Busch: Full-time switch to stock-car racing will help Patrick
To compete in NASCAR, Kurt Busch believes Danica Patrick will be better equipped, once she makes a full-time switch to stock-car racing.
Patrick will have a hard time making the most of her talent in NASCAR without making a commitment to the sport, said Busch, the 2004 champion in NASCAR’s top series.
“Right now, she’s very limited because she’s still committed to the IRL schedule. 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,” said, Busch.
At Chicagoland Speedway, in Friday night’s Nationwide series race, racer Patrick does not necessarily disagree.
She said, “If you want to be really good at anything you have to obviously centralize your focus, but at this point in time, I have a tremendous amount to learn. Even if it was full-time, would it be going better? Maybe. But it wouldn’t be some big, dramatic — I don’t think — difference.”
Of racing part-time in NASCAR, Patrick does not expect to deviate from her plan, while also running a full IndyCar schedule anytime soon.
Patrick said, “We’re going to do the schedule like this for this year and next year, and then we’ll sort of assess where we’re at and what we want to do in the future”.
In her first four Nationwide races this season, she has struggled, finishing no better than 30th which make for an interesting auto racing bet.
In NASCAR down the road, Busch said he expects Patrick to go full-time, joking that such an announcement might be NASCAR’s answer to the LeBron James free-agent free-for-all.
Busch said, “She’ll probably have a one-hour ESPN prime-time special when she wants to announce it,”
