Posted on 04/06/2009 10:20:58 PM PDT by valkyry1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Danica Patrick's season got off to a tough start after she crashed out early in the season-opening Honda Grand Prix.
She was running ninth in the 22-car field on Sunday when rookie Raphael Matos tried to pass as the two went into one of the tightest turns on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
She starts out back in the pack, and while at 9nth place & lap 31 rookie Raphael Matos tries to pass her while coming into a fast chicane and they both crash into the tires, putting her and Matos out of the race.
http://larrybrownsports.com/car-racing/video-danica-patrick-rafael-matos-crash-honda-grand-prix/6383
Ryan Briscoe, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Justin Wilson take the 1st 2nd and 3d places.
Ryan Hunter-Reay might be a guy to watch this season.
Yeppr
I’d hit it, LOL
I agree. She’s not popular because of anything to do with racing.
One of these days, she's going to get in the grill of the wrong guy, who's in the wrong mood and she's going to jacked. I hope it's caught on film.
You can see it here:
Agree.
Ok, before some one gets killed, get her off the track.
That’s totally untrue. She’s made many contributions to the sport. She’s made history on many occasions.
You obvioulsy don’t know IRL racing.
In your dreams, LOL
Answer me one question: Has she made any history in the sport that doesn't include the words "first woman"?
I've been a motor-sports fan since I can remember. I went to my first Daytona 500 at the age of 3. And, I've been to over a dozen since and countless NASCAR, American Le Mans and even a few F1 races. Danica Patrick doesn't impress me as a driver. She has a short fuse and a long list of excuses - not a good combination.
You are SPOT ON. Thanks!
So, I take it by your answer, you couldn't come up with anything that doesn't include the word "woman" in it? I judge people, but especially athletes, by what they've accomplished - not by who they are.
She's only had ONE win in over 65 starts - that's NOT setting the house on fire. I'm not exactly sure what her per-lap incident is, but I'm guessing that it's significant. She's stalled coming out of the pits in critical times of the race a number of times.
And, she proudly proclaims she has no idea how the cars work and doesn't want to learn. GREAT drivers know EXACTLY how the cars work and it's that insight that allows them to communicate with the chief engineer or crew chief what's wrong with the set-up.
Maybe I'm not the one who doesn't know anything about motor sports.
Well okay then. Just what has she accomplished that is so outstanding in the racing world. Almost every race last year she would place fairly well in the qualifying, then drop back during the race.
Not only that, other than the one win last year her finishes were back in the pack IIRC.
So, by your answer, if the driver isn’t finishing number one on a consistent basis, they’re no good?
She remained very competitive all last season, and for some very good drivers, that’s the most any real fan can ask for.
She’s an outstanding marketing tool for auto racing, a bonus for IRL, a sport that’s slowly fading. Why would you fault her? A beautiful woman doing 200+? It’s not like she doesn’t challenge her opponents. She makes lots of top 10’s.
NASCAR is a civilized demolition derby, far slower than IRL. F1? If you’re not one of the top three teams, your chances of winning a race are zilch. BORING! Le Mans is too damned long. I have a bad case of ADD, I can’t do more than 3 hours.
Because she has a prima Donna attitude with an under-study performance record. She really got under my skin when she...
A) Called Eddie Cheever an idiot on national television (Cheever's forgotten more about racing than Patrick knows) and
B)Got in the face of Ryan Briscoe. Had she been a man, she probably, definitely been knocked on her a$$.
She get preferential treatment precisely because she's a woman, and not because she's a great driver. So far, she's a journeyman driver, at best.
And by the way, before you go running down NASCAR - there's been more than a few drivers that have tried to move from IRL (or other open wheel) to NASCAR, and almost all have been a bust.
Tony Stewart is the lone exception. Montoya had a decent rookie season but has been very vanilla since. Sam Hornish, although an IRL phenom has been disappointing in NASCAR - Simply stated, NASCAR is a whole lot harder than it looks.
BIG EFFING DEAL. That’s jealousy talking there.
If you were in her shoes, you mean to tell me you wouldn’t take advantage of it? You’re naiive.
When Michael Jordan won his last championship, they played slo-mo of him CLEARLY getting away with a blatant offensive foul, right in front of the official.
Atheletes do this all the time. Dale Earnhardt jr. Got away with two yellow line encroachment violations last year, and got away with it because of his name.
You win any way you can, and a girl in racing? Those boys don’t want to get beat by a girl! I’ve seen them gang up on her on the track, or haven’t you noticed? Oh, that’s right. You’re a bigger fan than I am.
I like NASCAR. I’m not dogging it, but let’s face it. You’re doing no more than 140 most of the time in a brick.
IRL is faaaaaast. No touching in IRL, at 215mph. NASCAR is, well, NASCAR. It’s not really built for speed.
Ryan Briscoe seized the lead from Justin Wilson on a restart with 14 laps left and held off Ryan Hunter-Reay to capture his third IndyCar victory
It's been a much sharper transition for Hunter-Reay and Wilson, who delivered career-best results for their respective teams despite still learning their crewmembers' names.
NASCAR and Indy were much faster years ago until both have been restricted. If I recall correctly and I think I do, lap speeds of 240 mph were being hit at Daytona and Indy.
The good old boys will never let her win a big one.
NASCAR bodies don’t handle at all above 200mph. IRL does, but drivers start to blackout at 240 on the corners.
That’s what I suspect happened to Paul Dana, Danica’s former teammate. Though IRL wouldn’t talk about it.
I was on your side at the beginning of this thread but now I think you don't know much about racing if you think NASCAR isn't racing.
I never said it wasn’t racing, but you have to admit, those are STOCK CARS, not RACE CARS. They weren’t made to race.
The reason NASCAR is so competitive is that the payout is much higher than IRL. If IRL paid that much, all those NASCAR drivers would be open wheel heroes.
//NASCAR bodies don’t handle at all above 200mph//
I know that, but thats what they were hitting with those Plymouth 440 Superbirds and Dodge Daytonas circa 1970.
They were hitting 240 mph with the Plymouth Superbirds and Dodge Daytona’s back then.
I always thought the census bureau never got an accurate count in Tennesse because of the hillbillies that avoided society.
My solution? Do a census count at the NASCAR Bristol races. It’s the only time them hillbillies come down from the hills! LOL!
Did it work? LOL
I remember reading that Rusty Wallace took an unrestricted NASCAR then-Nextel Cup racer around Daytona a few years ago using a pre-Car of Tomorrow design and promptly hit an amazing 230 mph on a couple of laps around that place! Small wonder why NASCAR instituted the restrictor plate rule for Daytona and Talledega.
The guy ought to be blackflagged for it. She is running consistently in the top ten I think which is very good.
With abetter car, she could improve her finish.
I tried to get into IRL but was bored to tears. Must be the "no touching".
I'll concede your first point (about this last incident), but I think she has a great car. She drives for one of the best teams that compile information from two of the better drivers in the sport. Tony Kanaan has won at least 6 times (5 times more than Danica) with at least that many top threes driving the same car (to the extent that the cars can be the same)during the exact same time period.
If the car's not performing better, she only has herself to blame. As I said in an earlier post, Kanaan (and all the great drivers) knows how the car works. He can tell the chief engineer precisely what's wrong with the car making it much easier for the engineer and the technicians to set-up up the car for maximum speed at optimal handling. If Danica's car isn't performing as well as her teammate's, she only has herself to blame. But with her ego, you'll never hear her say that.
In fact, I can't ever remember he saying anything, but especially her performance, was her fault. It's always somebody else problem or mistake. That's my problem with Patrick.
Didn't she hit some guy and kill him in a practice incident in Nashville early in her career? I'm not a racing fan, but seem to recall this happening.
I'm guessing you're kidding. Kenny Schrader, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, JJ Yeley, and Kasey Kahne all came up through USAC.
And that’s just current drivers off the top of my head.
But, I was speaking of the major open wheel circuits, like F1 IRL and Champ. Can you think of any of those drivers that have had real success in NASCAR?
That's pretty weak. USAC is THE open wheel sanctioning body in the United States. There's only one reason drivers leave open wheel to come to NASCAR, and it's not the racing: it's the money. If NASCAR runs short of money, these guys are going back to open wheel.
If you want to look back a little further, to when the different series allowed more switching, there are quite a few open wheel drivers that had success in NASCAR. Foyt and Andretti come immediately to mind.
Also, I think you'd lose this bet. I'd say it's closer to 50/50 between guys coming up through USAC on one hand and NASCAR or ASA on the other. 50/50 might even be high.
What? To be clear, you don't think that most of these drivers were carting LONG, LONG before they ever sat in a late-model or NASCAR track?
I don't think that's a bet I'd lose.
They might have sat in go-karts at sometime, but as far as organized racing goes, I'm saying that it's 50/50 at best between USAC and NASCAR/ASA.
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