It'll be interesting to see how she does with the low downforce on all of the tracks. Just not something she is used to in the cup cars.
WITH ASPEN DENTAL ON BOARD, DANICA 'OPTIMISTIC' HEADING TO ATLANTA
Danica Patrick scored a career-best sixth-place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2014, and touts a career-best average finish of 18.0 at the 1.54-mile facility.
So, yes, this weekend's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is a race she always has circled on her calendar each year.
"I am optimistic. I feel like (crew chief Billy Scott and I) are both ready for the challenge," Patrick told NASCAR.com on Thursday. "I don't know what it is about Atlanta. I think that I feel like I tend to actually do well at the more challenging, unique tracks than I do at a lot of other ones.
"When you come to your Atlantas or your Martinsvilles or something like that, I seem to do pretty well. I think one of the things that they both take is some discipline and taking the car to the limit but not going too far at times, but also being able to find that limit."
While Atlanta Motor Speedway and its roughened-up, worn asphalt will still be familiar to Patrick, the specifics of the car she'll be piloting are a bit foreign.
NASCAR is debuting the reduced-downforce rules package in full force this weekend after trial runs at Kentucky Speedway and Darlington Raceway in 2015. The package was not entirely friendly to the fourth-year Stewart-Haas Racing driver for their initial introductions, relegating Patrick to finishes of 34th and 42nd (crash), respectively.
"I haven't driven the low downforce package since … last year. I hope it's good," said Patrick, who placed 16th at Atlanta in 2015. "I'm a little nervous because it's been a long time. I know it's going to be more challenging to drive and the balance is going to be different and I'm in a scenario where I have a new crew chief so we're going to have to hopefully communicate quickly and efficiently right off the bat to make the car better if it's not right."
Patrick mentioned that she's specifically looking forward to working more with first-year crew chief Scott, after deeming Daytona "a good start" following an incident with the No. 16 of Greg Biffle that forced her into a second consecutive finish of 35th at the "World Center of Racing."
"I feel like we communicated well. I feel like we kept our cool throughout everything and we communicated well. At this point in time, we've done one race and it's a speedway, so handling is usually not such a challenge. (Atlanta) will be a first real good test of our ability to communicate efficiently, well, and to just understanding each other. I think that takes time," Patrick said. "When I say the car is tight, my 'the car is tight' is different than someone else's. When I say it's really tight, it might be not tight at all for someone else. Those are the things that we just have to start communicating and really over-communicating initially so that we can fast forward that learning curve and get up to speed."
When Patrick hits the track for opening Sprint Cup Series practice Friday at 11 a.m. ET (on FS1), not only will she be sporting the new-look package and still-fresh crew chief, but she'll have a different sponsor on board than she sported at Daytona in Aspen Dental.
Aspen Dental returns to the No. 10 Chevrolet, and is kicking off the third annual "Healthy Mouth Movement" program in conjunction with "Got Your 6" and the "Smile 4 Vets" social media campaign.
The programs align perfectly with the race sponsor in providing aid to veterans.
"It's three years of the Healthy Mouth Movement and of Aspen being a sponsor on the car with me," Patrick said. "We've had a great run; just last year alone, Aspen donated $2.8 million worth of free care to veterans alone, so they're just a great company. They give back and they care about people having healthy mouths.
"Starting this week, if you tweet a picture of a selfie of you smiling and use the hashtag '#SmileForVets', Aspen donates $1 to a group called 'Got Your 6', which help veterans."
Got Your 6 -- meaning "I've got your back" -- is a collective impact campaign that works to bridge the military-civilian divide.
With Aspen Dental on board, Danica 'optimistic' heading to Atlanta | NASCAR.com
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