NASCAR: She's back for more

Danica Patrick is treating the remainder of her NASCAR Nationwide races differently than the three she ran earlier this season.

“I didn’t set expectations for those first three races,” said Patrick, who returns to NASCAR after four months in the IndyCar Series for Saturday’s New England 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. “It’s probably better for me to say, ‘Let’s qualify in the top 20 and finish in the top 15,’ and build myself up from there. I think it’s best for my confidence and morale to set those kinds of expectation levels.

“I think I need to have realistic expectations during my NASCAR weekends, rather than the kind I have with Indy Car, which is to win or get on the podium.”

Although Patrick hasn’t said so specifically, she is making what might be a gradual transition to NASCAR by running a limited number of Nationwide races this season. She finished 35th at Daytona, 31st at Fontana, Calif., and 36th at Las Vegas — crashing out at two of them. She then went off to her regular IndyCar schedule, where she’s run eight races and is 11th in points. She’s been on a bit of a roll recently, finishing sixth in the Indianapolis 500, second at Texas before falling to 10th at Iowa last week.

So, with an off date on the IndyCar schedule this weekend, she’s back with NASCAR. She is scheduled to run in nine more Nationwide races later this season.

She said she hasn’t been paying much attention to what’s been happening in NASCAR (“I haven’t been watching anything”), but she remembers the differences between the two series — in other words, driving a lighter, open-wheel car versus a heavier, clumsier-handling stock car in denser traffic.

“When I ran at Fontana in IndyCars, I stayed flat, on the white line and never lifted (off the gas pedal),” Patrick said. “With a stock car there, you run a more traditional line and you’re lifting some time, breaking some time. The track felt really big in the IndyCar; it felt really small in a stock car.”

Patrick and her JR Motorsports Nationwide team recently tested at Milwaukee.

But it’s going to take more actual competition — beginning at New Hampshire and on to other NASCAR tracks like Chicagoland, Michigan and Dover — for her to get comfortable in a stock car.

“When you’re testing, you’re by yourself,” she said.

“It gives you a chance to get out there without looking in the mirror or maneuvering around other cars. It does allow you a chance to get a feel for your car, feel the changes. And that’s important because it’s new to me.

“But when you get out in a race, that’s where you really learn the most. You’re forced to get out there and go. Unfortunately, I’m learning in front of everybody this year and (next) year.”

People pay attention to what Patrick does. Her first NASCAR experience at Daytona produced blizzards of media and fan attention. It will be the same in Loudon this weekend.

“I don’t have any responsibility for that,” she said. “I’m just a driver out there, getting my opportunity and experience (from it). I’ll just do my best to put on a good show, smile and be cheerful. Just do my job.”