HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
FEBRUARY 2013
her formerly tight-knit circle swelled to include two agents,
two accountants, a publicist (who in turn had two assistants) and—
because this isNASCAR—someone to drive hermillion-dollarmotor
home to each of the 50 or so races on her schedule.
Meanwhile, the motorati immediately started predicting that
joining Brand Danica to NASCAR would create—pardon the
cliché—a perfect storm of revenue and ratings. “It’s exactly what
the sport needs right now,” Ed Kiernan, president of sportsmarket-
ing agency Engine Shop, said at the time. “If she can perform on
the track, it’ll propel her into another stratosphere. You’ll see her
popping up in every endcap and aisle display at major retailers all
around the country.”
But that was a big
if
.
When the Daytona 500 began, Patrick fell behind quickly, then
crashedon the second lap. Formost of the rest of the contest, shewal-
lowed in the rear of the pack and struggled to stay out of theway of
the farmore experiencedfield. She looked overmatched, outgunned,
even timid—basically the opposite of her off-track personality.
Immediately following the crash, Patrick had limped back into
the pit in her #10 GoDaddy.com Chevy and unleashed a geyser of
invective on her crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, about who hadwrecked
her andwhy. But inpost-race interviews, she did a be er job of hold-
ing her infamous temper in check. Sipping fromawater bo lewith
the label torn off (she hadn’t yet landed the right drink sponsor, and
no one inNASCAR does free branding), she gave an ESPN reporter
a put-the-best-face-on-it postmortem. Still, you could tell Patrick
was riled. It was a rocky start for NASCAR’s new star.
“
I’m ge ing be er at my temper,” Patrick, 30, tells
Hemispheres
.
“
But I’ll never be the perfect pitchman everyone wants to see.”
But that’s the thing. She
is
the perfect pitchman everyone wants
to see, at least for the moment. As that ESPN camera lingered on
the firesuit—emblazoned with logos from GoDaddy.com, Tissot
watches and Peak antifreeze—it told the true, and truly lucrative,
story of Danica Patrick: Brand Danica.
HERE ARE THE STATS
from 2012. Racing for JRMotorsports (owned
by thebiggest name inNASCAR, DaleEarnhardt Jr.), Patrickfinished
in the top 10 four times in 33 races in the Nationwide Series, the
cu hroat junior league beneath the elite Sprint Cup Series. In the
Sprint Cup itself, she cracked the top 20 just twice in 11 races, despite
driving a car owned by irascible defending champion Tony Stewart
and powered by engines built in the shop of HendrickMotorsports,
the team that fields the sport’s heavyweights: Jimmie Johnson,
Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt. She overcooked turns, missed braking
zones, collidedwith other cars and earned the distrust and at times
ire—occasionally vocal, usuallywhispered—of some other drivers.
Yet Brand Danica roars on, undiminished. Patrick earns millions
of dollars a year through sponsorships, merchandising and, to a
lesser degree, racepurses. As apaidambassador ofGoDaddy.com, the
Internet hosting conglomerate, shehas already appeared in 10 Super
Bowl commercials—more thananyother celebrityever. According to
the Davie-Brown Index, which rates a celebrity’s commercial value,
she is the third most valuable person inmotorsports, a er Gordon
and Earnhardt. And that’s going to be crucial in determining her
longevity in the sport. Nowhere else in the sportsworld doesmoney
talk as loudly as in NASCAR.
Which is what makes Brand Danica so fascinating to behold,
and so unprecedented. How long can someone continue to rank
among themost lavishly paid athletes in her sport without actually
culture
||
THE FAN
What if dogs could
prescribe their
own treatments?
Questions lead to better answers.
This belief drove Virbac Animal Health
to develop an innovative way to deliver
ear treatment quickly and accurately, in
whatever position is most comfortable for
the dog. It’s just one example of how we’re
continually developing solutions that answer
the needs of pets and their veterinarians.
© 2013 Virbac AH, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1/13
13456
See where our
curiosity will take us
next. Learn more at
