It Looks like NASCAR and Fox Will Make the Same Mistake the IRL and ABC Made

What mistake? Obsessing about driver Danica Patrick. In just the first weekend of the new NASCAR season I've seen numerous interviews and features on Patrick, far more than any other rookie or even veteran driver in the Sprint Cup series. She ran seven seasons in the IRL and had one win in the Japan, and yet you'd they market her as though she's the female Dale Earnhardt.

Way back in the early days of this blog I wrote a 2005 post about the Indy 500 and ABC's obsession with Patrick. It looks like NASCAR has told Fox to do the same this year - push Danica...we need the women viewers (and the males who drool over Go Daddy.com commercials).

As a rookie Patrick would normally have to fight her way into the Daytona 500, but thanks to some horse trading by car owners, she has a guaranteed spot no matter how she performed in qualifying or the qualifying races on Thursday. She could end up in a smoking wreck on the pace lap and she'll still start on Sunday.  Even last year's winner had to fight his way into the field.

There's nothing illegal about all this, it's just that there seems to have been an awful lot of effort on the part of NASCAR and Fox to make sure she's prominently featured.  We'll see how it goes.