Danica Patrick 2014 Review
By Richard Tix
Season Grade: C+
Danica Partick entered 2014 after finally putting in a full season's work in 2013. Many NASCAR fans took a keen eye on her 2014 season. Some because they love Danica, but other's because they wanted to use any chance they got to cut her down as a NASCAR driver.
I was watching to look for improvement. As we all know it, two years in the sport isn't a very long time, yet it seems like she has been given a shorter leash then many. Now, some of it is fair because she hasn't put up overwhelming statistics in her 82 race career, but she has taken her opportunity to join and learn the sport.
In 2014 she improve in many important categories, maybe not as some may expect, but none the less many people have looked past her having a better 2014 than 2013. She notched 3 top 10's (1 in 2013) and two of them came at non restricter plate tracks (Kansas and Atlanta). In fact those two races were impressive by her.
Unfortunately, she didn't put those kinds of runs up very consistently. However she did put up 14 top 20's in 2014 which was up from 9 in 2013. The promising part about that is that 8 of those top 20's came in the final 14 races. So, she started to improve a little bit more to close the season out which is always promising.
She also led more laps in 2014 than she ever has before. Now, 15 total laps led on a Cup's standard isn't amazing, but it is still more than she ever had. Also keep in mind, any ole driver maybe able to lead a lap here or there (pit strategy, etc) but leading 15 isn't a mistake, its still a great accomplishment.
Even when Danica's on track performance doesn't stand out to me, I always notice that her desire to get better does. She shows that she wants to get better and learn. On top of that she has helped NASCAR bring in new fans when they were desperately hurting for them. Some fans only point the finger with what is in front of them. Sure, her stats have been underwhelming, but think about the impact she has on the future of NASCAR. She has been a great role model and maybe in the future she will be the reason a child grew up and became the next big NASCAR star all in two years time.
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