugherty Racing (Bobby Labonte) and one from FAS Lane Racing (driver TBA) – did not show up at the test. Add a fourth RCR car and Robby Gordon Motorsports and that makes 38 cars that would be expected to race and only 36 for the entire season.

Jay Robinson announced Monday that he would run a full-time car as he has brought in investor Troy Blakeney and renamed the team Robinson-Blakeney Racing. Robinson has bought cars from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and will get his engines from Joey Arrington. He has not settled on a driver as of yet and has not had a number assigned to him.

Among the cars from last year that could enter the Daytona 500: A third Front Row Motorsports car (No. 37/55 last year), HP Racing (No. 66), Inception Motorsports (No. 30 with David Stremme), R3 Motorsports (No. 23 with Robert Richardson Jr.), Max Q Motorsports (No. 37 car, possibly with Josh Wise) and Sinica Motorsports (No. 93). That gets the number to 45 cars for Daytona.

Jimmy Means also might field a car under the new Hamilton Means Racing, which he announced at the end of last year, and Derrike Cope also owns cars that he could enter.

Whitney Motorsports, which fielded the Nos. 46 and 81 cars last year, is not expected to run in 2012. Make Motorsports (No. 50) is expected to concentrate on Nationwide and not enter the Daytona 500.

So it’s fairly clear there will be a full field for the Daytona 500. But of those cars, at least four - Roush Fenway and RCR fourth cars, Wood Brothers Racing and Sinica Motorsports – are not expected to run full time in 2012 and several others don’t appear to have funding in place for a full-season run.

Leavine Family Racing, which has Scott Speed as its driver, has a part-time schedule that doesn’t include the Daytona 500. Expect some existing teams to pull out additional cars as well as some other new teams looking to crack into Cup racing to emerge throughout the season to fill the 43-car fields.

In case you missed
When there was talk of JR Motorsports possibly going to Sprint Cup, it was assumed that Rick Hendrick would have to divest himself of ownership because of NASCAR’s four-team cap.

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Greg Zipadelli had seen the hype and hope for years. It was impossible to miss, even if you weren't in racing. But until the first week of testing at Daytona, he hadn't been around Danica Patrick, and knew nothing of the petite 29-year-old beyond what he'd gathered through track chatter and GoDaddy. ads.

The reality of America's most popular female race car driver turned out to be a lot different from the image Zipadelli had crafted in his mind.

"She's easy to hang out with; easy to talk with; she gets along with all the guys," Zipadelli said after his first on-track day as Patrick's Sprint Cup crew chief, the two of them working diligently to try to qualify for the Daytona 500. "It's just no drama, no drama at all."

That's a refreshing change for Zipadelli, who has dealt with plenty of drama in his 24 years in racing. Zippy was Tony Stewart's original crew chief when Smoke left IndyCar for NASCAR. As such, Zipadelli was present for all of Stewart's snit fits and kick fights, as well as the Rookie of the Year title in 1999 and two Sprint Cup Championships in 2002 and 2005. Zippy also shepherded Joey Logano through his rookie season with Joe Gibbs Racing.

But now the veteran crew chief is the competitions director for Stewart Haas Racing, where he is responsible for the team's latest and greatest project: turning the most media-savvy female race car driver in history into a NASCAR winner.  

Given the commercial attention she receives, it's easy to forget that Danica is also the most successful female driver in auto racing. She is the only woman to win on the IndyCar Series (the 2008 Indy Japan 300), and she finished third in the 2009 Indy 500. She was also the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year in 2005 and led a lap late in that race before finishing fourth.

Danica has also been the most scrutinized driver in sports, her every start, finish and faux pas churned through the grinder of a media desperate to find a woman — any woman in any sport — who can win against the men.

It's a strange obsession. Ever since tennis player Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes, the idea of a woman winning a male-centered sport has fixated the predominately male sports media. There was Annika Sorenstam playing at the Colonial Invitational on the PGA Tour, and then several attempts by Michelle Wie to beat the guys (her U.S. Open local qualifying round was the lead sports story in The New York Times).

The women themselves have shown no such fixation. Katie Hnida made history when she scored two extra points for the University of New Mexico Lobos in a blowout against Texas State, but she never had serious aspirations for the NFL. Other champions such as Venus and Serena Williams have politely declined offers to men's tournaments. Even Annika, arguably the greatest LPGA player of the past three decades, said she enjoyed her PGA Tour experiment but had no desire to try it again.

Most athletes, male or female, don't think about it. They let performance speak for itself. Top female triathletes finish well ahead of most male amateurs. The notion that there is this unquenched thirst to beat all the males in the Iron Man is simply not true.

It's the same in other sports. Maria Sharapova would demolish almost all club players, men and women, but she probably wouldn't fare very well in the men's draw of the Australian Open, nor does she have any burning desire to try. And while Yani Tseng can beat 99 percent of the men who play golf, those who think she obsesses about making it to the PGA Tour fail to understand the mindset of a champion.

Racing is different, and so is Danica. She has never been satisfied being the best or first woman to do this or that, because she has never thought about her sport that way. Even as a teenager racing Formula Vauxhall in England, she rejected the female labels and abhorred anyone who acted like a diva.

Like all truly great athletes, Danica focuses on the numbers and on getting better each and every time she goes out.  "The honey badger, he doesn't give a crap, he takes what he wants," Danica said at Daytona, jokingly referencing the YouTube video that led to an LSU football player's nickname. "And that's how I'm going to be this year, like a honey badger.  . . . I don't know, it's a mindset. I even have a honey badger picture on my screen saver on my phone to inspire me. It takes what it wants."

She wants to win, but she is also realistic about her first start in the Daytona 500. According to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who owns Danica's Nationwide Series team, "She's been relatively quiet, and that's probably good for her to be able to come in here, work and get everything done she wants to get done."

"I don't just want to be here," Danica said. "I want to run well. For this one at Daytona, I think there's a real opportunity."Not an opportunity for a female driver, but an opportunity for a driver.

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Daytona Beach, FL, United States (AHN Sports) – Other than the juggling of the rules packages the biggest excitement of NASCAR Preseason Thunder testing over the last three days was the arrival of Danica Patrick. Patrick will wheel Tony Stewart’s No. 10 Chevrolet in 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races this season while also driving fulltime in the NASCAR Nationwide Series for Dale Earnhardt Jr. The former IZOD IndyCar Series star was at Daytona International Speedway in preparation for the Sprint Cup’s season opener, the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.

“Obviously, it’s the biggest race of the year,” she said. “I’d really like to run well, and I don’t just want to be here, I want to run well.”Stewart, owner of Patrick’s Stewart-Haas Cup ride, has taken an active role in Patrick’s development by hand-picking her crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, the man who helped him to a pair of Cup titles while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. Zipadelli will double as Stewart-Haas Racing’s competition director while calling the shots atop Patrick’s pit box for 10 races this season.

“It’s a smart decision for us to have somebody like him who can work with Danica and know how to go through those learning processes and how to help with that,” Stewart said. “So really, we get the best of both worlds with Greg.”Stewart could transfer his 2011 points to Patrick’s car to guarantee she’ll make the Daytona 500. She will become the third female driver to compete in NASCAR’s biggest event. Janet Guthrie started the 500 in 1977 and 1980 and Shawna Robinson in 2002.

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