Media Tour Day 1: No Indy for Danica

In what was actually news on the 30th annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour hosted by Charlotte Motor Speedway, Danica Patrick revealed that she would not be racing at Indianapolis this year on Memorial Day weekend.

She'll be right down the street at Charlotte, just like the rest of the stock car drivers.

"I want to do it, and I will do Indy again, possibly a double," she said when queried about the item, which sort of sprung up in the intro stage. "It just didn't work out this year."

It makes sense. If she's going to drive stock cars, she needs to drive stock cars. The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race in NASCAR, 400 laps of the 1.5-mile oval, and she'll need to experience that if she is going to improve the way she wants and needs to.

I'll bet there is weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth at the moment in Indianapolis, because Danica was a major draw for the Izod Indy Car Series. But, as they say in NASCAR, "you'll have that in big-time motorsports."

Tony Stewart looked fit and relaxed, saying it was "business as usual" despite an offseason that saw him add Patrick, hire a new crew chief in Steve Addington and a new competition director in Greg Zipadelli.

"I was at the shop up until the Wednesday before Christmas," he said. "I was basically moral support. I went and raced a couple of times over the winter, but didn't really do anything for myself."

Except add a bunch of sponsors to the No. 39 car driven by Ryan Newman, steal the darling of all motorsports, win two indoor midget races and generally just be The Champ, that is.

Newman added Quicken Loans, Outback Steak House and Aspen Dental to his sponsor core, as well as retaining Army, Wix Filters and Tornados. "If you have great sponsors, you can get great people," Newman quipped.