Danica Patrick IRL Driver

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Whether you like her or not she has shook up the IRL for the better. Funny how the naysayers rip on her over a rookie mistake last Sunday.
She is 9th in points for the championship with 5 races under her belt. There are some pretty high powered drivers just ahead and just below her.
http://www.indyracing.com/stats/
Second all 100lbs of her does look great in skimpy outfits. Safe for work

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[ June 04, 2005, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: 59 Vetteman ]
 
She's a good driver. Anyone who has followed her career since her days in the Toyota Atlantic Series knows this. However, she is going to become a great driver. I would like to see her jump to Formula 1 some day.
 
Not to take anything away from her, but her gender and looks make her very marketable, which got her a top notch ride, which helped her to be very competitive. Most rookies don't start out driving for a top team. Sure, she is a good driver, but there are lots of good drivers out there. Only time will tell if she has the right stuff to become a great driver. As for Formula One, ask Michael Andretti or Jacque Villnueve how easy that switch is.
 
And who made the front page of many national newspapers after the race? Was it the male British (first Brit in many decades) victor? Nope. Is this a sport of skill or a social test-bed?
 
Race car driving is, unfortunately, more about marketing than driver skill.

If you can't get a sponsor's money - and they like young, wholesome people - then you are doomed.
 
She won't answer my emails asking her to go on a date with me!

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J/K
 
well, i was at the race, then i watched it again on replay that night. i think that she did a pretty good job overall, but she didn't really have a chance to win. she stayed out and got into first when everyone else pitted. had she gone in for gas, she wouldn't have been in first towards the end.
second, her car wasn't handling that well in traffic. had she had enough fuel to make the distance, she would have had to work her way through traffic to get the lead. unlikely.
third, andretti green racing had the fastest cars at indy. kanaan was toying with hornish (unless hornish was being conservative), and wheldon was reeling in cars at an amazing rate.
yeah, she killed it in the pits. so does everyone at some time or another.
i've seen replays of her restart jump & bump, and i think she miscalculated, but her spotter and pit crew should have been talking her around then as well.
overall, good performance for a rookie. lots of luck, too, which is always the case at indy.
 
How would you judge a rookie driver who lead the race, tanked it in the pits, destroyed a nose/wing under yellow with cold tires, came back to lead the race up to 7 laps to go, and if it weren't for a fuel situation, had a real chance of winning... if it were a male?

Impressive rookie Indy performance, I say, male or female. I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of her as a race car driver.

And she's way easy on the eyes, which doesn't hurt!

Now that it's been shown that you don't have to be terribly muscular to withstand the rigors of Indy, do you think there may be more of a premium on lower body mass? She's gotta underweigh most of those male drivers by a good fifty pounds, that's a lot of fuel saved!
 
Keep in mind that this all falls under entertainment. If I was charged with getting the best bang for the buck out of my air time and had an opportunity to exploit this type of situtation ..I'd be negligent for not taking advantage of it.

So, don't be too critical ..it's all a show. One feature length commercial. They just found a new and novel personality to focus on for the sales pitch.
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Yes... everyone knows that real racing happens with gasoline, not methanol, and corners that twist in both directions
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(I'm not showing my Euro/World bent too much, am I?)
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She did fine for a rookie. I'm sure the old timers will remember what Kevin Cogan did on the pace lap in 1982. [crashed into Mario Andretti and took them both out]. She did far better than that!
 
She did just fine.

No doubt being an attractive young female helped get her there compared to a male of similar talent. That doesn't take away from the talent she has one bit though.

She made some rookie mistakes. Killing the car in the pits. The warming the tires/restart thing, but those are the kind of things everyone makes there at one time or another.

I saw a clip tonight on speed Channel with Tony Stewart and they asked him what he thought about her. He said he bet she'd kill it in the pits since everyone does. He also pointed out she went from the back to very near the front twice and that wasn't easy.

He's raced there and I consider him one of the best drivers currently racing. Even if I hadn't watched her, his thumbs up for her says something.
 
I think she did great and she has real talent. look at sara fisher, she couldn't even finish indy in how many trys? women seem to have bad luck at indy, then danica patrick comes along and shakes things up. 4th place is difficult for any rookie.
quote:
Race car driving is, unfortunately, more about marketing than driver skill.
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that is true. look at robbie gordon in the off road world. they throw tons of money at him and he is a primadonna and has a less than steller carrer, but he has tons of sponsors and gets his name in alot of the right places.
 
quote:
Originally posted by jsharp:
She did just fine.

No doubt being an attractive young female helped get her there compared to a male of similar talent. That doesn't take away from the talent she has one bit though.

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What I really liked about her was that she said that being an attractive female helped get her where she was. You don't hear that kind of honesty very often from someone in her position. She also added that it won't win races and she has to outperfom the competition to win.

A little more experiance and there will be no stopping her. She's talented, driven and realistic. A dynamite combination.

She also didn't get rattled by her mistakes.
 
She is an interesting new driver. Like all rookies, she made some mistakes. I think the chances of her winning were exaggerated, but she may be a competitive driver in the future. An yeah, being young, female, and good looking does get you some breaks although you struggle to be taken seriously.

Leading the race was a fluke, part of a tortoise and hare stradigy.
 
quote:
Originally posted by XS650:

quote:
Originally posted by jsharp:
She did just fine.

No doubt being an attractive young female helped get her there compared to a male of similar talent. That doesn't take away from the talent she has one bit though.

Click to expand...
What I really liked about her was that she said that being an attractive female helped get her where she was. You don't hear that kind of honesty very often from someone in her position. She also added that it won't win races and she has to outperfom the competition to win.

A little more experiance and there will be no stopping her. She's talented, driven and realistic. A dynamite combination.

She also didn't get rattled by her mistakes.
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Agreed. During one the short interviews with her she was asked if she thought what she'd done was an accomplishment for a woman. Her reply was that it was an accomplishment for *anybody.*

I hope she does well. One other benefit that I'm sure is not lost on her sponsors is that it might just breathe some life into open wheel racing in the US. God knows it needs it...
 
quote:
Originally posted by tom slick:
look at sara fisher, she couldn't even finish indy in how many trys?
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actually, she did finish a couple years ago. more impressively, she did it without radio contact for most of the race.

sarah fisher never got the equipment that danica patrick had.

kind of like michael andretti in f1.
 
As stated above, reality is she is a good looking female doing very well in a MALE dominated sport. Good for her. I personally like this chick. Down to earth from what I can tell, and seems to be level headed. I'm sure some would rather see her at home barefoot and pregnant, but those days are over. To each their own.
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[ June 04, 2005, 10:02 AM: Message edited by: buster ]
 
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