The Danica Patrick rumors churn up from time to time in auto racing communities. She is a strong running competitor in the Indy Racing League and a very popular one at that. Patrick’s celebrity status earns the IRL some much-needed publicity. It’s safe to say she is the League’s marketing star. She understands her value and speculation persists that she would be interested in a future with NASCAR.

This latest discussion is not the first time the subject of Danica jumping ship to the fendered world has come up. Patrick is a race enthusiast and from time to time visits a Sprint Cup series event and people start talking about possibilities. Her contract with Andretti Green Racing, whom she currently drives for, expires at the end of this season. An intelligent person likes to keep all option open as long as one can. I do. Time will tell where she races in the future.

One year ago, NASCAR had an influx of professional open wheel drivers trying their hand in the Cup Series. Patrick Carpentier, Jacque Villeneuve, Dario Franchitti, and Sam Hornish were four of the big names. Only Hornish still remains with a full time ride in Penske Racing.

Indycar racing was never meant to be a ladder system to NASCAR. But the stock car series’ success over the last twenty years has many up-and-coming race drivers looking in the paint-trading direction instead of the front-wing-adjustment direction.

Thirty years ago short track stock car drivers worked their way up through the divisions in NASCAR. And short track sprint car drivers worked their way up in USAC hoping for an Indianapolis chance. In current times anything NASCAR has an appeal to more people behind a removable steering wheel than not.

Today’s Sprint Cup field showcases talent cultivated in many forms of motorsports. That series is the king of the hill in the United States. However if the ladder system stayed how it was with sprint car drivers and open wheel specialists driving in Indiana on Memorial Day weekend instead of North Carolina, what a different Indy Car Series we would have.

Several top NASCAR drivers have stated that maybe someday they would like to give the Indy 500 a stab but right now that is impossible because of their Cup commitments. I have heard none address the entire Indy series, just the one premiere race.

I began to ask myself "what open wheel drivers has been lured towards NASCAR because of the sanctioning bodies success?" Or more specifically "what drivers were in a former Indy-type feeder system that could have, or should have been given a chance at The Greatest Spectacle in Racing?"

Well, if NASCAR wasn’t managed as well as it is, and if Indycars weren’t managed as poor as they were, potentially, in another universe this could have been a portion of the 2009 Indy 500 roster:

Casey Mears, Mike Bliss, Robbie Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Max Papis, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, John Andretti, Ryan Newman, J.J. Yeley, Juan Pablo Montoya, A.J. Allmendinger, Jimmie Johnson, Dave Blaney, Sam Hornish Jr., Scott Speed, Paul Menard, Colin Braun, Jason Leffler, Bryan Clauson, Ken Schrader, and the previously mentioned Villeneuve and Carpentier.

All the above mentioned men have a background that would have more naturally led them to an Indy ride in the 1970s. Now most have NASCAR connections. And I will bet I overlooked some.

Add on the teams and drivers that already exist such as Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, and Dan Wheldon, and Indianapolis returns to the glory it once knew.

That is some serious star power that the IRL could have had. What would the present day NASCAR look like without all those names?

NASCAR has done well to make their family warm, inviting, and probably their most attractive quality, lucrative.

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