Danica Patrick Wins Pole Position for Daytona 500

Danica Patrick wasted no time demonstrating that she is a serious NASCAR driver by winning the pole position for the 2013 Daytona 500 on February 24th.  She’s the first woman to qualify for the pole in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Danica has run in some NASCAR races but this is the first season she’s been a full time stock car driver, leaving IndyCar racing behind.  In terms of interest among U.S. racing fans, NASCAR left IndyCar in the dust years ago, so she’s moving up.  She’s part of Tony Stewart’s Racing Team, and Stewart wouldn’t bring her on board if he didn’t think there was talent there.

Earlier this month, the newly divorced Danica confirmed she is dating fellow driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. We don’t keep track of such things, but that might be another first on Sprint Cup scene.  All of this is generating plenty of positive interest in NASCAR, which is pretty darn good at marketing itself already.