Posted on 10/17/2005 1:25:19 PM PDT by Lost Highway
Their Toyota Indy 400 ended in a crash Sunday, but the action between Danica Patrick and Jaques Lazier didn't end on the track.
Afterward, fingers were pointing and poking ... and maybe even punching. And before this one's over, IndyCar promises to have a hand in it.
Patrick, who spent most of the day hovering near the back of the top 10, saw her rookie-of-the-year season end in a jarring crash with Lazier that brought out the fourth and final caution flag just 16 laps from the end of the 200-lap event.
"The first person I saw after the accident was Jaques and that wasn't a good thing," Patrick told the Long Beach Press-Telegram. "I confronted him. I told him how I felt. I was mad at him."
Once the two drivers were in the rescue vehicle after the crash, Lazier initially said that Patrick punched him in the head. Lazier later recanted, going along with Patrick's explanation of a poke to the forehead.
"Look, we had a difference of opinion about what happened, and we were both emotional," Lazier told the Indianapolis Star on Sunday evening. "If she said she hit me on the temple with her fingers, that's fine. It doesn't matter."
"My son hits harder than she does," Lazier, whose son Kayden is 4, told the Press-Telegram.
An IndyCar spokesman promised an investigation.
"There are two sides to every story," IndyCar spokesman John Griffin told the Press-Telegram. "We will investigate."
Patrick reportedly was appalled by the accusation of a punch. She claimed she was telling him to use his head.
"So you're telling me that Jaques is saying he got beat up by a girl?" Patrick told the Star through a Rahal Letterman Racing spokesperson.
Dr. Kevin Scheid was driving the rescue vehicle and told the two drivers to settle down. But he would not settle the punch/poke debate.
"I'm not going to break that tie," he told the Star, laughing.
Patrick, who came away from the crash with a sore left elbow, and Lazier, who was not injured, came together and both spun and slammed hard into the wall. Each blamed the other for the crash that set up the dramatic finish.
"That's not the way I wanted to finish my season," Patrick said. "I was on my radio all day about him. He was all over the track even when he was running by himself. No wonder he jumps around from team to team. Needless to say, I'm pretty frustrated."
Lazier said Patrick was the one at fault for continually pinching his car down in the corners.
"She didn't want to give me any room," Lazier said.
Running a pink paint scheme in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness didn't change Target/Ganassi Racing's luck because Lazier's crash was unofficially the 28th of the season for the team. Steve Chassey, an insurance executive who raced Indy cars in the 1970s and '80s, estimated Ganassi's crash damage tab for the season is higher than for the entire Champ Car World Series field.
That sounds like a girly man talking or is it just whining?
No way! Natural is the only way to go.
Nah...she need headlights..
Are Ipods C or D cup? Hey, just asking.
Yeh, but Shirley's earned her stripes a thousand times over. Patrick's got a loooooong way to go before she equals that, and most human beings couldn't.
Wwwaaaaaaahhhhh. She wouldn't let me win!!! She kept trying to pass me!!! That's not fair!!!!
Geez, what a whiner.
She had her day....
http://www.muldowney.com/gallery_image.phb?pic=124
No one NEEDS implants.
Yes, I think Ganassi was way off. Patrick MIGHT have come down a little bit, but not nearly as much as Lazier drifted up, and Lazier still had plenty of room down below. And, not that it matters, but that's also how the TV crew saw it.
This girl definitely doesn't need'em....
http://www.junglepam.com/photos/012603JJSCAN15.jpg
Danica is definitely not "Plumpers" material, but she makes the most of what she's got. Breast guys [such as myself] will have to look elsewhere.
So what. Are we now looking to race car drivers for "credibility"? Credibility with regard to what, exactly? She manages to qualify consistently and race on a reasonably competitive level. What more does she need to do in order to have "credibility"?
She looks fine to me.
Certainly. Credibility that she is a serious driver, and not looking for PR, media, or other advantage based on her looks (which isn't part of the core skillset, I think).
Qualifiying for races is one aspect of credibility, of course you are correct. But it's not the only one and I don't know what would make you think it was. Poise & maturity are other aspects, but even then not the only ones. Grace in victory, class in defeat are some others. There are more.
A top-skilled driver (skillset: mechanics and skill in driving an automobile) diminishes himself, for example, if he throws a petulant temper tantrum regularly if something doesn't go his way (skillset: maturity, handling things well).
I have no idea why this straightforward concept would be alien to anybody, I must admit.
So to answer your question regarding 'what more,' I would say cut the cheesecake photos. In themselves they seperate her from her peers in a way that emphasizes a shallow trait (her looks, which as I said aren't all that special - she is hot for a woman racer, but...).
EXACTLY!
She left him PLENTY OF ROOM on the inside of the corner; he was well above the white line when he hit her. Is it her fault he was overdriving the car in the corner, and was too pig-headed to back out of the throttle so he wouldn't wash up into her? He just didn't like the idea of being passed with less than 20 laps left in the race by a little girly driver.....
Didn't even need to click the link (but did anyway).... Good old Pam and Jungle Jim from the 70's.
If he'd punched her back she'd still be in the hospital. He didn't get beat up, he decided against homicide.
This one kind of dates me too....
http://misshurst.www.3.50megs.com/
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