Greg Zipadelli met Danica Patrick just more than a week ago, with very little time to prepare for their first test session together.
But the two were off and running this week in testing at Daytona International Speedway.
"She's easy," Zipadelli said Thursday. "She's easy to hang out with, to talk with, she gets along with all the guys. It's just no drama, no drama at all."
Patrick is officially a fulltime NASCAR driver now, and her Daytona 500 debut is just six weeks away. She'll run the race for new boss Tony Stewart, who has paired her with Zipadelli, the crew chief who led Stewart to two of his three Cup championships.
Stewart and Zipadelli spent 10 seasons together at Joe Gibbs Racing and were reunited last month when Stewart lured Zipadelli to Stewart-Haas Racing as competition director.
As part of his new job, Zipadelli will be Patrick's crew chief for now. Patrick will run a full Nationwide Series schedule for JR Motorsports and 10 Sprint Cup races for SHR in preparation for a full Cup schedule in 2013.
"We were trying to get Zippy hired as a competition director, but it really was a perfect opportunity for us because it's hard to get a really good crew chief hired to only run 10 races," Stewart said. "From a company standpoint, it made sense to have him since we had him in house anyway."
But more than anything, Stewart liked that Zipadelli had worked with rookies before.
Zipadelli guided Stewart starting in 1999, after Stewart left IndyCar for NASCAR. They won three races in Stewart's rookie year and a total of 33 races and two titles before Stewart left after the 2008 season to run his own team.
Zipadelli spent the past three years with Joey Logano, who replaced Stewart as a raw 18-year-old.
"He has been a crew chief for the last 13 straight years," Stewart said. "The last two guys he had both were rookies when they came in. So he's familiar with this."
Patrick appreciated Zipadelli's patience through their first days of testing. Although she has 25 career Nationwide starts — and four at Daytona, including her 2010 stock-car debut in an ARCA race — she has yet to run a Sprint Cup race.
Her debut will be Feb. 26 in the Daytona 500.
"I feel respected, and I feel like he's been very patient," Patrick said of Zipadelli. "Even the little things, getting here … and just kind of adjusting a belt a little bit and adjusting a throttle a little bit, he doesn't look at me like I'm inexperienced and I should be comfortable right away or it should be right or the throttle doesn't feel right or I should get used to it.
"He investigates and says 'No problem, let's get it right,' and makes me comfortable."
Zipadelli certainly had his patience tested by Stewart, and it was evident when he had had enough by the way he would snap over the radio during contentious in-race exchanges. That happened a bit with Logano, particularly last season when Logano didn't improve from a promising close to 2010.
But Zipadelli is aware he has to be easy with Patrick.
"I can be patient when I need to be, and this is the time. There's a need to be patient right now," Zipadelli said.
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