Danica Patrick: Is She Headed To Cup Too Soon OR Are Fans Done With Her?

I want to start this with my own personal perspective:  I like the fact that we have a woman in NASCAR, competing in the field.  I'd love to see a woman actually win a NASCAR event and be competitive in the driver points standings.  And to date, it almost looks like Danica Patrick is our best chance to see that.

But...

I have to wonder if we're not seeing Danica Patrick pushed into the Cup Series way too early, or if the fans or media are somewhat done with her?

Danica Going To the Cup Series

I personally do not think she's quite ready for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  The reason I say that is because she's not dominating the NASCAR Nationwide Series this season.  I was hoping for more from her.

She's not doing horribly.  In fact she's 10th in driver points in the Nationwide Series, 334 points behind the points leader at this point in time.  But I have two aspects I have to think about.

How many Nationwide Series (only) champions have come to Cup and kicked some butt in the Cup afterward?  And she's not dominating in the 2nd tier series.  Because she's not, I'm concerned she will be eaten alive in the Cup Series.

When drivers who are competitive in the Cup Series drivers participate in the Nationwide series races, they tend to dominate the field.  Mostly.  But Danica is not.

Using just these few metrics of comparison, I would be surprised, albeit pleasantly, if she even broke the top-25 in points in the Cup Series.  There I did it, I made a solid prediction.  Something I don't do often.

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What a Difference a Year or Two makes!

When Danica first came on the scene, everywhere she went, there was an ant-swarm of media always in her wake.  She was the hot, lime-green commodity.  When she wrecked at Daytona in her first outing, it did not matter that there was still a race going on, it seemed like every single media person surrounded her crinkled up car.

Today, I was listening to a press conference with Danica from Richmond, and after a few questions, the moderator had to keep asking if there were any more questions for Danica.
 
I've never heard a moderator actually ask the crowd for more questions.  They usually have to pick and choose from the masses.

Any way, that got me to wondering what was up with that?  Are folks getting Dani-saturated?

To be honest, I hope not.  No matter how she performs, she brings much needed media attention to NASCAR and that's never bad, no matter how they get it.