At the Team Chevy Driver Press conference today, NASCAR Cup Champion Tony Stewart was again asked his opinion on Danica Patrick leaving IndyCar. Below is a portion of the transcript. According to Smoke, let the countdown begin…tick freakin' tock.

DO YOU THINK DANICA PATRICK IS SERIOUS ABOUT WANTING TO RACE IN NASCAR?:  “I know that she’s serious about it.  She’s come over and just talking for things right now.  I know that’s what she wants so do.  She looked me straight in the eye and said this is what I want to do — it looks like fun, looks like a lot of work, but it looks like fun.  I don’t think she has some misguided idea that it’s going to be easy doing it.  She wants to do it the right way, she has the intentions of doing everything right and she’s kind of come to us to see our opinion about how she should go about it.”

DO YOU THINK SHE IS LOOKING TO RACE IN IRL AND THEN START WITH SOME NATIONWIDE RACES AND THAT IS WHY IT IS EASY FOR HER TO COME TALK TO YOU?:  “I think she wants to know how to make the transition more than anything and she’s trying to put together her IRL deal and try to figure out how to transition that into NASCAR.  I think she’s trying to do it the right way.  She’s not just cutting the cord and all of the sudden jumping in a car that she’s unfamiliar with.  She wants to stay successful where she’s at, but in the meantime try to figure out a way to be able to drive and get some seat time in a car to where she can start learning to where when she does come out that she’s got her act together.”

DO YOU THINK IT IS NOT A QUESTION OF IF SHE WILL COME TO NASCAR, BUT WHEN AND HOW?:  “I think so.  I think she really wants to do it, it’s just trying to figure out the time frame and what steps should she take to do it right and to show everybody that she wants to do it the right way.”

DO YOU THINK SHE WILL DROP BACK AND RUN IN NATIONWIDE?:  “Absolutely.  You have to learn before you get here.  In all three of the national series, even the truck series is competitive.  You can’t expect, even Juan (Pablo Montoya) and Juan was the exception to the rule and even Juan ran some ARCA races and some Nationwide races before he ran Cup full time.  You have to get used to a heavier race car and you have to get used to less down force, smaller tires — it’s a lot of learning and there’s a lot of race tracks that you have to get used to.  It’s sensory overload and that’s why you have to pay your dues before you get to this level.”

DO YOU THINK SHE WILL RUN A PARTIAL NATIONWIDE SEASON AND IRL NEXT YEAR?:  “I don’t know when it will be, but I think that’s the direction she’ll go.”

DO YOU THINK SHE WILL TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN?:  “Definitely.  The great thing is that she asked a lot of very smart questions in the discussions about it.  You can tell that she wants to do it the right way, she understands how hard everybody has worked to get to this level here and she doesn’t want to be one of those people that just comes in and gets stuff handed to her.  She wants to earn her way and work her way up through like everybody else has.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK WOULD BE THE HARDEST TRANSITION FOR DANICA PATRICK TO COME TO NASCAR?:  “I don’t know.  I know that she tested a Nationwide car years and years ago, but I don’t know how that went.  I don’t know how much heavy car experience she has so I think that’s why it’s important that she gets in anything whether it be an ARCA car or get in some truck races, a lot of Nationwide races.  Just right now I think, the more talking to her, the more that she can get in a car, the better off she’s going to be right now.”

WHY DOES SHE WANT TO RACE IN NASCAR?:  “I think you have to ask her that for sure.  I just know that she’s excited about doing this and making this change.  I can pretty much guarantee you that at some point she’s going to be over here.”