Go Danica!!!!

[FZ1inNH]

Remember, she also has the privilege of being the only driver male or female to throw a childish temper tantrum by getting out of her car and stomping her feet while swinging her arms in the air walking down the track.

Are you being serious? I see this many times a year in many different races, be they Indy, F1, formula, Supermoto, GP and especially NASCAR. No one does this better than Tony Stewart! :ban: I strongly dislike that guy!

I'm glad she won. I'm impressed that she has the drive and determination with all odds against her. I don't believe for a second that any of the drivers racing her cut her any slack at all. I also think that if she had a smarter pit boss, she'd have won at least 3 other races to date.

And she's HOT!!! :thumbup:

 

[FZ1inNH]

Back to Patrick as a driver. Of the 8,340 laps she has completed in her career she has led 83. In the 2007 season she completed 2,709 laps and led 17. In 2008 she has completed 400+ laps and led 3. Her average start over her 4 year career to date has been 10th and her average finish has been 10th as well; there are 18 drivers. In the 2006 season she completed 2,209 laps for which she led 0 and had 2 DNF's. In her 51 starts, she has had 1 win, DNF'ed 10 times and finished in the top 10 twenty-nine times.

She sounds a LOT like Michael Waltrip......... only better!

I'd bet with some research, you could likely find quite a few drivers with the same or worse numbers than her. I just don't understand why you put her down Charlie. Being the only woman there, of course she's going to get all the publicity. Being smashingly beautiful puts the icing on the cake. Her career is still young and the current IRL is a very tough sport to win in let alone remain consistent. If we revisit this in a few years and she still has those numbers then we'll have plenty to talk about and compare.

Let's all grab a :iconbeer: and agree to disagree. There's no need to make this personal, especially amoung two mods of the site, ok?

 

[craig007]

I'm not really a fan, but I'm glad she won fair and square. There must have been tremendous pressure on her to get the first win. Now that the first one is history, she can relax and we will see how good a driver she really is.

 

[segue00]

All this and she can drive. If she also cooks and do laundry, she'd be perfect!

She is soooo hot.

 

[HavBlue]

She sounds a LOT like Michael Waltrip......... only better!

I'd bet with some research, you could likely find quite a few drivers with the same or worse numbers than her. I just don't understand why you put her down Charlie. Being the only woman there, of course she's going to get all the publicity. Being smashingly beautiful puts the icing on the cake. Her career is still young and the current IRL is a very tough sport to win in let alone remain consistent. If we revisit this in a few years and she still has those numbers then we'll have plenty to talk about and compare.

Let's all grab a :iconbeer: and agree to disagree. There's no need to make this personal, especially amoung two mods of the site, ok?

First, lets straighten things out here. I am not putting her down. Rather, I am expressing an opinion that is based on fact and supported by her stats as they are to date. Now, considering she has never been in a 3,500 pound car racing with 40 or more other cars whose competition level is so far beyond the IRL,we won't even go there. She races in a league with roughly 18 other drivers and to date she has been driving for the most part on ovals but this will change for her as she will now have to spend a good deal more time on road courses where she herself has admitted to having problems. She is a driver and I don't see any reason to consider her better or worse than what she is to this point in her career and based on her career stats to date she is a mid pack runner with an average finish of 10th in a field of 18.

Now, considering she is the most popular driver in her league drawing a huge following lets take a look at the most popular driver in Nascar which is Dale Earnhardt Jr. In his first 4 years (the same time Patrick has had in her league) he had 7 wins, led 2,262 laps which is 7% of the total laps he had competed in and had an average finish of 18th but this is a male driver right... At that point in his career it could be said he too was a mid pack runner and he clearly didn't have the best equipment money could buy; which she does. Now lets move to the most popular rider in NHRA Pro Stock bike. Angelle Sampey has had 168 races against the top males in her sport. She has won 41 of those races and needs 5 more wins to be the all time leading rider in terms of wins. She has also won 3 NHRA World Titles since her first win at Reading California in 1996.

My point is simply this, Barbara Hamilton was the first woman to receive an NHRA license in 1964 which broke the gender gap. In 1966 Shirley Shahon became the first woman to win an NHRA National event. Shirley Muldowney won 3 Top Fuel World Titles and had 18 career victories over a 13 year period from 1976 to 1989. All of these women competed against the best and there are many more following them but not one has received the notoriety given to Patrick. Lynn St. James and Sarah Fisher made history in 2000 when they became the first two women to line up together at the Indianapolis 500 and as it turned out they got into a bit of a cat fight when they ran into one another inside the first 80 laps. This did not however make the cover of Sports Illustrated. So to me, Patrick is simply a driver and a huge marketing tool for that league. While I think it's great that a female has finally won an open wheel event I also believe the next win or her lack of ability to lead races which is what she or any other driver needs to do to win those races will be a long time coming.