Patrick's best asset just might be her new boss (cont'd)

All the Hendrick horsepower in the world, though, won't help her with the fishbowl lifestyle she's about to be thrust into. No question, Patrick deals with this already to a large degree on the IndyCar side, where she's not only just the most popular driver, but the face of the series. But now that she's associated with America's biggest motorsports series and America's most well-known race car driver, the volume is about to get turned up to 11. She's about to face attention and scrutiny like she's never faced before. This isn't IndyCar, where with the exception of the Indianapolis 500, events draw roughly half the fans and only a fraction of the media spotlight that NASCAR does. Whenever she debuts on the Nationwide tour, her every bobble is going to be dissected like a biology-class frog.

We "know what it's like to deal with someone who's very popular and who people always want things from," said Kelley Earnhardt, Dale Jr.'s sister and JR Motorsports general manager, who essentially put the Patrick deal together. "We can share that experience with Danica, but I think she's pretty used to that where she comes from, and it will only be heightened on the NASCAR side. Our fan base is extremely loyal, so it will bring a new level of attention to her that she's probably not dealt with from the aspect of NASCAR."

And yet, even the best of situations can still go very bad. Toward that end, Patrick need only to consult her car owner on the IndyCar side, Michael Andretti, who in 1993 seemed more than prepared for Formula One when he made the leap to the powerful McLaren team after a successful stint in CART that included a championship. The move proved disastrous -- in his first three races he completed only three laps, he didn't finish until the fifth event of the season, and he left the team with three starts still remaining in the year. Of course, that's an absolute worst-case scenario, and nobody is saying that Patrick's maiden NASCAR voyage will be that bad. But no question, it's going to be trying. And how she handles it may ultimately determine whether or not she succeeds.

Despite her edgy television-commercial persona, Patrick can be difficult to figure out. She comes across as somewhat defensive and taciturn, almost certainly the result of coming up through a testosterone-driven motorsports culture, beginning when she moved to England as a teenager to further her racing career. She's a fighter, and she doesn't take a whole lot of crap from anyone, which can be good or bad depending on the situation. It's not difficult to imagine a situation where Patrick struggles mightily on the race track, begins to feel burdened by this two-series schedule, gets tired of fans and media members predicting -- and in some cases, expecting -- her to fail, and starts to feel the walls closing in.

In that respect, Patrick's greatest asset in her move to NASCAR may not be her driving talent, or her marketability, or her sex appeal. It just might be her new boss, Earnhardt Jr., who lives with all of that every day, and most times handles it with a grace and a perspective that belie his 35 years.

Here's a guy who missed the Chase despite racing for the best team in NASCAR, who's won once in his last 135 Cup starts, who half the grandstand adores and the other half thinks is living off his last name. And yet, he understands his place in the sport, and usually says the right things, and most times lives up to the ambassadorial role that has been thrust upon him. Danica Patrick could do much worse than to emulate Earnhardt, who more than anyone else in the NASCAR garage area knows what it's like to live with a disparity between popularity and performance.

"I have dealt with this on some level," Patrick said. "I don't think there's any way to guess what it will be like for me with IndyCar and then the NASCAR on top of it. I'm really fortunate, it's a great opportunity. But I'm sure there are some little things that are different with maybe the places that fans are allowed at the NASCAR tracks, and just how to maneuver about in the pit area so I can get there to do my job. But outside of that, I think a lot of it just comes from being surrounded with good people, my family and my husband and good people like Kelley and all the mechanics and all the crew chiefs and everything. So I'll try to keep my head on straight with good people around me."

One of those people is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Listening to his advice -- not just on NASCAR racing, but on handling the circus that often surrounds it -- would be a smart first step.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.