Posted on 05/28/2005 8:03:38 PM PDT by freepatriot32
Robby Gordon accused Danica Patrick of having an unfair advantage in the Indianapolis 500 and said Saturday he will not compete in the race again unless the field is equalized.
Gordon, a former open-wheel driver now in NASCAR, contends that Patrick is at an advantage over the rest of the competitors because she only weighs 100 pounds. Because all the cars weigh the same, Patrick's is lighter on the race track.
"The lighter the car, the faster it goes," Gordon said. "Do the math. Put her in the car at her weight, then put me or Tony Stewart in the car at 200 pounds and our car is at least 100 pounds heavier.
"I won't race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away."
The Indy Racing League does not consider the weight of the driver in its race specifications. The car has to weigh at least 1,525 pounds before the fuel and driver are added, and teams in Indy have estimated that Patrick will gain close to 1 mph in speed because of her small stature.
Although her rivals in Sunday's race have said she doesn't have a huge advantage, pole-sitter Tony Kanaan told reporters he would like the Indy Racing League to look into the issue.
"Right off the bat, a guy my size is spotting her 105 pounds," Gordon said. "That's the reason she's so much faster."
Patrick has been among the quickest drivers since rookie orientation began on the famed 2 1/2-mile oval on May 5. Only a bobble on the first lap of her qualifying effort kept her from winning the pole, and she will take the green flag from fourth on Sunday, the best starting position for a woman at Indy.
Patrick was fastest with a lap of 225.997 mph to lead the one-hour "Carb Day" practice on Friday, the only time the cars got on the track during the week between the end of time trials and the start of the race.
She follows Janet Guthrie, Lyn St. James and Sarah Fisher to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, needing only to finish eighth or better to improve on the best previous finish by a female - ninth by Guthrie in 1978.
Patrick, however, is not focused on simply finishing in the top 10 or just staying out of trouble.
"I think I have a great chance of winning this race," the confident Patrick said.
Driving the 650-horsepower IndyCars for the first time this year, Patrick has improved in each of the first four IRL races, culminating in an impressive fourth place last month in Japan.
At Indy, she has been nothing less than a phenomenon.
Patrick would not be the first rookie to win here, although certainly among the least experienced.
Juan Montoya was the defending champion of the rival CART series when he won here in 2000, and Helio Castroneves was a two-year regular in CART and winner of three races before he took the checkered flag as an Indy rookie in 2001.
Still, Castroneves, who also won the next year, said he has no doubt Patrick could win on Sunday, particularly since she is driving a Honda-powered Panoz for the powerful Rahal Letterman Racing team that won here last year with Buddy Rice.
"She is driving for a great team and she has been fast every day since she got here," Castroneves said. "If she can keep her nose clean, she'll be OK. The only thing that might be a problem is you have to have patience and, sometimes, rookies don't have much patience."
Castroneves, starting fifth, and Marlboro Team Penske teammate Sam Hornish Jr., a two-time IRL champion and starting in the middle of the first row, also will be among the favorites Sunday as they try to give Roger Penske a record 14th Indy win.
Others to watch include all four members of Andretti Green Racing, including Kanaan, current IRL points leader Dan Wheldon, Dario Franchitti and Bryan Herta.
If one of them can manage to get to Victory Lane, it would be a very big day indeed for team co-owner Michael Andretti, who led more laps than any other nonwinner at Indy. His father, Mario, won the race in 1969, then spent 25 frustrating years trying and failing to win it again.
The two had so many things go wrong here that the term "Andretti Luck" became part of the Indy lexicon. "We've done everything in our power to put ourselves in a good position," Michael said. "Of course, this feeling doesn't mean anything. I've been here before in this position. We'll see what fate has in store."
And don't forget perhaps the most heartwarming story of the month: Kenny Brack. The 1999 Indy winner, nearly killed in a devastating crash at Texas Motor Speedway in October 2003, was called upon just last week to replace Rice, injured in a crash here on May 10.
Brack responded by posting the fastest qualifying speed of the month, 227.598 mph. Since it came on the second week of time trials, though, he will start 23rd. Nobody has won from that far back since Johnny Rutherford started 25th in 1974 and charged to the second of his three victories.
Still, Brack is confident he can be competitive in basically the same Honda-powered Panoz in which Rice won last year.
"Maybe I'll be a little rusty in traffic, but it's a long race," said Brack, who hasn't raced an IndyCar since his crash. "I think we'll be just fine after the first pit stop."
The third Rahal Letterman entry, Vitor Meira, making his fourth Indy start - from seventh - could be the dark horse in the race.
"Vitor also has great equipment and he's been flying all month," Kanaan said. "I think maybe he's a little under the radar."
Hornish has been perhaps the IRL's biggest star since winning his first series title in 2001, but he has struggled mightily at Indy. In five starts here, he has yet to finish better than 14th or even complete all 200 laps.
"The big thing is to make it to the end, which I have not done yet," Hornish said. "But we have a great team and two great cars and we've got as good a shot as anybody.
"If I do win here, it would be my 14th (career) win and it would be Roger's 14th at Indy," he added. "I think that would be very nice."
The big question going into Sunday, though, remains: What will Danica do?
Castroneves was asked if it bothers him that most of the questions he and other veterans have fielded this month have been about Patrick.
"It's good for the series, it's good for the sport," he replied. "When I came here they gave me the nickname 'Spider Man.' Maybe they should call her 'Wonder Woman."
Great catch...she does have the Bush's genetic look
These cars are incredibly difficult to drive and the faster you go the harder it gets. We're talking about a 100lb girl having to do the same work as a 200lb man. I think the advantage is to the men.
FYI, a rumor that's gone around for years is that when Jimmy Spencer won his only two races, at Daytona and Talladega in 1994, his car was BAD illegal, but NASCAR looked the other way because Junior Johnson was struggling on his last legs as a car owner and was about to lose his sponsorship, and they wanted to help him out.
Again, there aren't a lot of 200 pounders out there today, especially in NASCAR ... plus the cars aren't nearly as tough to drive anymore since they have power steering.
Indeed, it's refreshing. For God's sake, there's even women's curling!
Whine, whine. What about the male drivers who weigh more than Gordon? Is he going to add weights to HIS car to compensate for "his advantage" over them?
Oh, come on. He's being a girly man here.
I think you may be right. While she may have a weight advantage, I'm guessing that its not going to be much of a blessing in a 500 mile race where strength and endurance will play a very large factor as well. I suspect that it will all even out in the end.
Bull because PMS will make her more competitive and probably DANGEROUS besides... I wouldn't compete against her till she has her ovaries removed.. then it might be fair..
Hmmm, weight.. wonder if a jockey would make a good race car driver..
Two words Robbie: Slim Fast!
Probably nothing she's done up to now has been enough to fully prepare her (or any rookie) for that experience.
Yeah, Robby said in the story that she had a 105-pound weight advantage, if she's 100 that means he's 205, which is 25 pounds over his "official" listed weight. So as I said earlier, he ought to stop making return trips to the buffet. :)
You must first understand Robbie and his complaining. He must have gotten this bad problem from his father who was a grade A complainer in off road racing. Robbie started off his off road career as a teenager doing the same thing. Boiled down to the 'fat' he is a spoiled little brat that has had nothing but a self-destructive career from the very beginning.
Ford spent millions and millions grooming him for a stellar racing career which could have led to many championships by now. But what does he do? One year Ford was having a bad year with their engines in the old CART days.(turbocharged 2.6 liter engines like they used to run at Indy) Robbie was having a bad race that day with his engine going bad. What does he do? Instead of pulling into the pits and parking it, he intentionally blew the motor from coninued abuse and then had the gall in the TV interview afterwards to do nothing but complain about the Ford engine, calling it crap as well as some other choice descriptions. Needless to say, he was thru driving Fords in Indy cars.
He was even witnessed spitting in a girl friends face in a bar in Arizona prior to the Parker 400 off road race.
This is truly an example of an extremely talented driver destroying his own career and future as a result of an unchecked immature and egotistical personality.
He could have been one of Americas greatest, attaining greatness such as Foyt, Andretti, Unsers, Rutherford and Mears. Not anymore, it is too late.
What I've noticed is the debris yellow always comes out when a popular driver needs to catch up with the pack.
I'm done with the league. Only watch the road courses now (Just to watch them screwup the right turns).
Very few rookies come into Indy and master the place immediately. Only ones I can recall are Jim Clark and Nigel Mansell, and they weren't exactly true rookies. :)
I hope she does well at Indianapolis. Let's face it, she is getting publicity because she is a solid driver who qualified pretty well and she has good looks. That always counts.
I always root for the Rahal-Letterman team. They are based here in Columbus. Bobby Rahal put Columbus on the auto racing map and even brought an Indy race to the city in the 1980's, the Columbus 500. He is one of the best to ever hit the speedway. As an Ohioan and a racing fan (NASCAR and Indy), I hope he can maybe be influential about getting another big speedway here in the state. Mid-Ohio is a nice facility, but I don't think it could attract a NASCAR or Busch race. I believe the Indy cars still race there and at Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport. Mansfield just got a NASCAR truck race. Hopefully the racing industry can get some events here because there is a market.
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