[MikeNoun]

In her defense (and this is not to insinuate she's worthy of being a Cup driver), in last year's Daytona 500 she was caught up in someone else's wreck in the opening laps, a crash that also ended Jimmie Johnson's day. She did very well on road courses. In fact, she led one of the races for quite sometime, only to be punted by Jacques "whack 'em" Villeneuve in the closing laps, else she would have had a top 5 finish. And in another road course race, she was leading, and decisively so (not due to a caution or anything like that), when some idiot threw a shoe on the track, which she ran over and subsequently bent one of her tie-rods.

I never ever figured her to be a road course ringer because she was always pretty awful on road courses back in IndyCar. And when they weened her into the NASCAR Nationwide Series, she ran a limited schedule avoiding road courses.

But darn it, she proved she's actually a pretty good road racer.

She needs a few Top 10 finishes before other drivers gain some respect for her. And as Champ pointed out, she's a way's off from doing that. With her reputation, and her bikini shots, the seasoned NASCAR drivers simply don't have any respect for her. She's a rookie, with a long racing career, but still a rookie. They don't like running behind her. But she's getting better.

She has a top notch ride now, so if she's going to prove anything, it will be this year. There are a lot of other guys that had success but were traded away, now driving inferior cars. David Reutemann and David Ragan are two that come to mind. But Danica brings in the bucks, and that's why Tony Stewart wanted her on his team. If she wins a race, all the more for Tony and the team.

But I don't believe for a MINUTE that Stewart feels he has the best driver he could get for his team. He just got the most marketable.