IRL glam girl Patrick has modest goals in return to NASCAR’s Nationwide series

Patrick has modest goals in NASCAR return

LOUDON, N.H. — Danica Patrick can kick up her heels in style in her NASCAR return.

Patrick received a pair of flashy Yves St. Laurent platform heels Friday just for showing up to race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Track general manager Jerry Gappens gave the IndyCar driver the shoes as a gift for running in the Nationwide Series race — an upgrade from the lobsters he delivered to her last year to persuade her to race on the 1-mile track.

Gappens said the gold-colored shoes cost about $1,000. Small price to pay for the expected 30 percent attendance spike Patrick’s presence will create for Saturday’s race.

Yes, glitz and glamour was back in NASCAR on Friday with Patrick making her anticipated return to the second-tier series. Patrick, racing’s cover girl, was flattered by the gift and all the attention heaped on her at New Hampshire.

Patrick’s news conference was packed with photographers and reporters — even Speedway Motorsports Inc. owner Bruton Smith grabbed a front-row seat — and she was charming and funny while attempting to downplay expectations for Saturday. She can sell tickets with her sex appeal, and she’d like to put on a show for the fans in her brief dip into NASCAR.

“I’m lucky people are curious about me, I’m lucky I have great fans,” she said. “I want to do well for them. I know they came to see something and I want to show them something. It’s really awesome.”

She got a sneak peak at the track Thursday night when JR Motorsports co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. took her for a spin for a tutorial on what to expect once she gets behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevy.

“She just wanted me to show her what was going on with the track and how the corners are and stuff,” Earnhardt said. “That’s pretty much it.”

Patrick got another crash course on Friday with a pair of practices that show she still has a steep learning curve as she switches circuits. It’s not as simple as step on the gas and go. She was 43rd on the first practice early Friday.

She said a top-15 or a top-20 finish would be a success. Patrick fared no better than 31st in three starts on the Nationwide Series in February.

Her charisma helped get her a ride. She’s counting on her talent to take over from there. Patrick’s first lesson was to learn to trust her instincts because it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in a different series.

“I’m a confident driver,” she said. “I know what I need. If I can’t feel it, it’s not there. Don’t make it up in your head.”

Patrick earned raves for her poise while finishing sixth in the season-opening ARCA race. She’s been publicly supported by some of Sprint Cup’s top stars for attempting to succeed in two series in the same season.

“It takes a lot of guts to expose yourself in front of millions of people, in front of all the media, in front of all your peers,” veteran Jeff Burton said. “The only way we know is to go try it. If somebody came to me and said, ‘Hey, do you want to run Texas in an IRL car, I’d say hell no.’ I don’t want to get embarrassed. She’s doing that.”

Patrick did some testing at Milwaukee recently to get a feel for how the car might set up in New Hampshire.

“It’s not like I’m just going to come out to all those tracks and be right on it,” she said. “It’s not going to be able to be a winning car, really, because of me, because I have so much to learn.”

She’s under contract to drive part-time in the Nationwide Series through the end of 2011 and has two-plus years left on her deal with Andretti Autosport. Patrick is 11th in the IndyCar standings heading into the race at Watkins Glen on Independence Day and posted her best finish on American soil with a runner-up effort in Texas two weeks ago.

Patrick has to juggle a schedule that will flip-flop between Nationwide and IndyCar over the summer. She’ll do it for the next two months before taking another break from NASCAR until the IndyCar season ends in early October.

She’ll eventually get to the point where it will be one series or the other — a decision that’s still far off.

“Can she do both? It would be very, very difficult,” Burton said.

For now, Patrick is just trying to fit in. She flew commercial to New Hampshire and talked about wanting to blend in like one of the guys — even as one of the most famous athletes around.

“I get to meet a lot of wonderful people, I get to do a lot of amazing things, see a lot of great things, travel in style and get nice tables at restaurants and upgrades at hotels,” she said.

“I mean, I have a really wonderful lifestyle.”

And a new pair of shoes to toss in her suitcase.