For better or worse, Danica Patrick has dominated the headlines when it comes to NASCAR's offseason. Whether it be her love-life, her shoes, or seemingly what she eats for breakfast, the media has gone all-in on Danica coverage these past couple of months.
Now she's done something that nobody can deny is newsworthy.
Sunday, Patrick became the first woman in NASCAR's history to earn the pole position for a Sprint Cup event. She did so by qualifying first for what is undeniably the most prestigious event of the year, the season opening Daytona 500.
Her lap time of 45.817 seconds out paced that of Jeff Gordon, who will start on the outside of the front row for the 500, by .033 seconds. It was the fastest pole speed at Daytona since 1990, which can be largely attributed to NASCAR's new Gen-6 car which has improved downforce over years past, and therefore more speed and grip.
But this isn't the entire story.
No, not talking about Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Patrick's main competition for Rookie of the Year, and more interestingly, her boyfriend. He posted the 12th best time, by the way.
No, I'm speaking of Stewart-Haas Racing, the race team Patrick drives for, which consists of co-owner/driver Tony Stewart and driver Ryan Newman.
Newman posted the fourth fastest speed in time trials, while Stewart posted the fifth best speed overall.
That's three-for-three in the top five.
Many of the drivers admitted during Fox's telecast of Sunday's qualifying session that Daytona time trials were all about the speed in the cars and the work the teams had put in during the off-season. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson even referred to himself as a "monkey", lending credence to the thought that a trained monkey could lay down a solid lap at a restrictor plate track as long as it was piloting a strong race car.
"I appreciate the recognition," Patrick told the media after the conclusion of qualifying, "but it really falls 90 percent on (crew chief) Tony (Gibson) and these guys and everybody that gives me the car to go out there and be fast.
"And maybe ten percent on me."
So while Sunday wasn't a showcase of ability as far as the drivers were concerned, it was a display of the talent and hard work put in by the race teams as a whole over the offseason.
SHR obviously won the day, the first real competition between all race teams to see who could be fastest first with today's new Gen-6 race car.
Stewart noted to the media the difficulty of preparing this new car for Speedweeks.
"Not only for our organization but for all the organizations and all the teams, this was probably one of the most difficult winters that I can remember from my 15 years of going through offseasons here for teams to actually get prepared to come down here to Daytona, and to have three cars in the top five like that, I'm just really appreciative and excited we were able to bring down three consistent cars like this."
The only other multi-car organization that displayed similar consistency, with all team cars posting a top ten speed, was Joe Gibbs Racing. Denny Hamlin was seventh, Kyle Busch was eighth and Matt Kenseth ran the tenth fastest speed of the day.
But time trials, and therefore the first small victory of 2013, belonged solely to SHR, which Stewart partly attributed to great chemistry between the drivers and crew chiefs working under his organization's umbrella.
"I think Danica's actually got two boyfriends," Stewart joked. "She's got Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) and then she's got Tony Gibson. They are all but holding hands in the shop every day they are together."
He continued, "It's good for me to see as an owner. I like to see that chemistry. Ryan (Newman) is happy being back with (crew chief) Matt (Borland). Tony and Danica are happy. And I'm happy with Steve (Addington).
"Having three teams that the drivers and crew chiefs are getting along and happy to be paired up where they are at, that's something that goes a long way. You'll see in the first eight to ten weeks just how powerful those pairings really are."
While we can only make an educated guess at how powerful Stewart's teams will truly look after that period of time, at this moment the chemistry at SHR has the company's most buzz-worthy driver in position to lead the field to the start NASCAR's biggest event.
"It's really amazing how much work is put into a qualifying car for the Daytona 500, when really only the front row sticks Sunday," said Patrick.
"It's nice that all that hard work can pay off and that we can give ourselves the opportunity to lead the pack down into the tri-oval for the green flag of the Daytona 500."
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