Tag, RHR and Conway placed on probation for Edmonton incidents
The question: Is Danica Patrick going to NASCAR full-time in 2012?
The answer: It may finally be coming.
The Associated Press is now reporting that the IZOD IndyCar Series and part-time NASCAR Nationwide Series driver is finalizing a deal to run stock cars full-time in 2012 by driving a full Nationwide docket for JR Motorsports and a partial Sprint Cup Series schedule for Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick could also continue to drive in the Indianapolis 500 next year as well.
If the reports are true, then it means we’ll be seeing the end of Patrick’s full-time IndyCar career over the last two-and-a-half months of this season. Of course, nothing is official until it’s official. But if this really is the end, then a part of me is likely to feel relief more than anything. After all, for many months now, we’ve been subjected to the “Danica-to-NASCAR” storylines from all corners of the sports media. And while this obviously wouldn’t be good news for Randy Bernard and IndyCar as a whole — she is, after all, the series’ biggest star — it can also be an opportunity for Bernard to start creating more legitimate stars instead of using one giant one as the linchpin.
Still, nothing’s finalized just yet. Let’s see how it turns out before we start reflecting on Patrick’s sizeable contribution to open-wheel racing.
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Alex Tagliani, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway have been placed on probation through Dec. 31, 2011 by INDYCAR for multiple incidents over the course of the IZOD IndyCar Series season.
Conway got hit with probation after being penalized for avoiable contact with Ryan Briscoe at Toronto and Oriol Servia at Edmonton, while Hunter-Reay was cited for the same after hitting Briscoe at Barber and Takuma Sato at Edmonton. As for Tagliani, he violated the rule after putting Will Power into the wall at Toronto and forcing Graham Rahal out of the Edmonton Indy in a first-lap crackup.
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IndyCar cable partner Versus is set to morph into the NBC Sports Network on Jan. 2, 2012, bringing about an inevitable change in the wake of Comcast and NBC Universal’s merger.
And while that should certainly help boost IndyCar’s presence in the eyes of the mainstream sports fan, this may be even bigger in the long run for open-wheel faithful: The NFL is talking to Versus (and several other TV entities, including the Turner networks) about bringing Thursday night games to the cable station, perhaps as early as 2012. This goes along with the recent reports of a potential 2012 NFL campaign with Thursday night football scheduled throughout the season.
Woo. And double woo if this could help IndyCar in any way should Versus/NBCSN land the eight-game Thursday package. As the IBJ’s Anthony Schoettle hypothesizes:
“…Since the early part of the NFL season overlaps the last part of the IndyCar season, it could open serious cross-promotional opportunities for the series. That kind of NFL-fueled cross promotion would give IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard a lot more juice to trumpet his season-ending gala in Las Vegas, which is scheduled for Oct. 16 this year.”
Of course, NBC already has been promoting IndyCar on its NFL broadcasts — well, sort of (skip to the 0:43 mark on the video).
