Danica chasing her dream should be focus of story (cont'd)

That learning curve will begin in the ARCA Series at Daytona on Feb. 6.

"It will be a proving ground for Danica for sure," said Alli Owens, who will be in her third season of ARCA competition. "Her first taste of stock-car racing won't be easy. She's going to have to learn the ins and outs of stock-car drafting. So much of her success will come down to who's willing to race with her, and that's a matter of earning her competitors' respect. She'll need to show them that she can push them to the front and they'll be happy to return the favor.

"Once you put your helmet on, it doesn't matter if you're a girl or a boy. It only matters if you can draft with the cars around you."

Again -- Danica's chasing the dream, one wind-swept photo shoot at a time, one race at a time.

"There is a lot more on her, obviously, trying to learn the world of NASCAR," he added, "but I think she's smart enough to get good [at racing stock cars]. There is going to be a huge magnifying glass on her -- and she's not prepared for this. It's going to be 10 times bigger than she expects.

"Hopefully she's got a support system to keep her grounded."

If not, a nation of Danicamaniacs won't make a difference, wind-swept photo shoots or not.

What remains to be seen is how the schedule will play a part in Danica's maturation as a stock-car driver. She's committed to the full IRL schedule and will compete in only select Nationwide Series races.

"This shows me that maybe NASCAR is a little more desperate than I think they are if they think she's going to be the 'save-all' and 'cure-all,' " SPEED analyst Robin Miller said. "Danica will go through a huge learning process. She as a lot of spunk and talent and there's no doubt about her abilities. She is as serious a racer as any guy. But this is something you can't do part-time. It's a full-time job.

"NASCAR is such a completely different animal. I'm just not sure you can jump back and forth and do one for two months, take four or six months off, then come back and do it again and have any kind of rhythm or consistency, but we'll see."

The focus of this story -- Danica's NASCAR career -- should not be on today, yesterday or five years ago. It should be on what she does now that she has been given the opportunity to drive for JR Motorsports.

She's now in the fast lane. She's a beautiful woman, a made-for-marketing spokesperson for the sport. She's raring to compete, to prove herself on the track.

The wind-swept finish line lies in wait.

The opinions expressed are those solely of the writer.