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Stewart keeping it
real for Patrick
Yahoo Sports
Photo Yahoo Sports: Three
time and current NASCAR champion Tony Stewart talks to the press Monday
as his newest teammate Danica Patrick looks on.
Tony Stewart has never been one to shy away from the spotlight, but on
Monday Stewart vowed to keep expectations realistic for Danica Patrick,
the team’s newest driver at Stewart-Haas Racing.
Stewart, the reigning and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion driver
and co-owner of SHR, opened the four-day Charlotte Motor Speedway Media
Tour on Monday. Many of the questions he fielded were about his
high-profile new addition.
Patrick will drive 10 Cup races for SHR in 2012, as well as the entire
NASCAR Nationwide Series with JR Motorsports. Stewart said he knows
Patrick will be under the microscope.
“It’s been that way since she started driving Nationwide,” said
Stewart. “I think that’s why I keep trying to emphasize to everybody
that we’re not judged her success off where her finishing position is
at the end of the day. There’s a lot more to getting ready to being a
full-time Cup driver than where your finish is in these 10 races.
There’s the knowledge and experience that she’s going to get,
hopefully, through those races that matters more to me then her
finishing position.”
During Monday’s press session, Patrick said she will race in the
Coca-Cola 600 and skip the Indianapolis 500 for the first time. “It’s
her decision,” Stewart said. “We didn’t tell her she couldn’t run the
500, it was left up to her. But obviously she’s running the Nationwide
car full time and it’s a good weekend to get a lot of laps in a car.
... It just shows how dedicated she is to making this transition.”
Stewart said he’s been impressed so far by Patrick’s work ethic and
commitment.
“The effort that she’s put forth has shown everybody that this is where
she wants to be,” Stewart said. “We haven’t seen that dedication from
some of the other guys that came in, ran a little bit and then left the
series. So I think the drivers respect that and I think she’s come in
with a great attitude. She’s very humble and realizing that it’s a lot
of work and a lot of effort and that it’s not a scenario where you’re
going to go in and win right away. We hope she does, obviously, but the
reality is, it’s tough to run well right off the bat.
“It’s a big transition that she’s going through and I think she’s been
very humble with that and I think that’s what the drivers and teams and
crews respect.”
As for Patrick’s fiery temper, Stewart laughed. “She knows how to
handle herself in a situation,” he said when asked if he was worried
about Patrick clashing with other drivers. “If she starts a fight,
she’s going to have to handle it.”
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