This is as juicy as NASCAR gossip gets, as silly as Silly Season can be: Danica Patrick is reportedly close to signing a deal with Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports Nationwide team.
ESPN's Ryan McGee and Marty Smith broke the news on Wednesday, indicating that a source reported that talks are in "the final phase." We've heard this kind of thing before, but multiple sources are indicating that both Danica and JR Motorsports are very close to a deal.
As with so much else this season, the unexpected centerpiece of the entire deal was Brad Keselowski. As long as Jet Ski was in JR Motorsports' camp, he held down the spot that could have been available to Danica. But when he signed with Penske, the door opened wide.
The obvious question is, when would Danica Patrick make her NASCAR debut? Depending on logistics and approval, her first race could come either in Daytona or at California right at the start of the 2010 season. ESPN reported that Danica wants the number 7, her IndyCar number.
Still up in the air would be how many races Danica would run. She would likely run the 17 IRL races and then slot in Nationwide runs as necessary -- a rigid schedule which would nonetheless pay off huge for both her and JR Motorsports.
I don't need to tell you what a marketing juggernaut a Danica-Junior team would be. The Nationwide Series would instantly become the equal of the Sprint Cup in the eyes of the casual fans (who, presumably, are going to wonder why Danica isn't racing against Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon). And yes, there would be the usual carping about neither one of them winning much of anything.
But that's not what's important. What's important is that Danica is -- if this goes through -- going to bring some much-needed new eyes to NASCAR. And if she's a gimmick, so be it -- she'll be gone and back to IRL before her contract is up. She's not going to totally embarrass herself or the sport; she's too talented of a driver for that.
As for Sprint Cup? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Danica's got to prove she can handle a Nationwide car first. (She's actually got to get into a Nationwide car, which I won't believe until I see it.) But I wouldn't be surprised to see Danica running at NASCAR's highest level come 2012.
Daytona just got a whole lot more interesting, didn't it?
Sources: Danica near NASCAR deal [ESPN.com]
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