Don't deride Danica Patrick for chasing her dream. She is just the latest in a long line of drivers to pull into the fast lane.

Don't disparage Danica Patrick for being beautiful. She is who she is -- easy on the eyes and talented, which in today's sports world is marketing gold.

Don't mock Danica Patrick for anything. She is a competitive athlete who wants to capitalize on the opportunity to race against the best.

Danicamania!

Patrick will drive the No. 7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in a partial Nationwide Series schedule in 2010.

• Complete story
• Who is Danica Patrick?
• Career statistics in IRL

"[Danica] is the first woman who is getting a fair shot in the sport," said Wally Dallenbach, a veteran of many racing disciplines, including a combined 244 starts in NASCAR's three national touring series. "No other woman has ever gotten the equipment she's going to be in.

"There are no surprises in this sport, no magic to this business -- good equipment is most important," he said.

Danica will have the best equipment available; JR Motorsports is an elite Nationwide Series team (and support from Cup Series heavyweight Hendrick Motorsports only amplifies JRM's significance).

However, she will never be able to meet -- much less exceed -- the fans' expectations. And when she needs a shoulder to lean on, the seven-time most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., won't be far away. He, too, is familiar with the hairline fracture between fan expectations and on-track success.

"That goes for everybody," Dallenbach said in reference to drivers trying to achieve a level of success great enough to satisfy the seemingly insatiable desires of the NASCAR Nation. "It can get pretty vicious out there.

"Obviously she will be very popular -- she's great looking, she's great with sponsors -- but at the end of the day you've gotta get the job done."

And that's where a lot of the venom toward Danica comes from. Has she gotten the job done in five years in the IRL? One win in 81 races isn't a ringing endorsement.

But obviously there is something that the Danicamaniacs have bought into. She's chasing the dream, one wind-swept photo shoot at a time, one race at a time.

It is unfair to believe Danica will roll into NASCAR and begin collecting checkered flags; she'll collect a lot more wadded-up sheet metal. It's also unfair to make the assumption that the only reason she's teaming up with JR Motorsports is because she's a pretty face; JRM is a business that has many facets, including marketing.

"If [Danica] thinks she's going to come into NASCAR and start winning right away, she's gonna get a huge slice of humble pie," Dallenbach said. "There are no guarantees -- even though she is surrounded with the best owner, the best equipment -- that she will succeed.

"It's a steep learning curve. An open-wheel car is different than a stock car and she's being thrust into the most competitive racing in the world. She's got to learn who she can trust [on the track], who she can't. Coming down pit lane with 40 other cars is something she's never done."

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.