The IndyCar star's deal at JR Motorsports brought in sponsorship dollars that saved about a dozen jobs and helped the organization remain a two-car Nationwide Series team with.
The No. 5 and No. 88 Chevrolet running full seasons. As a company that knows the value of celebrity and knows how to market it, her progress might well align with JR Motorsports progress.
It would make perfect sense for Dale Earnhardt Jr. the owner and Patrick the driver to rise to Cup racing together.
"You win one race, you want the next one; it's like a drug," Earnhardt said. "…Once you get a taste of success, you want more of it.
You need more success to match that feeling of the first success. You just gotta keep doubling the doses.
"Eventually we have to take our program to Cup to get that enjoyment and exhilaration out of the success part."
Patrick's deal wasn't all that financially energized JR Motorsports. While other Nationwide Series teams struggled last season, Earnhardt made more money than expected.
They'll use that profit to keep the No. 88 team running throughout 2010, regardless of sponsorship issues. Earnhardt might race a few of those and have a developmental driver the rest.The team only has about one third of the season's races sponsored for Kelly Bires No. 5 Chevrolet at the moment, but will be able to keep that going, too.
"We have two teams that we wanted to keep," Earnhardt said. "Didn't want to downsize the company any more like the year before. The Danica program really justified having two programs and keeping our employee count. That was awesome to have that."
Nationwide teams aren't built to make money — in the first year of JR Motorsports' existence, the team lost money. Breaking even means success.
"We started this team for reasons like Keselowski and Kelly Bires and guys like Mark McFarland and Shane Huffman that needed opportunities," Earnhardt said.
It worked for Keselowski, who will debut as a full-time Cup driver this season for Penske Racing.
But like Earnhardt said, eventually the goal won't be to send drivers there. They'll want to get there themselves. The marketing behemoth that would be a Sprint Cup car owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and driven by Danica Patrick might well be on its way.
Denny Hamlin, meet Greg Oden
You'll excuse the Greg Oden jokes that followed Denny Hamlin's disclosure that he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee playing basketball over the weekend. Oden, the former No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick, has spent most of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers struggling through knee injuries.
Hamlin has, too. But the difference is Hamlin doesn't need healthy, functioning knee ligaments to succeed at his sport.
Hamlin drove half of last season on a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee, which he had surgically repaired last month. He won't have surgery on his ACL tear until after this season ends because surgery would keep him out of races.
The injury and the fact that it won't have a tremendous impact on his racing spurred the age-old debate — Are NASCAR drivers athletes?
Do we really have to keep having this talk? More importantly — who cares?
Regardless of one's opinion on whether real sports can be played on torn ACLs, should Hamlin win a championship driving with one, it will be a remarkable feat nonetheless. Not because of his injury, because that would mean unseating the unsinkable No. 48 team.Last year this time Jimmie Johnson gashed his finger trying to poke a hole in his Grand Am firesuit to cool down.
Johnson was then, and will be again, racing in the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona this weekend. He loves that Grand-Am race, and not all the Cup drivers pulled into it do.
"Everybody's there," Johnson said. "It's the only event like it in the world. Well you have the LeMans but I don't think you have the same turnout of top-notch drivers."
Ten things we learned this week
1. Whether by design or coincidence, NASCAR teams are putting on a happy face for this season and telling everybody things will be great. Roush Fenway Racing President Geoff Smith even called himself a "Polly-[expletive]-anna" this season. Is attitude everything? We'll see…
2. NASCAR felt the backlash of last year's fall Talladega race and did something about it. I'll applaud the sanctioning body for that. The loosening restrictions at restrictor-plate races mark a complete about-face.
3. NASCAR and its teams are working to convince sponsors a little personality and brashness don't have to oppose corporate ideals. Everybody wins if that succeeds.
4. Nobody seems concerned that ABC will air only three NASCAR races compared to the 11 the network aired last year. The company's other 14 races move to ESPN.
5. NASCAR drivers caught baby fever last year. Carl Edwards' pending kid is less than a month away.
6. The Hendrick organization gets its humanitarian reputation for a reason. Rick Hendrick was among the first in NASCAR to offer help to Haiti relief efforts and it's been a total company endeavor. While at the shop last week, I overheard two employees discussing how they wished they could go down there to help.
7. Other NASCAR teams have since followed that lead. The NASCAR Foundation will also donate $250,000 to Missionary Flights International, the Christian organization for which Hendrick donated two planes and financed trips to help transport supplies, medical personnel and people who needed to get into or out of Haiti.
8. Michael Waltrip Racing has come a long way. That's readily apparent just by looking at David Reutimann, who really likes mentioning he used to get so nervous he threw up before races. He's moved past that stage now.
9. Felix Sabates, part owner of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, thinks if Congress's health care bill passes, race fans will stop coming to races. He thinks the bill is "stupid." He says he's read the whole thing.
10. Don't ever kiss a seal if Rick Hendrick is around with a camera. Well, I didn't learn that so much as Jeff Gordon. "I knew that was blackmail when it was happening," Gordon said of the photo Hendrick snapped.