Will wine lover Danica Patrick succeed in Wine Country?

(TheSportsBank) - Goddess of NASCAR Danica Patrick is a lover of wine. She, and her ex-husband Paul Hospenthal acquired a very impressive wine cellar with over 1,000 bottles. (More on the Danica Patrick wine collection here) After she divorced Hospenthal so that she could date Ricky Stenhouse Jr., I don’t know what became of the wine collection accrued with her ex-hubby.

Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway is one of the few tracks on the NASCAR schedule where Danica Patrick has a lot of experience. And yes, Sonoma is the heart of California wine country.

Danica Patrick has made seven starts at Sonoma dating back to 2005. This weekend will be Patrick’s first career Sprint Cup Series start on a road course and she is hoping her efforts produce better results than her three NASCAR Nationwide Series road-course finishes last year.

In June at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Danica Patrick was fourth on the final lap when she was bumped into the gravel trap by Jacques Villeneueve, which caused her to finish 12th. Two months later, Patrick finished 43rd at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International after Ryan Truex spun in front of her on the start and she could not avoid his spinning car and made heavy contact with his machine.