Danica Patrick could become the nation’s next sports marketing icon — but she’ll have to win more races than Anna Kournikova won tournaments. Namely, at least one.
Patrick’s fourth-place finish in last week’s Indianapolis 500 could go far to revitalize the fading Indy-car racing circuit, which has long been overshadowed by NASCAR. She led the race through the 190th lap — out of 200 — fulfilling the prerace hype by making her the most successful woman ever to compete at the Brickyard. ABC drew its largest ratings for the race since 1997, for which Patrick received most of the credit. “Danica is a fantastic story, and now she needs results to maintain her awareness and marketability out there,” says David Schwab, director of strategic marketing and media at Octagon, a sports-marketing firm.
Robin Miller, an analyst for the Speed Channel cable-TV network, believes that Patrick is the real deal. “Her whole life she’s been measured against men, and that’s how she wants to be measured. She’s not a novelty just because she’s a woman,” he says.
Assuming Patrick does fulfill her potential, her marketability is limitless. “She’s good-looking, she’s young. She does a very good job with the press. She’s good on ‘Letterman,’ she’s unflappable in a race car. There’s been so much stuff heaped on this kid’s shoulder. The Indy Racing League has put all its eggs in her basket,” Miller says. (Late-night talk-show host David Letterman, incidentally, is co-owner of Patrick’s Team Rahal racing outfit.)
Indeed, here’s how bad it has become for Indy-style auto racing on television: With the exception of the Indianapolis 500, in 2004 more men watched figure skating on network television than the Indy Racing League (IRL) series. The Golden Age of A.J. Foyt and Al Unser are long gone. Since 2000, ratings for ABC’s IRL coverage have sunk faster than a Tiger Woods putt, from a 2.3 household rating to a 1.3 last year.
But while experts say that Patrick may be able to help boost IRL ratings, she should not be seen as a savior. In fact, if Patrick doesn’t start winning races, the media might dismiss her as a one-race wonder—and with it IRL’s last chance to recapture its glory.
No doubt aware of the stakes, ABC Sports has declined to comment on its plans for promoting Patrick, as the network and sister company ESPN are still mulling their options with the IRL. “We want this to be for long term. We do not want to be in a situation where it’s a brief benefit. It has to be a smart, well-planned, thought-out campaign,” says a source close to the situation.
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