Sportsfrog.com

Yes, it’s official that Danica Patrick is coming to the Busch* Series, so you now can all go buy your #7 GoDaddy NASCAR shirts and wear them with pride.

That was expected, but what wasn’t–at least plausibly anyway–was GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons’s public expectations for Danica.

As of now, she’s going to do about 20 Busch* races amongst the full IndyCar season, and–if Parsons’s plan go as expected–make the full time transition to the Sprint Cup series in 2012.

What car would she drive? Well, that’d be the #5 of Hendrick Motorsports, the car that’s currently driven by Mark Martin.

Seriously.

GoDaddy is sponsoring the #5 in 20 races in 2010 and 2011, and Martin recently signed a two-year extension with Hendrick that will most likely take him to the end of his career. Those factors were known as soon as the 2009 season ended.

But Danica taking over for Martin? Now that one was kind of unexpected.

How would that Hendrick Motorsports marketing juggernaut look then? Jeff Gordon would still be in the fold, as would Dale Earnhardt Jr. unless his marketing power went the way of his appearances in Victory Lane, and of course Jimmie Johnson would still be there and at the rate things are going now, he’d probably be a five or six time champion at that point. Throw in the most marketable driver in all of motorsports on top of that–and assuming the economy hasn’t crashed by then–Hendrick Motorsports would have enough money to buy NASCAR and the tracks it races on.

However, I have serious doubts about this all happening. No one knows how Danica is going to transition to stock cars, and that includes Danica herself, who says that she can’t remember the last time she sat in a stock car and doesn’t know the differences between one and an IndyCar. (Would a driver be saying this knowing that he or she wasn’t a foolproof cash cow with a guaranteed seat based on his or her marketing power? Hell no)

Danica is going to struggle. She hasn’t set the IRL on fire, and the IRL’s champion–Dario Franchitti–was absolutely horrible at driving a stock car. If Mrs. Ashley Judd can’t do it, why could Danica?

I’ll be surprised if Danica does well and ever makes it to Sprint Cup, let alone be competitive.

–Silly season has been pretty quiet so far, with no real big driver or crew chief moves. The big moves (Truex to MWR, Keselowski to Penske) were announced during last year, and so the drivers who are out of rides right now are going to have to settle for start and parks or startups with a very limited budget.

–Looking over the paint schemes for 2010, Tony Stewart’s Old Spice car has my vote for best of the year, with Dale Jr.’s National Guard scheme close behind.

–Kyle Busch is going to be starting his own truck series team in 2010, and the plans will be officially announced Friday. He may field up to three trucks–depending on sponsorship of course–and is going to run a good portion of the season himself, so he’s already the odds on favorite to visit Victory Lane more than any other driver in the truck series.

–Busch isn’t running the full Busch* season in 2010 unless he can convince JD Gibbs otherwise, so look for Carl Edwards to be the odds-on favorite for the title. This could be the weakest season of competition in recent memory for the Busch* series, with Cup drivers in Cup equipment taking up the top 10 and start and parks filling up the bottom 10 or 15.

–Yes, there is going to be a Larry the Cable Guy car in the Daytona 500…

–I’d post something about the year-end banquet, but even I didn’t watch. I watch enough NASCAR during the season that I don’t need to be subjected to four hours of talking and scripted speeches.