Tony Stewart 'Guarantees' Danica Patrick Is Coming to NASCAR

Danica Patrick is still playing coy about her plans for 2010, but Tony Stewart, for one, fully expects to see IndyCar's most talked about free agent competing in a stock car at least part time.

"She looked me straight in the eye and said, 'this is what I want to do, it looks like fun, looks like a lot of work, but it looks like fun,' " Stewart told reporters in his weekly track side press briefing Saturday from Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"I know that she's serious about it. She's come over and just talking about things right now. ... I don't think she has some misguided idea that it's going to be easy doing it.

"She wants to do it the right way, she has intentions of doing everything right and she's kind of come to us to see in our opinion how she should go about it."

Patrick indicated last month that she and her current IndyCar Series team Andretti Green Racing (AGR) are close to negotiating a new contract to keep her there at least for next season. The question is whether she will also get her feet wet in the ARCA or NASCAR ranks with the plan of eventually moving to NASCAR full time.

Patrick has openly flirted with the idea of racing stock cars for years and with her marketability will easily be able to find financial backing. The trickier part has been coming up with a solid situation -- an established team willing to let her develop on a part-time basis and a schedule that will allow her both to seriously contend for an IndyCar championship in 2010 and get plenty of seat time in a stock car.

Stewart, who won the 1997 IRL championship before coming to NASCAR and claiming a pair of Cup titles, is the most obvious driver to seek advice from. Patrick visited Stewart's race shop outside Charlotte this summer and there are still persistent rumors he will either field a ride for Patrick himself or assist her efforts with someone else.

He didn't commit to any of that this weekend but offered up the strongest indicator yet, "I can pretty much guarantee you that at some point she's going to be over here.''

"I think she wants to know how to make the transition more than anything and she's trying to put together her IRL deal and try to figure out how to transition into NASCAR,'' Stewart said. "She wants to stay successful where she's at, but in the meantime try to figure out a way to be able to drive and get some seat time in a car to where she can start learning so when she does come out she's got her act together.''

Patrick has backed off comments she made at the Indianapolis 500 that she would want to start a NASCAR career at the Cup level.

Stewart ran a partial Nationwide Series schedule while racing in the IRL before signing a full-time deal with Joe Gibbs Racing. Fellow open wheel champs Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr. made several ARCA series starts before transitioning full time to the Cup level. Former Formula One driver Scott Speed ran ARCA and the Camping World Truck Series before embarking on his rookie Cup season.

"You have to learn before you get here,'' said Stewart, who currently leads the Cup championship.

"You have to get used to a heavier race car and you have to get used to less down force, smaller tires -- it's a lot of learning and there's a lot of race tracks that you have to get used to.

"It's sensory overload and that's why you have to pay your dues before you get to this level.''

Stewart said he wouldn't be a bit surprised if Patrick runs a partial Nationwide schedule in 2010 or that she make a stock car start after the IndyCar Series wraps up Oct. 10 in Homestead, Fla.

Patrick initially said she wouldn't reveal next year's plans until after the IRL season, but if she re-signs with AGR, that could change her time line. Judging by Stewart's remarks this weekend, there may be a few more details to work out.

"The great thing is that she asked a lot of very smart questions in the discussions about it,'' Stewart said. "You can tell she wants to do it the right way, she understands how hard everybody has worked to get to this level here and she doesn't want to be one of those people that just comes in and gets stuff handed to her.

"She wants to earn her way and work her way up through like everybody else has.''

"I don't know much about how much heavy car experience she has so I think that's why it's important that she gets in anything whether it be an ARCA car or get in some truck races, a lot of Nationwide races. Just right now, the more that she can get in a car, the better off she's going to be right now."