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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - It was bound to get tougher for Danica Patrick and it sure did on Saturday.

After making an impressive stock car debut a week ago in the Daytona ARCA race, Patrick slid behind the wheel of a Nationwide Series car in Saturday's season-opener at Daytona International Speedway.

The final tally will show she only completed 69 laps and wound up exiting the race as part of a massive 12-car pile-up on the frontstretch.

That will be enough for most of her naysayers who will point to the fact that yes she crashed in her first NASCAR race and wasn't anywhere near the front of the field during her time on the track. True statements to be sure.

But that's missing the point.

Patrick's only goal on Saturday was to make laps, learn on the job and get as much experience about driving a NASCAR machine as she possibly could. Patrick called the race her classroom earlier in the week and she went to school when the green flag flew.

Patrick has kept this whole experiment in great perspective this week as she's fought off the incredible media horde that has followed her every week. She does not expect to win any races this season. She only wants to figure out how to pilot one of these heavy beasts which are tanks compared to the Indy Car she drives on a regular basis.

Last week's ARCA race enjoyed record television ratings. Her Nationwide practice sessions this week also generated pretty heft audiences, remarkable for a Wednesday afternoon time slot. No doubt Saturday's race ratings number will be huge.

All of which are good things for the sport, for NASCAR and for Patrick.

There's a vocal group who think there's too much being made of Patrick's move to NASCAR and I can see the point - to a point.

It's a huge story. And it's not the first time attention has been given to a driver coming into the sport who had never turned a lap in NASCAR's top division. Juan Pablo Montoya generated a stir. Dario Franchitti was in the spotlight. And last year at this time the hype machine was in overdrive over a young driver named Joey Logano.

Patrick will have to perform and that's the bottom line. Saturday's final results will indicate to some that she did not at Daytona.

But that's only a small part of the big picture and Patrick should be given the time to make that happen.

Those people who don't think Danica Patrick can drive a stock car need to find another reason for her not to make a move to NASCAR.

Patrick couldn't have been more impressive Saturday night at Daytona in her stock car debut. And it wasn't just her sixth place finish in the ARCA 200 that was reason for even her most stout critics to stand up and take notice.

It was how she got there.

Patrick ran near the front of the field for most of the race and at times showed the patience and prowess of someone with several years of stock car restrictor plate racing rather than a driver making her first appearance at "The World Center of Racing."

Patrick used the draft, hugged the yellow inside line and even applied a little bump drafting technique in the first night on her new job.

Oh and she even got a little taste of crashing, well almost crashing anyway.

Patrick and Nelson Piquet Jr., a Formula One veteran making his stock car debut as well, made contact coming out of turn four on lap 54. The impact sent Patrick on a wild ride down the frontstretch and finally through the infield grass before she was finally able to right the ship and remarkably head back top pit road with very little damage.

Her JR Motorsports crew changed tires and made a few minor repairs and after restarting 17th, Patrick was able to again draft her way to the front and finally take the checkered flag in the sixth position.

All the while the crowd seemed to ooh and aah with her every move on the race track and she was by far the focal point of what turned out to be a typical ARCA "Crashfest" at the 2.5-mile track. The race was punctuated by several scary-looking wrecks and proved once again that running these mostly inexperienced drivers at such high speeds at a mammoth track like Daytona probably isn't the best idea in the world. By the grace of God no one was hurt.

Patrick came away unscathed and although it's only one race in a clearly lower level series on a restrictor plate track proved that she has a shot at figuring out the stock car game. Whether she makes her NASCAR debut in next Saturday's Nationwide Series race has yet to be announced but the feeling around the track is that will come on the heels of her performance tonight.

Patrick had every reason to say "I told you so" to a lot of people after she climbed out of the car Saturday night. 

She didn't.

But her smile and look of accomplishment spoke volumes.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - The official start of the 2010 season took the green flag Thursday at Daytona International Speedway with the 11th edition of NASCAR Media Day. Pretty much every driver who will start the year in one of NASCAR's top three divisions took time to meet media members from all over the country to preview the upcoming campaign.

Jimmie Johnson and Danica Patrick drew the most attention in the day's morning session which featured 34 drivers roaming from station to station around the massive tent constructed just outside the frontstretch of DIS. Johnson answered question after question about his chance for an unprecedented fifth straight title. Dale Earnhardt Jr. patiently listened to reporters from coast to coast ask when things would turn around for the 88 team. And Danica Patrick confirmed the rumor that yes indeed she would be racing at Daytona on Saturday in the ARCA race, as if that wasn't a topic that has been discussed nearly non-stop by fans and media this off-season.

So at the end of the day it was pretty much an uneventful day in Daytona. Everyone is excited. That driver uniforms are fresh. Pictures and head shots were taken and the season can now begin.

Getting cars on the track can't come soon enough.

Danica Patrick's 2010 racing schedule was finalized with the announcement of the 12 race Nationwide Series schedule she'll compete in with JR Motorsports.

Let's just say she'll have her hands full this season.

Starting with next week's ARCA opener at Daytona, Patrick as of now has 29 races on her calendar across three different divisions - the IRL, Nationwide Series and ARCA. That could grow to include the Nationwide kick off event at Daytona if her ARCA voyage goes well. And there is the possibility of a few more ARCA stock car rides in the mix in the final third of the season.

Already Patrick's announcement has caused an uptick of excitement around some regular season Nationwide Series races that have struggled to move tickets the last few seasons. One track promoter told me Patrick's appearance will account for 5-10,000 more butts in his seats later this summer.

The folks at ESPN are most certainly grinning from ear-to-ear with Patrick's news which will no doubt bring a few more eyeballs to the network's Nationwide Series telecasts. And if just a handful of people tune in to watch Patrick's IRL endeavors after getting a taste of her skills in stock car racing, the anemic Indy Car TV audience will also pick up a few notches in the ratings department.

All that's left now is for Patrick to learn the nuances of driving a 3,400 pound stock car while balancing her regular job of piloting her Indy Car rocket ship. Whether she can juggle the two successfully is still the biggest question on most people's minds.

"You've hit the nail on the head," said Dario Franchitti, who knows a thing or two about making the transition from open wheel racing to stock cars and then back again. "You can learn to switch by focusing but the back and forth I think will be tricky."

The countdown clock is now down to seven days for the great Danica experiment to begin.  In a season that is already shaping up as one filled with potential and story lines, this one may be the most intriguing to watch.

CONCORD, N.C. - The annual trek through Charlotte for the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour came to a close on Thursday and the unofficial count had the word excited uttered 1,050 times by various drivers, team owners, sponsoprs, NASCAR officials and even media members.


With the season now just two weeks away, the winter is officially over despite what the weatherman says and all of the off-track talk that has clogged up radio talk shows and Internet message boards can wind down.


The tour didn't feature too many nuggets of what I'd call hard news. Even the much-anticipated final day visit to the NASCAR R&D Center had much of its wind taken out of the sails since reports on exactly what was going to be implemented by the sanctioning body were swirling days earlier.


The much-maligned Sprint Cup car rear wing will indeed be ditched in favor of the rear spoiler and the return of bump drafting in the corners will come at Talladega this April.


We'll still have to deal with the yellow "out of bounds" line at the two restrictor plate tracks and after talking to at least a dozen drivers this week, I'd say that was a welcome decision. Forget all that talk about "letting us police ourselves." The majority of drivers knew removing the yellow line would result in going five wide into turn three and more than likely causing more of the dreaded "Big Ones."


It still seems odd that with the season only days away NASCAR has put into play several policies that are much more than just tweaks to the system. Why didn't the rear wing for spoiler equation get signed into the rules at the end of last season to allow teams to test during the winter months? Now we have a year coming up where teams will basically start with one car and then switch to what is essentially a brand new machine six weeks later when the spoiler version debuts at Martinsville?


NASCAR will tell you it's because they are listening to the fans and that's certainyl true with the Cup car. I haven't heard too many paying customers singing its praises since it first appeared in 2007. And when the new Nationwide car was received with much excitement because of its more production-based car look, NASCAR most likely knew the time to change up the generic Cup car was coming. Trading the wing for a spoiler at least gives the vehicle a more traditional stock car look.


I enjoyed the week in Charlotte as I always do but am tired and full (the meal plan is extraordinary). I'm looking forward to getting home for a few days and then heading to Daytona to let all of this play itself out on the track. It will be very good indeed to see cars making laps.

CONCORD, N.C. - There was a bombshell that hit during Tuesday's second day of the annual NASCAR Sprint Media Tour but it wasn't on the day's agenda.

It was learned while the day's morning activities were rolling along that Sprint Cup Series Director John Darby would be leaving the post he's held since 2002 to take an upper management level position within NASCAR.

Darby will stay with the sanctioning body in his current capacity to train his successor and an immediate search has begun to find that replacement.

Speculation is current Nationwide Series Director Joe Balash could be elevated to take Darby's position but NASCAR is reportedly looking at candidates from other circuits as well.

That change comes during a week when several major issues are in the news regarding the upcoming season which officially kicks off at Daytona in about three weeks.

The much-discussed spoiler that will replace the Sprint Cup car's rear win is being put through a test during a Goodyear session at Texas Motor Speedway today and Wednesday with official specs of the modification expected to come on Thursday. NASCAR will also hold an open test at Charlotte Motor Speedway on March 23 and 24 with Martinsville on the last Sunday of March the target date to implement the switch in race trim.

Tuesday's activities included the formalization of the merger between Richard Petty Motorsports and Yates Racing, which officials announced was finalized. Kasey Kahne, A.J. Allmendinger, Elliott Sadler and Paul Menard will comprise the quartet driving Fords with the manufacturer's new engine expected to be implement across the board by early spring.

Front Row Motorsports, which announced a switch to the Ford camp last week, announced plans to run three full-time teams in 2010. Travis Kvapil and rookie contender Kevin Conway will be joined by David Gilliland, slated to pilot the third entry for the majority of the season. Robert Richardson will take the wheel when Gilliland is not on hand.

A visit to the new NASCAR Hall of Fame set to open next May capped off the day but the buzz is still the startling revelation of Darby's position in the Cup Series changing.

CONCORD, N.C. - The 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Media Tour rolled off on Monday and it actually contained a bit of news. To no one's surprise Joe Gibbs Racing has locked down Kyle Busch on a multi-year contract extension that will keep him in the team's familiar No. 18 ride for several more seasons.

"What does multi-year deal mean to me?" Busch said. "It means a secure future. Joe and J.D. (Gibbs) were very receptive to my ideas, I was receptive to their ideas on how to further along our relationship and our commitment to each other and to do that was to get the deal done, show our sponsors that we're committed to each other and the people in the shop worried, 'Well is Kyle Busch going to be here or not?' We put all that to rest."

In reality the rest of the day was spent talking to teams anxious to get the season started including Stewart-Haas Racing, which is hoping to build on the incredible success Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman experienced in the organization's rookie campaign. Both drivers made the Chase and Stewart led the points by a wide margin after the 26 race regular season.

However that performance does not guarantee a successful 2010, although Stewart is feeling confident.

"I'm expecting a great year," Stewart said.  "I feel like both of us being able to get into the Chase last year was something I expect both teams to do. I feel like the changes we went through and the work we've done over the winter has prepared both of these teams to have a shot at running for a championship."

A stop at Charlotte Motor Speedway revealed a time change for the track's May Nationwide race which will now take the green flag at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 29 - a move from the previous night race that had been on the calendar for the last few years.

And the night wrapped up with a Penske Racing session, which formally introduced newest member Brad Keselowski to its Sprint Cuo stable, who will join Kurt Busch and Sam Hornish Jr. Despite being the only Dodge stable in the Cup Series, team owner Roger Penske is feeling confident about a successful season.

"I think it's actually an advantage to have the full support of Dodge for only our team and I expect us to be able to capitalize on that," Penske said.

Day two includes a Richard Childress Racing and Richard Petty Motorsports session as well as a visit by Roush Fenway Racing.

CONCORD, N.C. - About 200 of my closest friends and colleagues have joined me here in the greater Charlotte area for the annual NASCAR Preseason Media Tour. Over the course of the next few days we'll have a chance to talk with several drivers and teams to preview the coming NASCAR season and along the way no doubt scarf down thousands of pounds of food and drink.

The tour is always a great way to unofficially kick off the racing season and the folks at Charlotte Motor Speedway's public relations staff never fail to deliver a good lineup of NASCAR-related folks to meet.

Some of the drama has been taken out of the trip with the news that NASCAR will indeed ditch the Sprint Cup Series car's rear wing for a spoiler as next week's Goodyear tire test in Texas will see four teams test the idea with an open test session schedule at Charlotte Motor Speedway in March. So Thursday's scheduled stop at the NASCAR R&D Center will most likely just officially confirm that news as well as give us the finality of removing the double yellow out of bounds line at Daytona and Talladega.

There might not be much other big news coming from this week's tour and no doubt we'll keep tabs on just how many times the word "excited" is used as drivers, team owners, crew members and even media member use that description to explain their eagerness for the coming campaign.

We'll be here all week so check out things here at CBS Sports.com on a regular basis and this blog for anything of interest that comes out of our few days here in the Queen City.

Now I'm off to find a bottle of antacids - just to be safe.