Good for her! It still amazes me that she is still in the sport after all of the BS the "fans" and writers have put her through. A capable driver is a capable driver....no matter the gender. M. Mouton is a hero to many folks, like me, that grew up reading and watching rally racing from across the pond. And who can forget S. Schmitz the famous 'Ring taxi driver. I foretell one of two outcomes.......spun out within the first 20 laps or she makes it to the end.
Danica puts up with all the carp that has been heaped on her because she is a racer. No other reason, she certainly doesn't need more money. Yep she is a racer.
:cornut: I love Danica(as a fan). She is a great driver. She has earned everything that she has...............but this entire thread is darned funny and I think that Danica would be laughing the hardest. Just Me. Jason
Ok I was not going to chime in but I can’t help myself. :mad2: I don’t hold Nascar in hi regard. I won't get into all the reasons I don't like it. If you do great I'm not downing anyone. Indy car racing is a shadow of what it was in the CART days. Before the split CART was a world class league every bit as good as F1. After the split it became amateur hour. As for Danica I have never been impressed with her and I am less impressed with her un-sportsman like displays I have seen over the years. She may be an ok driver but not World class. I don't mean rattle anyones cage. Just my 2 cent. But other than that its great! :wink:
NASCAR had started to become a bit boring over the years, but the new Gen 6 car just might just put back some of the excitement of the old "Stock Car" days. This was the intent and I think it is a good move. They have also changed some of the qualifying rules, which is also a good move. I will have to keep an eye on this season. Jim
Not really a fan of NASCARP, but I agree with you Jim the racing will be better with the new car. I hated that 8 wheeled race car they had at Daytona last year. I do enjoy them on a road course though. That's some good racing.
This is simply not true... First of all, she weighs 110 lbs (Ok, that's tongue in cheek). She has to add 40 lbs to the left side of the car to make weight, Nascar rule. Not a big deal though. Mark Martin weighs a whopping 125lbs, and also has to add weight. The weight thing I agree is big time overblown, at least in NASCAR, with Indy or F1, it's a different story. I agree with you about Dale Earnhardt--there are parallels there definitely, but at this point, he is an infinitely better driver. But here is where you're off...I'm not denying she worked hard, and her family sacrificed BIG TIME for her dream--but she was plucked from Europe by Micheal Andretti not so much for her talent, but because of her appeal--she wasn't nearly as qualified for the ride she got, but that team needed to make a splash, and it did in a major way. Patrick will admit as much, to her credit. With the exception of the pole,she really hasn't done anything yet, especially if you compare her to some of the other up and coming drivers, including her boyfriend. She's improved. She's shown potential. But she's gotten breaks others have not (Sarah Fisher, anyone?), because of her looks. I'm ok with that, but let's not pretend she's some uber talented driving phenom. She's not. I'd expect her to run fast in qualifiying, in clean air, with the importance of running a fast lap in the lower level F-1 racing she cut her teeth on in Europe, she should be a good qualifier. But that won't translate well in the race itself, where she has yet to show she can handle the draft, and she's just beginning to show that she can take a position rather than merely try to hold on to one. I hope she does well, it's good for the sport--but I SERIOUSLY doubt she'll be in the top ten. I'm hoping for a top twenty finish, which I think is more realistic.
A correction for you. Rahal brought Danica back to the US to run in the Barber Dodge series & then she ran for Rahal Letterman in Atlantics. After that she ran IRL for Rahal Letterman up until 2007 when she changed teams to Andretti Green. Don't think Micheal went to Europe & brought her back. I agree Sarah Fisher never got the breaks Danica has. I think in equal equipment Sarah could kick her but. That being said I think Danica is a very good driver & deserves what she has worked for. Don't understand the Danica hater's.
Long time NASCAR fan, long time local oval racer and truly enjoy racing. Period. Having said that, while I like Danica and agree she's put up with a fair amount of crap in her career, she really hasn't done anything spectacular. Nothing to garner a top level NASCAR ride. Especially one of that magnitude. I remember when MEN with talent used to drive race cars. Not kids whose dads have a big wallet. Don't get me wrong, there are kids with talent. I've raced Legends with the Buescher brothers and my son used to race Bandoleros with Jake Crum (K&N est series) and a few other kids. I ran Grand Stocks at Langley Speedway when Denny Hamlin was a 14 year old kid running mini (not our type) stocks. All of them are good kids who are very mature and have talent. Their parents put everything financially on the line to further their kids careers. So there are a bunch of kids with talent. Sadly, some will never get the chance or break some of these kids are getting. Marc Davis, another young Legends racer who happens to be a young man of color had a chance to drive for Joe Gibbs. Sadly, not much transpired from that. Another kid of color, Darrell Wallace Jr who also raced Legends is getting a chance now. While I'm not a fan of his and especially his dad, he does have some talent and a potential career if he can not drive like an ass. Much like the Late Model race at Daytona Tuesday night. Another kid who did pretty well, C.E. Falk from Chesapeake drove a great race until another young phenom Kyle Larson, drove him around on the last lap to win. That's what todays kids do. They wreck you to win, because their dads always had money to fix their cars. Bumper replace talent real well. Anyway, back to Danica, while she is a decent driver, most of us know if she were a guy, she wouldn't have gotten a second look at that ride and probably not even a shot at the Nationwide ride. She was less than spectacular in the NNS last year in an absolutely top notch ride. She has a great ride and great support crew this year in the cup series. One that someone else could be taking advantage of, but they don't have her marketability. Plain and simple. Here's my prediction: she won't be on the lead lap by half way IF she's still on the track at half way. I doubt she'll finish in the top 25 both in the Daytona 500 and the year end series. She may not even lead a lap Sunday. She may have a few top 5's this year and maybe a handful of top 10's, but mainly she'll be an also ran. Nothing against her, but she doesn't have enough experience to handle the level of competition yet. Remember when she got pissed and wrecked herself trying to wreck someone else? Takes talent to wreck someone too, on purpose anyway. Just my opinion, sorry. I do wish her luck though. I think she'll need it.
You are absolutely right--it was Rahal who gave her the break, brain fart there--but for the same reason, they knew the potential payout (as did Andretti later, too bad Rahal couldn't have reaped more of that, another guy I really respect). There's nothing wrong with that, but it drives me crazy when Patrick is portrayed as being better than she is/was, she was not the best driver of her generation coming up, but she did get the big break, and her ability as a driver wasn't the overriding factor. That being said, she is improving, and I hope to see her do well; she did get a huge break, and to her credit she has worked hard once she got it. Maacodale, for what it's worth, I agree with you 100%. Menard is a guy who got a shot because of his parents deep pockets--he might have made it anyway, he is good enough that he truly belongs, but many people get advantages others don't, which is why I really don't begrudge Patrick the shot she got, especially because she is working her tail off. I used to dislike her--not so much because she got the shot because of her looks more than her ability, but because of how childish she behaved initially in the IRL, especially toward fans. Funny thing was that many people who got close to her back then and (fortunately) there weren't all that many, came away disappointed or worse. She has become much more gracious, especially around kids, since then.
:cornut: Go Danica! My Granddaughters Madi, Rose, Trinity, and Kennedy are all root'in for you(which of course means-I am too). Grandpa Jason
:cornut: Danica had ignition problems today at the Nation Wide Series and dropped out. She wouldn't have had to drop out had she gone to the pit area instead of the area that she mistakenly went to. After that there was a huge crash with multiple cars involved and many spectators injured. Because she had to drop out by going to the wrong area, she'll be fine for tomorrow's race. Strange..................Twilight Zone Stuff................... Jason
I sure hope the fans involved today will be OK. That is some scary stuff. :frown2: As far as pulling into the wrong place goes, do you remember Mark Martin pulling in the pits with one lap to go. He thought the checkered was thrown & he won the race. DOH!
The two most seriously injured people were just upgraded from critical to serious. Prayers are with them.
Just eating some crow watching the Daytona parade. Danica in fact lead a green flag lap. Did it well. Not only on the lead lap, but doing pretty well. I'll leave out the fact that several major contenders are out. Listening to her radio communication on NASCAR track pass, she's asking some intelligent questions. Her spotter is coddling her a bit, but for a rookie, I'd expect that. Overall, she ain't doing bad so far.
Me too, did much better than I expected. She was consistent all day long. A few things played in her favor--she may have had the best car out there, and like you mentioned, a number of top contenders went down early, and, maybe most importantly, it was VERY hard to pass, which is her weakness--basically no one could today, and she is good at holding position, although not at taking one. The entire race showed where she has improved, the last lap showed where she still needs to improve. The best part? At the end, despite the fact that she finished eighth, which was better than most expected, she came of gracious, but disappointed. That's good for the rest of the way. This is her best track, she'll still struggle on the short tracks, but she showed immense improvement over last year. Well done.
She did great. Too bad the racing was procession like. She said in her post race interview that if she pulled down at the end she feared no one would come with her. I agree with that. I was pretty surprised that Biffle didn't try & make a move at the end. Nice driving Danica!
She did a great job today but I am surprised little E did not push her harder down the back stretch. Oh well she did good.
What a difference a year makes...Daytona was an aberration, not an indicator of good things to come. Last year she....just....wasn't....very....good. She's in trouble; it does not look like she's improved by leaps and bounds. Yes, you can make the argument 2 of the issues weren't her fault, but she was running at the back of the pack, where incidents occur. Run up front, and you have a much less chance of getting caught up with other inexperienced or poor drivers, in slower machines than yours. Stenhouse looks better every week, and improved significantly over the course of last year. Dillon looks much better than Patrick, in a similar quality of ride, and he's a rookie. Larson is a wild child, but looks to have a ton of talent, another rookie who will probably have a better year than Patrick. She's had a full year of Cup, and the rookies are outperforming her. I see fewer and fewer apolgists everyday. I wonder how long Stewart can wait before pulling the plug--she's safe this year, but I wonder about next unless something clicks soon. She caught breaks because of who she is. That's ok, but she's not capitalizing on it. Same could be said of Dillon, but at this point, he looks like the real deal. Who would you rather have on your team, Dillon, a rookie, or Patrick, with a year of experience? It's not even close.
She is just a Go Daddy / NASCAR marketing tool now. She will stay around doing 1/2 a$$ as long as she brings in more money than she cost.