A Welcoming Gesture Before Danica Patrick's Stock Car Debut

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It was a small thing, really, but as close to an official "you're in" as it gets.

Juan Pablo Montoya sent a friend to seek out Danica Patrick and invite her over to the Montoyas' motorcoach in the Daytona International Speedway infield Thursday night.

"I'd never even met Juan before,'' Patrick said Friday. "The fact that he came to me is kind of amazing. We just talked and he offered up help the rest of the year.''

"I just think that's really cool,'' Patrick said, grinning broadly.

She said Montoya, the former Indy 500 winner who came to NASCAR three years ago from Formula One, was gracious and helpful. Like her, Montoya faced naysayers that questioned whether he could transfer his open-wheel talents to the bulky, heavy stock cars and the tough, fender-rubbing game of NASCAR.

Three years in, Montoya qualified for NASCAR's 2009 Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship.

But Patrick isn't Montoya. And she is taking a different route entirely, juggling a sporadic 12-race stock car schedule with a full time career in the IZOD IndyCar Series and her quite legitimate pursuit to win the Indianapolis 500.

Her long-awaited, much-debated stock car debut comes Saturday afternoon in the ARCA Series 80-lap season-opener at Daytona, where she'll line up her No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet from a respectable 12th position to take the green flag in what will likely be the most-watched ARCA race in the four decades that the series has been in existence.

Patrick never asked Lyn St. James for advice.

But if she did, the first woman to become the Indianapolis 500's Rookie of the Race (1992), would have advised the first woman to lead the Indy 500 (2005) to follow her heart. And just as importantly, the seat of her pants.

"I knew in two laps I loved it,'' said St. James, who successfully made the jump from an accomplished sports car career to race in the Indy 500.

As with Patrick, people questioned St. James' motives and her sensibility. And like Patrick, she motored ahead, not so much to prove others wrong but to find out for herself whether she was right.

"You feel a connection to the car and to the people and it was as clear as it could be for me,'' St. James explained.

That, she says, and not a top-10 finish in Saturday's ARCA race, will be a better indicator if Patrick's plan will succeed.

Patrick's IndyCar teammate Marco Andretti predicts she will be as grossly underestimated as she is heavily hyped.

"I know she's super competitive, she's every bit as competitive as any guy when it comes to that,'' said Andretti. "Unfortunately, I think they (NASCAR drivers) are going to to try to make a point and push her around a bit.

"And they are going to find out they can't push her around so much.''

Certainly NASCAR has never seen anything like Patrick.

She is as comfortable behind the wheel of a 220-mile IndyCar as she is posing in a bikini for Sports Illustrated or walking the red carpet at a Hollywood movie premier.

She is the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 and her fourth place finishes in 2005 and this year are the best ever for a female. Two years ago she became the first woman to win an IndyCar race and her career-best, fifth-place finish in the IndyCar championship was the best of any American driver this year.

But it's perhaps her ability to market her brand that has made the 5-foot, 100-pound Patrick such a huge figure in American motorsports. And her interest in NASCAR could be mutually beneficial.

"Let's go back 40 years,'' said driver Kyle Petty, who now does television work for TNT race broadcasts. "Let's go back to Janet (Guthrie). NASCAR didn't need Janet. They had The King (Richard Petty), Cale (Yarborough), and (David) Pearson, they didn't need her and that's the way the sport approached it.

"The drivers were cordial -- although she'd tell you different -- but she came along at a time when women couldn't even get in the garage area.

"There were no women reporters, no women doing PR, she was the only woman in the garage.

"Now in between that and Danica, we've had some really good drivers in Patty Moise, Robin McCall, there was some opportunity with a few drivers that had some real talent. But it was wrong place, wrong time -- wrong place, wrong team. Everything didn't line up.

"If you look at where Danica is right now, it's the perfect storm for being right.''

Who knows how Danica Patrick will do as a stock car driver? Not her. Not those convinced she can't cut it. Not those hoping she will.

James Buescher, the 19-year old who sitting on the pole for the ARCA race, is taking a stance Patrick would appreciate. And perhaps it's an indicator Patrick has already been successful.

"As far as I'm concerned, she's just another driver,'' Buescher said. "There are 42 of us. You just do what you normally do."

Then he added with a smile, "Only more people will be seeing you do it.''