Robbie Gordon of NASCAR Will Not Drive IRL Races Against Danica Patrick, Citing Weight Advantage

National Review Magazine: The Corner ^ | 6/1/05 | KJ Lopez

[gopwinsin04]

Robbie Gordon of NASCAR started the discussion, saying that he wouldn't drive in the Indy Car Racing League series until they do something about Danica Patrick's weight 'advantage.'

'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 cars are at least 100 pounds heavier.'

'I wont race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away.'

I glanced at the weight of the weight of the drivers in the Indy Car Series. They are pretty much smallish guys --between 140 and 155 lbs.

He seems to be willing to race against guys who are about 60 pounds less and had no problem with it before.

[1rudeboy]

What a friggin' wuss. Race your darn car, Robbie.

[Steve_Seattle]

My experience is that most open-wheel racers are in the 5'6-5'9 category, so there's not much weight difference. But a few come to mind - Dan Gurney and Eddie Cheever and (I think) Jerry Grant - who were over 6', and that probably hurt them a little bit. (I remember when Gurney drove the Ford at LeMans, they had to have a little bubble in the roof of the car to accommodate his helmet - he was too tall for the car.) But back in the 1950s, Jose Froilan Gonzales drove for Ferrari in F1 with considerable success despite the fact that he was an actual fatso, fatter than Foyt.

[ET(end tyranny)]

And Dan weldon weighs how much???

He weighs 157. Wonder how much Danny Sullivan weighed when he won? Does the weight thing only apply to the Indy 500 or all Indy races. If all IRL races then I wonder how much Miachel Andretti weighed for some of his races that he won, he's never been exactly a lightweight.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Personally, I could care less about boob size. My wife happens to be very attractive, a lot younger than me and is DD, all natural. She is very attractive, very pretty face and her hair is a medium brown."

Well, we all have our checklist of desirable attributes - physical or otherwise - but when you fall in love with someone, the checklist goes out the window. But it sounds like your wife would pretty much fill out my checklist, at least on the physical side, so congratulations, you lucky bastard. lol I, too, love long dark hair, and I think that's Danica's strong point.

[iconoclast]

Let the A-hole go on a serious diet.

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

You are right. The list does go out the window when you are married.

She always jokes about the women who come up to her in the bathrooms and ask her if her boobs are real, or "who did your boobs." She knows I like dark hair, but she has a lot of confidence in herself so that does not bother her. She even bought a dark haired wig and surprised me one day, just as a joke. She is part Latina, part Italian, and 100% foxy.

[steve86]

Pull out your Newtonian partial equations manual and figure out how much weight you would need to remove to give a car a one-centimeter advantage accelerating out of turn four to the finish line. The answer might be in grams. It all counts.

[go-dubya-04]

NASCAR alters the weight of the car to make up for discrepancies in the drivers' weights

[Kokojmudd]

"I'd like to think they can grow up in a country where their success doesn't lead to the expectation that they'll automatically shake their ass for the general public. Because the more women who do that, the more it will be expected, even insisted upon."

Attractive media personalities are expected to shake their butt for the general public these days. That is why Danica Patrick gets aways with it and why people who disagree with it are called a prude. I wonder if her fellow drivers respect her any more as a person for doing the photos? ..or would they be more likely to think they can "take advantage" of her? ......and what does her fiance think about some of the photos?

[Steve_Seattle]

"Are they willing to put a 50 block somewhere at the risk of causing death and injury to the drivers?"

I think if they ever came up with a weight-equalization requirement in the IRL, it would be better integrated into the design of the car than simply strapping on a 50 pound block. lol There would probably be some bolt-ons distributed equally around the car, maybe two in front and two in back, somewhere inside the chassis. But you're correct that weight in itself hasn't limited the winner's circle to jockey-sized drivers, otherwise Foyt, Big Al, Michael Andretti, Danny Sullivan etc never would have won.

[Steve_Seattle]

"She is part Latina, part Italian, and 100% foxy."

Ok, you don't have to rub it in. :-)

[discostu]

NASCAR vehicles are aerodynamically designed to have more down force that a fully laiden 747 sitting on the tarmac, grams won't make a difference, if grams made a difference professional drivers would be constantly trying to lose weight. You don't hear about guys taking pre-race enemas to get rid of a few extra grams do you? You know why, because grams don't make a difference, neither with a couple dozen pounds.

[Steve_Seattle]

I don't know how heavy a NASCAR car is compared to an IRL car, but in an IRL car I think 60-80 pounds could make quite a difference over the whole race. (A few years ago, one of Dale Earnhardt's cars was on display at the Seattle hydroplane race, and I was surprised how small the car looked; maybe the weight differential between Indy cars and NASCAR isn't as much as I would think.)

[Light Speed]

glory escaped them...LOL!!

Ah ya....thats the Auto Ticker tape on the T.V. screen for how many drivers of late.

Front Row Joe Nemechek ..."It wasn't my fault"

Robby [Crash] Gordon...."Every week we have gone to the racetrack, I have been more optimistic than the last.

Whats next Rob.....quotes from the Dalai Lama : )

Both drivers wreck so often...one wonders if their is infact **Bodine DNA somewhere's in the mix.

Some of the aged and patient Nascar drivers who like to hang back in the field before moving up...like Bobby Labonte...Dale Jarret.
No break for them since the Bodines left...nope...now its Crash Gordon and Not my fault Nemechek back there.

Racing comedy is not exculsive to Nascar or Indy.
Nope...you can be black and [Satan looking like]....BMW/Maclaren.... with head case Kimi Raikkonen who gets drunk and face plants in a fountain during media moments.
Or drives his F1 car off the track for 300 yards in the gravel....then flat spots his tire 3-4 times.
Then has it tear his car apart and wreck on the final lap with millions hanging in the balance.
F1 media praised Raikkonen like he was the second coming before the German Grand Prix.
Turns out Kimi wasn't as gifted as they thought : )

In F1 racing there is the former glory gone crowd too.
Schumaker Brothers who do not like each other anymore...
Or...the headcase Juan Pablo [Even a bad driver can win a race]....Montoya

Here's to the head cases....and a DVD burner : )

[ET(end tyranny)]

You have someone else's comment addressed as mine.

[Kokojmudd]

Sorry it was supposed to be for steve seattle. One day...down the road.... I will make it to HTML bootcamp!

[Steve_Seattle]

Nobody in F1 seems to be having much fun anymore. Yes, they do the scripted spraying of champagne up on the podium, but everything seems very cut and dried. A lot of wan smiles, a lot of coy talk about being "quick," a lot of talk about money, but very rarely any laughter. It's more serious than church.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Something else comes to mind. Perspective. Why isn't this viewed as Robbie Gordon giving the others a 50 pound advantage due to a little overweight. Why should the other drivers have to take on extra weight just because he over eats?

[Kokojmudd]

F1 hasn't been any fun since the loss of Senna IMO.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Is it possible that Indy deliberately had things set up this way so that selecting a lighter driver would become part of the strategy?"

I don't think so, but one thing I think they deliberately do to make the races more exciting is bring out the yellow flag for "debris on the track." Often, there is no apparent debris on the track, and I think they're just trying to tighten up the field when it gets too strung out.