Danica Patrick rejects notion she can't compete in NASCAR

LATimes ^ | July 17, 2009 | Jim Peltz

[smokingfrog]

Danica Patrick on Friday rejected skeptics who say she is incapable of switching from driving lighter, aerodynamic Indy cars to the much bulkier and heavier stock cars used on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Patrick, 27, is in the last year of her contract with the IndyCar team Andretti Green Racing and is evaluating options for next season. Patrick last year became the first woman to win a major U.S.-sanctioned open-wheel race when she won the IndyCar race at Motegi, Japan.

She already had become a major sports figure after nearly winning the Indianapolis 500 in 2005, her rookie year. Now the IndyCar Series' most popular driver, she finished third in this year's Indy 500.

During a visit to Los Angeles to attend the ESPY Awards, Patrick also talked about her recent visit to Tony Stewart's NASCAR shop, the prospects of her moving to the Formula One series and other topics in a question-and-answer session:

[papasmurf]

Don’t believe that for a minute. She drove that win, pure and simple.

[se_ohio_young_conservative]

Women like Sarah Palin and Danica Patrick are so attractive and amazing to me.

not just because they are beautiful. I can see good looking women walking around campus all of the time. but outer beauty is one thing.

I think what it is. women like Danica and Sarah are so confident with their sexuality. so confident in who they are. they embrace their own feminine qualities and they are tough and fearless.

[buschbaby]

I don’t want her in NASCAR. I cannot stand the twitch. If her personality matched the looks it would be different. She is a snotty brat who I suspect is a lib.

[rawhide]

Jimmy Kimmel Live - Danica Patrick and Jimmy Kimmel

[Jet Jaguar]

Really?

She has drive and is independent. She relies on herself and her team.

She seems okay.

Just my opinion of her.

[Snickering Hound]

NASCAR is just all left turns anyway...

[Redcloak]

NOT GUILTY!!

Um...

I mean... uh... Nice cams.

[jws3sticks]

Dear Removed by Moderator,

Are not we so perfect and judgmental!

[smokingfrog]

Are the “I’d hit it” remarks now being removed by the AM?

[calex59]

People are always the same. They don't think they are prejudiced but what they say gives it away. It used to be, "blacks(or insert race, nationality, sex) can't handle that kind of work!"(said by mostly democrats and KKK types), and instead of letting them try, the prejudiced types would work to ban whichever race, sex or nationality they didn't like from doing that type of work(whatever it was).

There are those on this forum and drivers in Nascar who are using the same tactics on Danica.

If she truly can't make it driving Nascar then she will fail, but she deserves the chance. People who don't want her to try are actually afraid she will make it and thus smash one of their prejudices to pieces.

[jyoders19]

The fact of the matter is, if it weren’t for the novelty of a woman driving in a sport dominated by men, NOBODY would be at all interested in a driver who has won one Indy race in 5 years trying to move to NASCAR. It’d be more like laugh and watch the wannabe not get a sponsor or car owner to take a chance on him. Tony Stewart is proof, he had to win the Indy 500 and dominate IRL to move to NASCAR.

[JillValentine]

I don’t think so. Danica has said that she didn’t ask for all the extra attention the media has given her because she’s a woman. Her primary desire is to race, not to be a feminist poster child.

Also, one thing about liberals - especially young, female liberals - is that they can’t keep their flaps shut about politics. The fact that Danica hasn’t gone political would seem to indicate that she isn’t one of them. She’s the first female race car driver to receive this much attention. She could have easily used her position on the media stage to shill for Shrillary or Zero. But she hasn’t.

I think Danica is either an apolitical person who just wants to focus on racing, or a closet conservative who has to keep quiet about her politics because she, like any celebrity, has no choice but to rely heavily on the liberal media to promote her name.

[JillValentine]

Nothing wrong with “I’m sexy but I’m not a slut.” I think she’s a good role model. Young women should be independent, assertive, and confident in their own sexuality, without being sluts.

That said, I wouldn’t mind a tasteful topless shoot of her. (Full nude would be going too far). She’d be representing all the other small-breasted, slim & boyish-hipped women out there, including me (looks down at her small chest affectionately).

In this age where Michelle Obama is constantly being held up by the liberal media as the ideal standard of beauty, society needs its Danicas. I don’t want young women being told they “have the body of a 12-year-old boy” (fav line of the Marilyn Monroe Size 16 pushers when criticizing slender women) if they have a posterior smaller than Mee-Shell’s truck-sized one.

[SideoutFred]

I’d drive that

:)

[exist]

That said, I wouldn’t mind a tasteful topless shoot of her. (Full nude would be going too far). She’d be representing all the other small-breasted, slim & boyish-hipped women out there, including me (looks down at her small chest affectionately).

Best Post Ever.

[JillValentine]

Thanks, I’ll be here all week.

[Free Vulcan]

Not small breasted hon, the term is perky. Perky is good.

Besides, as you get older your friends will get fat. You’ll just fill out a little.

[dalereed]

Who’s Kimmel, some queer, sure looks it?

[RayChuang88]

The big problem (quite literally!) for Patrick in NASCAR is that unlike the IRL, NASCAR Sprint Cup racers don't have the "weight advantage" when driving a Sprint Cup car. In the Indy Racing League, Patrick--being some 30-50 pounds lighter than most of the other drivers on that racing circuit--has potentially huge advantages on a race car where weight saving in any form of a few pounds can be HUGELY effective.

[Roccus]

Ray, you simply MUST stop clouding the issue with common sense and logic!!!!!