By Jack McCarthyDanica Patrick already knows her way around Joliet's Chicagoland Speedway from previous appearances, leaving her time to concentrate on becoming more comfortable with stock-car racing in the run-up to her Chicago-area NASCAR debut July 9.
"Familiarity is always nice, it's one less thing to worry about," said Patrick during a Tuesday teleconference in advance of Saturday's New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
"My confidence is there, I'm eager to learn the Nationwide car and I think that the best thing that I can do for myself on the NASCAR end is to come up with the realistic expectation levels instead of having IndyCar expectation levels where I'm hoping to win and finish on the podium. Those are probably a little bit more unrealistic at Nationwide at this point, for how much that I still have to learn."
Patrick, who drives a GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, returns to the NASCAR Nationwide Series circuit this weekend after taking a four-month break for IndyCar racing.
Photo: Danica Patrick will make her Chicago-area NASCAR racing debut July 9. (Chris Trotman/Getty)
She has raced several times at Joliet and will make two appearance there this
year. Her July 9 appearance at the Dollar General 300 powered by
Coca-Cola event is part of the Nationwide circuit. Patrick then will switch
back to IndyCar racing for Chicagoland Speedway's four-race weekend on
Aug. 27-28.
She expects both weekends will draw a large collection of family and old friends. And they all know it's best to keep their distance during those events and let Patrick race.
"I keep my life as simple as possible on those weekend," she said. "Everybody's always really respectful and my No. 1 priority is to go out there and perform on the race track. That doesn't leave me a lot of extra time to entertain."
She expects both weekends will draw a large collection of family and old friends. And they all know it's best to keep their distance during those events and let Patrick race.
"I keep my life as simple as possible on those weekend," she said. "Everybody's always really respectful and my No. 1 priority is to go out there and perform on the race track. That doesn't leave me a lot of extra time to entertain."
