INDIANAPOLIS — Caitlin Clark made her first appearance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — on Josh Berry's No. 4 Ford. The rookie driver took his Stewart-Haas Racing entry to the traditional 2.5-mile oval with an image of the WNBA rookie star plastered across the hood of his car.
Speedway officials had hoped to get the top pick in the WNBA draft to the facility for May's Indianapolis 500 festivities, but the Indiana Fever spent most of that time playing road games.
This weekend, Clark is participating in All-Star activities in Phoenix. So Panini, one of Berry's sponsors, did something neither NASCAR nor IndyCar officials could — helping make Clark the face of race weekend. «Obviously, starting our partnership with Panini has been really cool; they have a huge presence in NASCAR and in sports in general,» Berry said before Friday's practice session. «For them to use the hood of our race car to draw attention to the Caitlin Clark collection that's out is really cool.
I think it's been a popular week on social media for our No. 4 car.» Racing with an image of someone else on his car is a first for Berry, not that he minds.