On the eve of the fourth race of her stock car experimental tour, Danica Patrick would do well to study the path of another open wheel explorer -- though it's quite likely she's already picked his brain.

He says they're friends, after all.

“

Expectations are a tough thing. I think when I went NASCAR racing the expectations might have gone too far.

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-- DARIO FRANCHITTI

And since unfounded expectations can lay low the strongest man or even the strongest team -- even a strong woman need beware. And if that team is weaker than expected, look out -- the crash landing of those expectations would rival the Hindenburg disaster.

But thank God life goes on.

Just ask Dario Franchitti, Patrick's former IRL teammate, whose championship race car driving legacy was secured with the 2009 IndyCar title -- or his car owner, multiple champion Chip Ganassi.

The Chip Ganassi Racing pair, with their brutally interrupted 2008 expedition into NASCAR cut short by lack of finance, lack of results and an injury Franchitti suffered in a savage, yet typical superspeedway stock car crash, could advise Patrick on the equivalent brutality of those expectations.

Before discussing Patrick, Ganassi didn't miss the chance to praise his latest champion, Franchitti.

"Let me tell you something, that guy can drive a race car -- he can drive any race car," Ganassi said. "When we tried to do that NASCAR experiment, we thought our cars were a little better than they were and we thought our team was a little better than it was. And the problem was our program was a program that really couldn't afford any hiccups, whatsoever -- it was being run that tight.

"The fact of the matter is we had difficulty getting some sponsorship we otherwise thought we'd have -- he had a crash in which he broke his ankle, which was no fault of his own. But he shows up at a place like Bristol and he led over 100 laps in the [Nationwide] race.

"I look back at that whole thing fondly. Sure, it didn't turn out like we wanted it to, but I'll tell you what -- it made us all grow a lot. It was good for our team and it was good for him. Did it turn out like we wanted it to? No. But it was a learning experience that in the end everything worked out."

And anyways, it's too late for any alarms of warnings they would give Patrick. In the three races she's already run: The ARCA Series opener, the Nationwide Series' Daytona opener and last weekend's Nationwide race at Fontana, Patrick has already discovered the weight of those expectations.

"Expectations are a tough thing," Franchitti said. "I think when I went NASCAR racing the expectations might have gone too far. I think if you keep the expectations in check, it's OK. But it's a learning experience -- like starting from ground zero all over again when you try stock cars."

Ganassi has raced against Patrick since she came to IndyCar, so with his involvement with Franchitti he has the perfect perspective.

"The good news is, I think she's been dealing with that at every step in her career," Ganassi said. "So I'm sure that's nothing new to her. Handling expectations, managing expectations is nothing new for her since she's dealt with at every step of her career.

"I hope she does well -- believe me -- it'll be good for all of us if she does well. And anything I can do to help her, I'll do."

Franchitti's already done it -- first, by taking a few bullets, figuratively speaking, in 2008, and then supporting his IndyCar foe.

"We're friends anyways, so we talk a bunch -- about different stuff, whether we're at the track or if her and Ashley and I and her husband Paul go to dinner -- or we pick up the phone and have a chat," Franchitti said. "But we talked a fair bit about [NASCAR], and some of my experiences. And she came to a couple of the races, like Phoenix a couple times. So she had seen it, and she asked certain things and that was it, really."

And to her credit, as Patrick's adventure blossoms, she's held up well.

The expectations she never asked for and never created -- though you figure in this day and time as inevitable -- haven't yet been stifling. And that's somewhat amazing when it seems the current level of hype and expectation are worlds different than when Tim Richmond and Ken Schrader were among the first open-wheel standouts to really make an impact, or to expectations foisted upon more recent transplants like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne.

Patrick's fits of pique have been amusing -- not confounding or aggravating like similar, seemingly long-ago episodes featuring Stewart and Kyle Busch. Her driving has been adaptable, steadily improving in each event. And most notably, she hasn't made any boneheaded errors -- a claim a lot of the guys who've driven stock cars around her with a lot more experience in the genre, can't make.

And since she hasn't really made any, we know she's not prone to repeating errors. That's a rather sizeable attribute to have in this game. Heck, even former champion Carl Edwards had two pit-road speeding penalties last weekend.

Patrick is measuring up. But after this weekend at Vegas -- where the measuring stick will be placed at her back again -- she steps off to IndyCar. When she returns, how ridiculous, or measured might the expectations be?

"I think to jump back and forth will be very, very difficult -- very tough because they are such different cars -- you can't believe it," Franchitti said. "I think if you took the best guy in Sprint Cup -- Jimmie [Johnson], obviously, winning all those championships -- and stuck him in an Indy car, it would take him a good while to get up to speed. To jump back and forth would be very, very tough."

But Franchitti didn't say it would be impossible.

"Danica's done what she thinks is best for her," Franchitti said. "And I'm 100 percent behind that if that's what she thinks [is best]. As I said, I think it's going to be very, very difficult but she's thought about it, and with her advisors and her family she's certainly made what she thinks is the right decision.

"And I'm not going to second-guess it."

Sounds like that might not be bad advice for the rest of us.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

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• For Patrick the driver, real work is only just beginning