Danica Patrick talks about new crew chief

Can Billy Scott do what no crew chief before him could do- turn Danica Patrick into a winner?

Danica Patrick didn't have input in choosing new crew chief Billy Scott, but a few days around him in the Stewart-Haas Racing shop last week have her encouraged.

"Billy's great; I feel like he has a lot of common sense about everything," Patrick told NASCAR Talk Saturday at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in her first public comments about Scott, whose hiring was announced Nov. 30.

"I feel he's going to do a really great job. He's crafting a good team."

Scott will become the third crew chief in three seasons for Patrick, whose #10 Chevrolet team was involved in an offseason overhaul at SHR that also ushered in a new crew chief (Michael Bugarewicz) for teammate Tony Stewart. In her lone full season with Daniel Knost, Patrick finished a career-best 24th in the Sprint Cup points standings. But she slipped to two top 10s (from three in 2014, including a career-best sixth at Atlanta Motor Speedway) and didn't finish higher than 15th after the May 31 race at Dover International Speedway.

Scott, a 2005 graduate of UNC Charlotte, also is a degreed engineer, but Patrick said she wasn't involved in his hiring process.

"I really left it up to the team," Patrick said. "I did everything I could last year to make the most with Daniel wholeheartedly, and the team just thought that it would be a better fit and good adjustment to change that. I trust them. I have to; that's what they do. I drive the car. The best thing I can do is make the most of every weekend. When they ask my opinion on things, I give them the opinion on what I think is good, what I think is bad, and let them do their job."

Scott, who worked Clint Bowyer, David Ragan, Brian Vickers and Michael Waltrip as a Michael Waltrip Racing crew chief last season, will be working with engineer William Lee, one of several holdovers from last year's #10 team. Scott also has a good working relationship with fellow workaholic crew chief Rodney Childers, who left MWR two years ago to join Kevin Harvick's 2014 championship team at SHR. NBC Sports