IRLblog.com

photo: Ron McQueeney

Sure, everyone knows who Danica Patrick is. We also know that she drives for Andretti Green Racing which is considered one of the big three, team wise in the IndyCar Series. Andretti Green Racing is also the only team in the IndyCar Series that fields 4 cars full time. In 2007 they even fielded a 5^th car for Michael Andretti in the Indianapolis 500. Most of us already know this.

Most of us also know that Andretti Green Racing has a reputation that speaks for itself. With 34 wins and 22 poles in the team’s history I would think that Andretti Green Racing has a handle on things. In the 2008 season alone they led 749 laps. All of the drivers also finished the end of the season in the top ten in points.

Danica Patrick is one of the drivers that make Andretti Green Racing the team that it is. She is without a doubt one of the most recognized female sports figures in the world. What many people don’t realize is that the driver is not the only one responsible for the team’s success. Behind every successful driver we have a strong crew and the crew of the #7 Motorola sponsored car is no exception to this.

When we as fans arrive on race weekend we see and recognize the work put in by the drivers, team owners, and even the engineers. What we do not realize is the work put in by the Chief mechanics and the mechanics that work for them. Their race weekend starts before everyone else’s race weekend begins. (more…)

Michael Andretti is taking a new role as strategist for Danica Patrick’s team.

This new role comes after the spot was left vacant by Kyle Moyer who will now call races for for Marco Andretti.

I think this new role will be able to teach Danica Patrick new things and techniques rather than take things away from her which could lead to trouble for the team. With more than 40 victories I believe Andretti has good ideas on how to come up with new schemes and ideas to attack Patrick’s weaknesses such as racing on road/street courses which she has failed to do well on pretty much her whole IRL career. Adding some more wins would help also.

“As a strategist, you just have to try to anticipate what is going to happen and be a little bit smarter than everybody you’re racing against,” Andretti said.  “This will be a new challenge for sure, but I’m looking forward to working more closely with Danica.” (Indycar.com)

I believe this will be a good move for the AGR team, but we know last year there was some turmoil within the team due mostly, at least to my knowledge, for some of Patricks actions during races. Andretti’s new position will enable him to work closer like he said but also keep her more level-headed as well and even more focused.