The second she entered racing it officially became a gimick ala wrestling.
She is a spokes model pretty face.
If NACAR is dying and needs some form of PR stunt then perhaps they could use her help.
The woman who had the best chance of anyone at succeeding in Cup racing was Shawna Robinson. If I'm not mistaken, she's still the only woman ever to win a NASCAR championship level race (Dash series in the late '80s, I believe). I think, and a lot of other people who saw her drive thought, she had "it" and could actually do something in the sport. But she got out of racing to do other things for a long time and got back into it a few years ago and was absolutely horrible. Call me sexist if you will, but I think it was because she'd had several kids during the decade she was out, and I don't think a mother with kids at home is going to push things to the ragged edge on the track like a man would. I'm not saying that to insinuate that a woman can't drive a race car, just making the observation about Shawna's specific circumstances.
Nascar certainly isn't dying.-
Tv ratings are down some this year (what isn't?) but sponsorship is still solid.
Danica is desperately trying to improve her salary negotiating position - there are only about 10 paying seats in IRL right now and most of them are already locked for 07 - her contract expires at end of 06 - Dad's using Nascar as leverage - although from what I've seen he's not the brightest bulb in the string of lights.
IMHO
1) she'll stay in Indycars
2) in Nas she would struggle to find the top 30
(FWIW she has a neat advantage in Indycars, 50# less body weight than most guys - they don't normalize for driver weight like Nas, and at 5 feet tall the car has more horsepower because her helmet doesn't block the engine airbox as much. Despite this she hasn't won a race yet.)