Programming strategy, communications, temperament, focus, skill and luck add up to the ingredients called teamwork.  With earphones tucked into those space helmets a driver can go about his business if he pays attention.

Success is a matter of being on the same wave link.

If there was ever a sample of how productive all these ingredients can be, it was Danica Patrick’s sixth-place finish in the wreck-strewn ARCA stock car race at Daytona.  She listened and kept on the red mark.

Getting instructions whether you’re a pro quarterback or a driver can be distracting.  Make the wrong move and you hear about it.

Remember talking to one of the AARWBA members who voted for Mark Martin over Jimmie Johnson for first team stock cars on the All-America.  He said Johnson’s success in gaining a fourth straight Sprint Cup belonged  to crew chief Chad Knaus.  Well, Martin wasn’t alone.  He had Alan Gustafson in the pits.  And many say he’s another Knaus from Rick Hendrick’s stable full of talent.

Patrick’s crew chief Tony Eury Jr. (another Hendrick employee) was so impressed with Danica Patrick's performance on Saturday that he has urged her to enter the Nationwide race this weekend.

"My vote will be go,"  Eury said after the IndyCar Series star finished sixth in her stock-car debut in the ARCA series. "I'm all for it. I want her to get as much seat time as she can."

Eury said he and team co-owner Hendrick originally were skeptical about Patrick competing in the Nationwide race at Daytona because of the number of  Sprint Cup drivers in the field. But, Eury said, the way Patrick rallied from a spinout that left her in last place with fewer than 30 laps remaining was impressive.

Eury added that his father, Tony Eury Sr., stayed in Mooresville, N.C., to finish working on the Nationwide car if Patrick opts to race.

"We're ready to go," he said. "Pops stayed at home to final up some stuff and make sure the cars are ready."

If Patrick listens to others like she said she would, though, and if Eury's vote carries much weight, she'll be in. After all, listening to one of Hendrick’s influential crew chiefs can be sage advice.