NASCAR star Harvick reveals what kept Danica Patrick from being a 'megastar'
Danica Patrick retired from NASCAR earlier this year as one of the most recognizable names in the sport.
But according to one of her former foes, she never became the “megastar” the sport needed for one simple reason: She didn’t win.
Kevin Harvick said Saturday that NASCAR is still looking for a driver who can transcend the sport, like Tiger Woods did for golf.
“When you have a guy like Tiger Woods, he’s won and won and won and won and won and won. Danica (Patrick) had a personality. She didn’t perform well,” Harvick said, according to USA Today. “She could have been a megastar as well. Danica didn’t perform well.”
Patrick retired from NASCAR following the 2018 Daytona 500 without ever winning a race.
“In the end, performance trumped superstar to megastar. And if you want to be a megastar you have to perform and win. That’s the effect that a guy like Tiger Woods has,” Harvick added.
NASCAR’s most successful driver the past 20 years has been Jimmie Johnson, but Johnson doesn’t have the larger-than-life personality or deep family roots in the sport needed to be that transcendent megastar, Harvick indicated.
“It’s something that when you look at a guy like Jimmie Johnson — and Jimmie and I have had this conversation — we don’t have that capability from that traditional, roots family standpoint that you can be that guy,” he said.
Harvick suggested last year that even though Dale Earnhardt Jr. was voted NASCAR’s most popular driver 14 consecutive times, he was not the sport’s most successful driver.
“(Earnhardt) hasn’t been anywhere close to being our most successful driver. When you look at other sports — you look at basketball and you look at football and you look at their most popular (athletes), they’re also right on the top of the list as their most successful (athletes),” Harvick stated last August.
“So for me I believe that Dale Jr. has had a big part in stunting the growth of NASCAR because he’s got these legions of fans and this huge outreach of being able to reach these places that none of us have the possibility to reach. But he’s won nine races in 10 years at Hendrick Motorsports and hasn’t been able to reach outside of that,” Harvick continued.
So, who has the best chance of becoming the sport’s next megastar?
According to Harvick, it’s exceedingly difficult to be that kind of driver.
“There’s only a few people that come through the sport that can be that guy. Jeff Gordon came through, but he won a lot in the beginning. He was that young guy that kept winning and won championships and had that immediate impact as far as catching everyone’s attention,” Harvick said Saturday. “After you get in here for a few years and don’t catch everyone’s attention you just kind of wind up being one of the guys unless you end up winning a lot.”
The driver who has a chance to be that guy is Chase Elliott, he added.
“The guy that has the most potential is Chase Elliott with the traditional NASCAR fans. It’s just like when (we) talk; you have to win. There’s a difference between a superstar and an megastar. In the past, a superstar wasn’t a megastar because of the fact that he didn’t win enough,” Harvick said.
“Chase Elliott is the next guy that can be a megastar but you have to win.”
Harvick has done his fair share of winning over the years, too. But Sunday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway, Harvick finished second, while Kyle Busch took first place.
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