Mar 2, 2013 5 min read

AVONDALE, Ariz. – Danica Patrick had already built quite a following from her IndyCar days, with a big assist from all those television commercials and magazine layouts.

The Daytona 500 took Danicamania to a new, frenzied level.

But now that the Daytona dust has settled, it’s time for Patrick to dig in for the rest of the season, her first full one in a Sprint Cup car.

“I need to keep realistic expectations and everyone else does, too,” Patrick said from Phoenix International Raceway, the next stop on the Sprint Cup schedule. “Daytona is a very unique place and this is kind of where the bulk of the season starts.”

The real start to the season came last weekend at the Daytona 500, where Patrick became the first woman to win the pole at a Sprint Cup race and to lead green-flag laps.

Attention for one of auto racing’s most popular drivers reached a fever pitch in Daytona, her face all over the news, everyone watching her every move, the daughters of a few of her fellow drivers wanting the opportunity to meet NASCAR’s biggest draw.

Patrick handled it all well, thanks, in part, to having been through it before at the Indianapolis 500 in 2005.

“I feel like now days, having the experience that I had in IndyCar and understanding how media works, what it’s like to be busy and do a lot of interviews and things outside the car, and also building a great team helps me manage and tolerate all of that is very different than it was back in 2005,” Patrick said.

She wasn’t bad on the track, either, leading five laps and entering the final lap in third. Patrick faded as the field turned toward the checkers, dropping to eighth as a handful of veteran drivers dropped to the inside lane and passed her.

Disappointing? Sure, but she did earn a top-10 finish in NASCAR’s biggest race, becoming the 13th driver to lead laps at the Indy and Daytona 500s.

Unlike 2005, when she struggled with everything that came after Indy, Patrick left Daytona at ease, ready to race at Phoenix and beyond.

“I kind of feel like it is another weekend now,” she said. “Last weekend was what it was. But we’re moving on and maybe in 2005 it was kind of a little bit of ongoing excitement level, and hope for me. I think I’m a little more mature now to know that these come, they go.”

Still, there is a bit of a gnawing feeling about Daytona.

Perhaps due to her lack of experience, Patrick was passed by five cars as the field turned toward the checkered flag, leaving her feeling like she let a chance get away in Florida.

Maybe she did, but maybe not.

Team owner Tony Stewart told Patrick after the race that there was nothing she could have done, that trying a big move might have made things worse. Race winner Jimmie Johnson told her something similar, echoing the sentiments of drivers across the circuit.

“I thought she handled herself well,” Jeff Gordon said. “She ran a good race.”

Busch wins again at Phoenix: Kyle Busch overcame a mid-race gaffe on pit road with a dominating performance, leading 142 laps Saturday to win his fifth Nationwide Series race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Busch started from the pole and shook off a speeding penalty to pit road with what was easily the fastest car during the 200-lap race around PIR’s mile oval.

He eclipsed 11,000 career laps during the race and picked up his 52nd Nationwide victory, extending his own record. Busch has won seven times at Phoenix, including once in Sprint Cup and twice in the trucks series.

Brad Keselowski finished second and Justin Allgaier was third. Trevor Bayne finished fourth, followed by Elliott Sadler.

The Nationwide Series got off to an awful start at Daytona last week, when Tony Stewart’s season-opening win was marred by a 12-car crash on the final lap that left at least two dozen fans injured.

The wreck happened as the cars came around for the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith tried to block Keselowski. That triggered a chain reaction that piled up cars and sent rookie Kyle Larson’s car airborne into the fence, shearing it into pieces that flew into the grandstand.

Two injured fans remain in the hospital.

Suspended Clements headed to sports psychologist: NASCAR is sending suspended Nationwide Series driver Jeremy Clements to a sports diversity expert after he made insensitive remarks during an interview.

NASCAR officials are hoping to get Clements back on the track soon, but the 28-year-old will have to work with Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida, before he’ll be allowed back in his car.

“No secret we did suspend Jeremy. We believe strongly that we made the right move,” NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Operations Steve O’Donnell said Saturday from Phoenix International Raceway. “Our go-forward plan with Jeremy is to quickly engage Dr. Richard Lapchick to work with Jeremy as soon as possible and get Jeremy back in the race car as soon as possible and as soon as we deem fit.”

Clements was suspended indefinitely Wednesday for violating the sanctioning body’s code of conduct for making what O’Donnell said was an “intolerable and insensitive remark” during the course of an interview before last weekend’s Nationwide race at Daytona.

MTV News reported that Clements made a racially insensitive remark to one of MTV’s bloggers during the interview.

Clements issued an apology for his remarks on Facebook earlier this week.