Quote:
Originally Posted by The Champ
Dale Jr. gave her a Nationwide ride that she didn't deserve. He gave her some of the best equipment and some of the best crews in the sport. Jr. has hired drivers to tutor Danica how to drive the bigger cars.
She has had plenty of help. She doesn't have the talent or the real desire to succeed.
Once again, Tony had a plan to get to 3 teams. He needed someone that could bring a big dollar sponsor to Stewart Hass. Danica was the only one - so he made nice comments about her. It was all a business decision IMHO.
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The thing is Tony wants results not just a 3rd team. Ryan Newman is on a 1 year contract (probation if you will) because if he doesn't perform this year he will be looking for a ride.
On Tony's Sprint car teams the same hold true, you don't perform your looking for another ride. On that basis I still believe he sees something in her that I don't see, and expects within a reasonable amount of time she will produce results. Tony doesn't want her on his team just because he sees no other way to sponsor a 3rd car. If he does what he has in the past, if she has no wins in say 3 years and doesn't make the chase she's not going to be driving for Stewart Haas because Tony wants to win, not just have 3 teams that do a mediocre job in NASCAR.
I've seen him send drivers packing when they don't live up to his expectations many times in his dirt teams, and because he has put Newman on notice for this year, this proves he is carrying that philosophy over to the NASCAR side of things too. Darien Grubb was put on notice long before the chase and it seemed to be the kick in the ass that he needed to produce wins. I really don't think that Tony expected Grubb to do what he did, heck he didn't even expect to make the chase, and said so that because of the performance his team had, they weren't worthy of being in the chase. Plus he already had another crew chief in place for the 2012 season.
I have to agree that I don't think she'll live up to Tonys expectations, I will have to disagree on him signing her just for the bucks for a third team, he's not stupid when it comes to business, especially racing business. He also doesn't want to be associated with mediocre talent in his teams and winning races keeps sponsors and pays the bills.