According to "A person familiar with the plan..." Danica Patrick will announce a part-time Nationwide Series ride this week.   Although she recently signed a three-year deal to stay with Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar series full-time there is still time in the schedule for Danica to run a few NASCAR races and see how it goes.

Danica will be driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and will bring her GoDaddy.com sponsorship with her from the IndyCar series.

This is big news for NASCAR as Danica Patrick will bring renewed attention to the sport.  As I have said before, I welcome Danica to NASCAR.  If she can adapt to the heavy, full-bodied cars and perform well she could be  a huge NASCAR star.  If she struggles then she will just be another side-show attraction.

Another NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Banquet is in the books.  Jimmie Johnson collected his fourth Sprint Cup trophy in a row in front of a live audience filled with drivers, owners, crew, media and fans.

Overall I think the show was improved over the 2008 edition.  SPEED did an excellent job with the coverage although I could have used a little less preshow. We waded through more than two hours of fluff before we heard from the first driver.

I thought the speeches were... ok.  Some drivers did a better job than others.  Kasey Kahne clearly wasn't comfortable working off the teleprompter while Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Jimmie Johnson have the experience to deliver like pros.

Don't forget that the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Awards Banquet will be Friday night at 9pm on SPEED.  This year the banquet gets four hours of live coverage on SPEED.  This will also be the first time since 1981 that the ceremony will be held outside of New York City.

Will NASCAR bring some of Las Vegas' unique magic to the banquet or will we see more of the same old teleprompter-fed coporate spew?  I really am hoping that the banquet can be exciting again like it was before the teleprompter ruined it in 1998.

NASCAR works hard to maintain a level playing field for all competitors.  The templates and the rest of the rulebook have very tight tolerances and NASCAR officials inspect the race cars  to make sure that everyone is playing fairly. This should guarantee all manufacturers an equal shot at the win.  However, the numbers tell a very different story.

• Ford - 3 wins in 2009
• Dodge - 4 wins in 2009
• Toyota - 11 wins in 2009
• Chevrolet - 18 wins in 2009

Is NASCAR doing the right things to guarantee a fair race or is NASCAR suffering the illusion of parity where none exists?