Danica Patrick: I Have Fenders Now So That Is Pretty Exciting

Update: Danica Patrick qualified 12th and finished 6th in Saturday's ARCA 200 at Daytona International Speedway.

It was really a breath of fresh air to listen to the various interviews Danica Patrick did today. I loved how she bantered with the media, I actually think a few are in love with her now. She was engaging, funny and in a few cases put the questions back on them when they tried to push too hard.

As a woman who's done business in a man's world for a long time I wonder what it's like to be a tiny woman racing with the boys. I remember the first job I had which had previously only been done by men, it was definitely a tough road to hoe to put it mildly. The mostly male media, some of whom eagerly await her first mistake, I say give it a rest. Everyone makes mistakes in racing, it's impossible not to.

Let's root her on, it's great for the sport. I haven't seen this much media attention for anyone in years. Even Danica's pictures were up on the various sites before Dale Jr's and that says a lot.

From a fan at the track - Danica is extremely nice and willing to sign, very polite. The only thing is, Danny described her at the "energizer bunny" she is moving at lightning speed from point A to point B, as long as you can walk with her she will sign.

Q&A with the media (I couldn't hear all the questions but here are the answers)

Click here to listen to Danica Patrick's NASCAR Media Day Press Conference

When Danica was asked about the wrecks that ARCA tends to have she responded by saying “I recently heard that it’s a crash fest. I didn’t know that. Now I do, so I think that makes me realize I need to be smart out there.”

Comparing the stock cars to Indy cars “Indy cars if you’re a couple of car lengths back you’re as close as you’re going to get and you’re probably pretty close to passing someone. In these cars, you have a car length to a half a car length gap, you feel a little claustrophobic. That’s why accidents are so much bigger because everybody’s completely nose to tail. Everyone pretty much runs the yellow line until the end. (I wonder if Nascar has relaxed the bumpdrafting rules in ARCA too?)

"If I make a mistake I'm gonna learn from it, I can't change that. I'd like to do better than just finish - a lot of these guys have been doing this a long time, there's a guy out here who's won a few times. I don't think I can put number on it, I never do that. I will try to improve myself and the car."

Question - When will you decide to do NW race - "We will announce on Monday, nobody is putting any pressure on me. This is the biggest race of the year for Nationwide and the championship is at stake and the cup guys are out there." It's been recommended to me not to start there, I'm not gonna ignore those people.

Asked about fans who don't like her - "There are always people who cheer against you, I've felt that before, I try and just look at myself and team, don't let other people's opinion affect how I feel."

Asked about the media "I think this is more than Indy 500 and we're a week out from the Daytona 500. I'm flattered to be in position where people are still interested in me and journalists are writing nice things about me. She said at Indy there's a table and the media comes by but there's a lot more to interviews here, you guys write a lot about it, you tell a story for the fans.

Asked about growing brand and name - "I'm here because I want to race in Nascar right now. The opportunity and idea has come up many different times and I never did it. Now I think the racing looks like fun and oval racing is getting less and less in Indy car and also getting hard to pass. Everyone in Indycar was excited in Kentucky to race on an oval again."

Asked about going to Fontana "It's always good to get out to the west coast. I'm sorry we don't race Indycars there anymore - we lost tracks like Fontana and Michigan in Indycar so I'm excited to go back. Fontana will be a bit more challenging in a stock car."

I've never been afraid to be honest become more gracious I will always be me, be emotional, have a temper because I care - it means everything to me, I heard Dale Jr say that too it's just how we think. It's important to us, so we have emotions. When racing is going well nothing else really matters. It kind of rules your life. I would like to see more emotion. That’s why we watch sports, isn’t it? We want to see someone get excited. We want to see someone be happy. We want to see someone mad. That’s kind of what makes sports, otherwise it’s a TV show pre-programmed."

Asked about distractions and busy schedule - "I can't think about everything I have to do this month. You will see everything I've been doing soon - time to get racing and limit distractions."

"It was nice (testing Orlando) because Kelly Bires had got in car first to be sure it was right which made me feel more comfortable. I felt like car sat up too high at first and the Indy cars have short power bands - stock cars have a big power band so you're you're really accelerating. The gear shift was in wrong place at first - I didn't stall it at all, they thought I would. I reminded them I didn't"

Did some pitstop practice in Charlotte around the corner from Jr's shop. It was good for me - no pit speed limit button for everything in Indycars, colors, lights on these are distracting when you're watching cars coming in out of pits at same time. Every pitstop is different, that's gonna rest on me being ready.

I'm excited about the race, not trying to sound vanilla for you right now by no means do I try to ever, ever, ever take anything away from anyone else.

Question on how aggressive she will be. "Earning respect in the garage you walk a fine line of either being a wimp or taking crap and doing nothing. If you're overly aggressive you make yourself look silly too. It's (respect) gonna come from racing with these guys - it takes a long time to earn all their respect. “If somebody does something to me that I don’t like, you have to expect that you’ll get something in return and I have fenders now so that is pretty exciting. (everyone laughs) I plan to respect everyone until they give me a reason not to."

Question regarding bonding with Tony - "he is a great guy very smart - You guys remember the yaw y'all comments - I said you're saying Y'all about the car? Tony said no it's a tech word I said OH I'm done now!! LOL (everyone laughs). He gets serious when something's not right, I go it's not joking time anymore. He's a great leader everyone respects him, he's a nice guy to be around, I'm lucky to have great engineers/crewchiefs in Nascar.

All I can say is - Go Danica

Click here to see ESPN's Video: Danica Patrick At Daytona