CAN NASCAR survive much longer without Danica Patrick?

If you’re having a little trouble putting Danica Patrick's impact on NASCAR into perspective, consider the following – the NASCAR Sprint Cup Gatorade Duels at Daytona this year earned a 1.99 Nielsen Rating on SPEED. The ARCA race – with Patrick front and center – stood toe-to-toe with the Cup boys and their twin qualifying races on SPEED.

Not one to rest on her Daytona laurels, Patrick sped into California this week appearances on the Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel Live! On Thursday and the Bonnie Hunt Show Friday. About the only driver who came even close to this kind of media attention this week was Jamie McMurray and he WON the Daytona 500.

Patrick is arguably the hottest media property in all of motorsports – not just NASCAR – right now and that’s without success on the track. If she ever masters stock car racing and starts to run well or win events, the television numbers, media attention and marketing surge will be seismic.

The bottom line is even without the top performances, Patrick is bringing massive attention to NASCAR – not the other way around – and that’s something that nobody could have envisioned as little as one year ago. Closefinishes.com