Danica Patrick fires back at Kyle Petty comments

SPARTA, Ky. – Danica Patrick doesn’t care that Kyle Petty thinks she’s better at getting attention than driving because she’s heard it all before.

But if Petty’s going to attack her, the NASCAR Sprint Cup rookie believes he should at least get his facts straight.

On Friday, Patrick responded to Petty’s comments a night earlier on Speed’s “Race Hub” program, in which the former Sprint Cup driver called her a “marketing machine” rather than a race car driver. Petty also doubted that Patrick would become a driver and insisted that she doesn’t race as well as she qualifies.

Patrick’s statistics suggest otherwise. On average she’s finishing almost six spots higher (25.8) than she starts (32nd), which she noted by saying, “those who watch know I can’t qualify for crap. The race goes much better.”

That likely won’t stop Petty, the 53-year-old son of seven-time Cup champion Richard Petty and an eight-time race winner on NASCAR’s premier circuit, from criticizing Patrick.

Now an analyst for TNT and Fox/Speed, Petty has periodically taken jabs at Patrick, a former IndyCar Series driver who now drives the No. 10 Chevy for Stewart-Haas Racing. The 31-year-old Patrick is 27th in points in her first full Cup season, which follows an open wheel career highlighted by a 2008 victory in Japan.

While he understands the mass appeal of Patrick, who has been featured in racy TV ads for sponsor Go Daddy and was IndyCar’s most popular driver for several years, her driving skills don’t justify the hype in his opinion.