Midday update
DAYTONA BEACH – Danica Patrick stepped off the elevator, looked at the crowd of media awaiting her arrival and uttered, “Oh, my God.”
But if she harbored any apprehension about the approaching subject, she didn’t show it. Danica’s duties at the annual NASCAR media day involved a series of interview sessions, and the topic was inevitable, so she tackled it head-on, answering a series of questions regarding her now-public romance with her colleague driver Ricky Stenhouse.
“It doesn’t really seem race-related,” she laughed five minutes into her print obligation. She repeated the story of the maturation of her relationship with Stenhouse, which she said began as a friendship and grew.
“We’ve been friends for a long time,” she said.
“It makes me smile to talk about him,” Patrick said of his new boyfriend. “I feel like I’m on The Bachelorette,” she said. “We just had a connection.”
When asked what Tony Stewart and his sponsors thought of their relationship, Patrick said they had no reservations about it affecting his racing.
“They’re all confident that we’re both going to do our jobs and do it the way we’ve always done it,” she said.
Asked about the extra attention Ricky has received and how he’s coping with it, she said he’s doing “pretty well.”
She said he was a little nervous about going public, but she told him, “You better get used to it.”
Throughout the morning, as a long line of drivers moved through the Media Day routine – radio, television, print – no one seemed safe from questions about Danica, Ricky and the uniqueness of it all that.
Defending Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski repeated what he made public earlier in the week on a national radio show – saying the story would become infinitely more interesting if the two ever split and ended their relationship.
“It would be amazing to watch, to be quite honest,” Keselowski said.
9:00 a.m. Update
DAYTONA BEACH – Five-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson took his place behind a microphone at 8 a.m. to begin his official preseason media obligations, and there was no delay in getting to the heart of the matter subject.
The new “Generation 6” stock car? Jimmie’s chance to return to championship form and win Title No. 6? NASCAR’s innovative new track drying procedure, officially revealed this week?
No, no and no. The first part of Jimmie Johnson’s interview Thursday morning focused on questions and answers about Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse, the two racers who are not only entering their first full-time season at the highest level of NASCAR, but who are doing so in as boyfriend and girlfriend.
“We’re all going to be watching,” said Johnson, who also claimed, “I haven’t thought about it until now.”
The annual NASCAR Media Day provides drivers, teams and various media outlets one last chance to “look ahead” to the upcoming season. Starting Friday afternoon at 5 p.m., when entries for Saturday night’s “Sprint Unlimited” exhibition race begin their first practice session, the focus will be on actual lap times, speed issues, writing, etc.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Daytona’s 2.5-mile tri-oval still belongs to the cars of ARCA, which is holding a practice session from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. before Friday’s qualifying and Saturday afternoon’s race, which serves as an always entertaining warm-up for Saturday night’s Cup Series event.
