Danica Patrick's Top-35 Points Gift Has Fans Wondering

Check out this shell game of owners points so that Danica Patrick can race in the Daytona 500 (D500):

A month ago, we were introduced to Danica Patrick driving the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevy and the announcement included that this NASCAR Sprint Cup effort would be a Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) endeavor.

Then, we heard that Danica Patrick will be using Owners Points from another team to be able to race in the Daytona 500.

We then learned that that Dave Blaney gave up his points with Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR) so Danica Patrick can race in the D500.

And finally, we heard that in a collaborative effort, Danica Patrick won't be driving an SHR car, but rather, her 10 Sprint Cup races will be driving under the auspices of TBR.

There...  how hard was that?  Right?

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Wait... she is driving what with who how?

The bottom line is that in some of the best media hub-bub to come along since Kurt Busch disrespected ESPN's Jerry Punch on camera and got himself fired, I mean, off to "have fun" racing, a situation has been made possible so that Danica Patrick's very first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race will be the Daytona 500.


But in this shell game for points, what seems to be more than likely the case, is a curious use of the NASCAR rule book getting bent nicely to favor Ms. Patrick.

As Jeff Gluck over on SB Nation points out, even though Patrick and David Reutimann will be "sharing" driving duties of the No. 10 Chevy, he surmises that technically, they'll be sharing "a" No. 10 decal but not the car.  Instead, he surmises and logically so, that Danica will be driving a Stewart-Haas car with a Hendrick motor.  When she's not in the No. 10, it will be a TBR car that David Reutimann drives.

Like I said, it really is a shell game.  As in a car body shell!  And TBR gets a serious amount of attention this year.  If Reutimann can keep the car in the top-35 of owners points, good for them.  If not, this little shell game could leave a sour mood in some fan's minds.

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Fans Confused

But fans are confused or in an uproar about this points swapping thing.  In the past some teams have seemingly had to jump through hoops to get points swapped, traded or bought, if they were allowed.  But this seemed to flow rather easily down the gullet of NASCAR and happened right under our very noses pretty quickly!

Face it, it's their sport, their toy and in the long run, will do what they think is best for the sport.  I'm not calling that a bad thing, just, at times, an inconsistent thing.

And right now, a new golden-child is on the scene, and that's the full-time NASCAR competitor named Danica Patrick.

And now that she's full-time in NASCAR, I hope... no, expect her to perform MUCH better than she did last year.  She will now be fully dedicated with no other race series distractions and at the track for every Nationwide Series race for JR Motorsports with Tony Eury Jr. as her crew chief.  (Wow, with all the Cup Series frenzy, we almost forgot that, didn't we?)

She's bringing new fans to the sport. According to The Morning Drive w/ Mike Bagley & Pete Pistone on SiriusXM, they're hearing all kinds of banter about how Danica is bringing more women into the mix of fan demographics, as they'll be driving to or tuning in to the Daytona 500.

Bottom line, this could be good for our beloved sport.  More attention means more money, more sponsors.  And that's business for you, regardless of how you feel about the shell game that was pulled off with NASCAR to make this happen.

Move over Dale Earnhardt Jr., you have competition for marketing golden nugget!

[SB Nation: Danica Patrick Points Explained ]