What is Digg?74 Comments
- merdiesel, on 10/11/2007, -13/+29title should read: "For Danica Patrick, the question has been: Will you please pose in playboy?"
- fotbr, on 10/11/2007, -5/+21Sort of. Except Indiana isn't a southern state, and Indycar runs quite a few non-oval tracks.
You're thinking nascar. - decruncher, on 10/11/2007, -4/+20No matter how talented she may be (and I have no idea eitherway), all 90% of people are interested in is seeing her naked.
The curse of the hotgirl in male dominated sport.
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no, just the curse of the hot girl - zoomie, on 10/11/2007, -3/+17Natalie sure is pretty. But Cristie Kerr is my favorite female golfer, because of this photo:
http://www.sports-wired.com/women/showPhoto.asp?ID=321 - themarq, on 10/11/2007, -4/+17Yeah I almost feel kinda sorry for her. No matter how talented she may be (and I have no idea eitherway), all 90% of people are interested in is seeing her naked.
The curse of the hotgirl in male dominated sport. - nigh7dagger, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12Have you driven any of those circles going 200 mph? Then you may want to shut up with your insults and try to win one of those races.
- decruncher, on 10/11/2007, -4/+12sharapova is getting all the ad deals now, because she's hot and a winner
- Rollo_Tomasi, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8i don't know where the author got his facts but there have been at total of 4 women in the indy 500:
Sarah Fisher
Janet Guthrie
Danica Patrick
Lyn St. James
way to go USA today, shows some top notch reporting there. - nrfx, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7How the hell does this make the front page? Is there a Digg car now?
- mercano, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@masterjedidan
IRL runs a little under 1/3 of their races on road courses, so I wouldn't say Infineon unique in the the series.
Also, Danica was rookie of the year in 2005, and in racing, this is determined by points rather then a panel of judges, so I wouldn't say that she is undeserving of the attention. - swordedge, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4and soon to be five. While none of the three racing this year can win, Milka Duno is by far the smartest. She has five masters degrees.
- skribble, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3One one hand Danica seems to have the skills and the attitude to win, and this year she can't use equipment as an excuse either (Rahul-Letterman Racing... her old team, is a good team (4th best), but still behind Penske, Ganassi, and her new team Andretti-Green (proabably in that order from best to worst)) so we will see, I give her good odds of winning something this year, but it's not easy, there's a lot of talent out there.
That said, why isn't Sara Fisher getting more love? She's not on the best team this year, but still, in head to head, her fastest lap at indy (from a few years ago), is faster the Danica's Fastest, She *has* made it to the podium in the IRL, and she's won a Pole Position before. Her main problem seems to be the attitude of "Staying out of trouble" rather then winning races, but other then that she too has the talent.
The Third Female this year should be interesting as well Milka is a Champion LeMans Driver, but I'm not sure she's quite conformable in the open wheel thing.
Also... For the people criticizing Oval Racing... that's just ignorance. FWIW the IRL does have a number of road courses and are evaluating others as well, but Ovals really pit driver vs driver and over all are more competitive. Finally Indianapolis Motor Speedway is no ordinary oval either, it's more like a rectangle with rounded corners. That track is wide, and unlike many "Oval" Tracks the corners are virtually flat which makes the extremely difficult, especially with the >200MPH speed coming down the straight-aways. Finally because of it's size the weather can be very trick as well and it different and ever changing in each corner. It's a real challenge. (Hell 3/4 of F1 bailed out of US Grand Prix because they felt unsafe on the only corner shared between The Indy 500 and the USGP... Talk about skill,,, hah!). - humpy, on 10/11/2007, -5/+8it's the IRL not nascar. I'd bet there are more Europeans in the league than southerners.
- canman888, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3http://danicapatrick.celebscentral.net news and pictures...
- Intellection, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Wow, it's really interesting that this should come up. On Mother's Day I took my mom to dinner and we had a discussion about women and sports. We talked about the lack of commerical support for the WNBA, female athletes earning more posing for magazines than they recieve in league salary and alot of other things.
When the discussion got to women's golf I began criticizing Michelle Wei because she hadn't won a tournament and that there are already some great women playing golf and they weren't getting any kind of love from the sports press. But my mother asked me if I knew how many men went their entire careers without ever winning a major or a tournament. How many 1st draft pick NBA players retired without a ring? My mother thinks that Michelle Wei is what women's golf needs right now whether she wins or loses. A girl who wants to play with the fellas, on their stage, on their terms. And as it so happens that despite missing the cut 6 straight times in the PGA she recently accepted an invite to the John Deere Classic. So it's clear the PGA WANTS Michelle Wei to play.
Needless to say I knew where she was going and she was making alot of sense in the process. My mother would probably argue Danica Patrick the same way. The question shouldn't be "Can Danica Patrick win?" The real question should be does professional sports car racing NEED her to win?
Professional sports thrives on symbolic figures like Patrick. There's a kind of built in drama that comes from a break-through female athlete. There are probably women who have never watched a car race before. They're watching now because of Danica Patrick. In this way Patrick has helped the sport reach others and expand it's fan base. As for the marketing experts, I would say that they too have a vested interest in Patrick both continuing her participation and hopefully one day winning in pro car racing.
But I do understand that a great driver needs to win races to remain marketable. - spacefreak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@masterjedidan
Just want to point out that, sadly, Mario Andretti isn't racing at Indy this weekend (I would probably go see the race if he did.) Michael, his son; Marco, Michael's son; and John, Mario's nephew, are all racing however. - WestonP, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4While there is some natural talent involved, you're right that it's mostly learned talent and skill, which they develop over many years of training, practice, and lower level races. A lot of the top professional racers started racing karts when they were little kids and have been involved in motorsports ever since. It's quite a journey, but they do it because they enjoy it. The end result is a huge difference from an average person, but they both started from basically the same thing.
- ipxodi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@masterjedidan
NASCAR has people in their 50's racing. It's not that hard. Go race in F1 or LeMans if you really think NASCAR is hard.
Juan Pablo Montoya -- former CART champion and Indy 500 winner disagrees with you. Read his interview in Road and Track a month or two ago.
He's raced both. You haven't.
The thing about auto racing is it's all different. F1 != NASCAR != WRC, etc. NASCAR and F1 are so different they really can't be compared. You wouldn't expect a Soccer player to do well in Basketball would you? I mean, geez... the point of both games is to run around and try to get a ball in a net.... - thecatisdead, on 10/11/2007, -8/+10does anyone really care if she wins?
kinda like anna and tennis? - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2""You act as if Danica hasn't paid her dues, well I got news for you, she has.""
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Is this Danica? Because you're the only one besides her who would argue against her lack of expericence in open wheel.
Like thousands of kids, Danica Patrick began go karting at the age of 10. She then only competed in a few developmental open-wheel series while in Europe before signing a multi-year deal to race for the team of Bobby Rahal.
Danica Patrick is just more proof of how bad Tony George has fvcked up open wheel racing in America. Indys gone. He practically handed the fans over to F1 and NASCAR.
Besides the advantage of her weight, she is a prime example of deep-pocketed sponsors and a savvy racing team making an average driver into a better than average driver.
Keep drinking the media hype cool-aid though, Sparky. - PleaseJustDie, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3My opinion is... Blocked! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- ipxodi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@masterjedidan
deleted see next message - greysun, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6Very few race car drivers have any natural talents that make them better than your average person that has the same training and financial support. Most knew the right people or were simply in the right place at the right time. We need to stop concentrating on the fact that she is a female, and pay attention to the fact that she's only good for the sport when she's dolled up and standing still.
If they really want to promote women, they need to find someone with real ability that may not be as easy on the eyes. The high cost of auto racing makes this not very likely, though... it isn't like the next top female driver will be discovered running a pickup race down at the Y. - betona, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I think she would've won Indy a couple years ago. She was clearly tearing it up in the final 10 laps and nobody could catch her and the crowd was going wild in the stands.
Then her pit crew made some kind of fuel miscalculation to where they thought she was going to run out of gas so they told her to back off so she could finish the race. If memory serves, it turned out she had enough gas after all. - dakota2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Who cares, she's hot!
- PainCompliance, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2The 500 will be interesting this year because there are several people I would be glad to see win it.
1. Michael Andretti- It would nice to see him get a 500 win after all those try's and years of pounding away in CART and F1
2. Marco Andretti- Nice kid with what looks to be a whole ***** of talent, and to see Mario's reaction at his grandson winning the big one would be awesome
3. Danica Patrick- I think she's a great talent and good for a series and sport that was losing fans by the droves until she came along and sparked new interest by people who were never interested before or thought NASCRAP was all there was.
Like I said if she puts the asses in the seats then that's good for her AND all the other drivers. More fans means more money and more money means higher salaries and more endorsement deals for everyone. Anyone know what that status of that Linux deal for the 500 is? Did they get the logo on a car?? - slickhare, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Interesting. As much as I've seen her in commercials and ads, I thought she was better than that...
- GeneralKickass, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Uh why is this on the front page?
- Mearn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Milka's sports car achievements pretty much boiled down to "Okay, you brought the Venezuelan oil money, now we'll let you drive for a little while, don't go too slow and bring it back to the pits in one piece. Manning! Get over here we need you in the car! Hurry, you've got a lap to make up!"
- spacefreak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2If you really dislike ovals, there is always F1 or Champ Car. Neither series has any ovals (one could argue that the F1's U.S. Grand Prix is an oval, since they do run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but they race half the time there on a road course in midfield.) Champ Car is especially exciting, since some courses are run on city streets or in airports. Both closed for the weekend, obviously.
The popularity of these two series in the U.S., however, is (unfortunately) severly lacking. Danica Patrick, for a while, helped boost the popularity of open-wheel racing in the U.S., but for now all the series, including IndyCar, are mostly forgotten about over here. - MasterJediDan, on 10/11/2007, -8/+8@ snuks
Infineon isn't where Indy normally goes to race. Normally they race in circuits. And no, Danica Patrick isn't going to win. She has no chance. It's going to be either Mario Andretti or Sam Hornish Jr. Danica is just a show-off who can't keep her temper and can't win races. The only reason she gets attention at all is because she's a woman.
@ nigh7dagger
NASCAR has people in their 50's racing. It's not that hard. Go race in F1 or LeMans if you really think NASCAR is hard. - Gonnabe007, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Danica inspires me and thousands of women out there who have always wanted to race but didn't think we would be accepted. Anyone who puts her down is just threatened at the thought of a woman being better than a man. Grow up! Would you guys talk about your mother, daughter or sister this way?
- catalysis, on 10/11/2007, -6/+6She is doing something that not many women has done before and that's pretty exceptional. Also, there was no need to abuse the comments with your negative and pointless opinion.
- excaza, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I don't really see what the problem is. So what if she's not winning? There are plenty of other sponsored drivers that never win, and she's beating them. And as for that "she's only better because she's lighter" argument, that's total *****, they just don't like losing.
This same thing happened with Michelle Wie in the PGA. They didn't want here there because she wasn't winning, completely overlooking the fact that she shot better than a large number of other competitors on the tour.
Apparently since they're women in a male-dominated activities (I'm separating PGA from LPGA because of Wie's situation) they automatically have to win, nevermind the fact that plenty of men participate in these things and never win in their career. Why is the standard different for women? They've proven themselves just as talented as the majority of the competition, isn't that what's supposed to matter? - PainCompliance, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1You act as if Danica hasn't paid her dues, well I got news for you, she has. She has raced from shifter karts to where she is today and has run in several feeder series' just like anyone else. She didn't just come in with a little experience but a big bank roll like some I can name. Hell what had Kimi Raikonen done before he was issued a PROVISIONAL super license by the FIA? I'll tell you, not much, and not nearly as much as Danica had before getting a seat in the IRL. Next time try to have some notion of what you're talking about would you?
Thanks so much :) - HPBIII, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Danica enjoys the slightly better marketing of Tony George's IRL.
A proven winner in minor open wheel series is Katherine Legge, of the Champ Car Series. While Patrick has never won a professional open wheel event, Legge has a couple of victories in the Atlantic Series, a feeder series for Champ Car. Legge's success has been very limited since stepping up to the "big cars" though.
Let's have a safe race on Sunday and hope we hear the four most famous words at the Indy 500, "Andretti is slowing down!" - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1"One one hand Danica seems to have the skills and the attitude to win"
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BS, there are plenty of other drivers way more experienced waiting in other series to move up who deserve that ride waaay more than Danica.
Its all a media publicity stunt to steal some of the spotlight from NASCAR and put it on IRL. You seem to be one of those media cool-aid drinkers who is basically but a dabbler when it comes to knowing something about open wheel racing. - swordedge, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Danica has yet to stand on the podium. She got here sponsors due to looks and maybe 10% due to skill. This is rather unfortunate because there ARE other women drivers out there and they get at most 1/4th the money to race. I'm sorry, 6 people teams can't possibly compete with her 18 or more people team. Some have even won since they were 15. (last time Danica won was in karts)
- SpeedyG, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1The Indy 500 is probably the only race in the U.S. outside of NASCAR that's drawing any interest from anyone besides race fans. Unfortunately, nobody but race fans would recall that the entire reason Danica got to lead the race was because of fuel/pit stop strategy, not anything real spectacular or special she did on the track. So we get to hear articles like this which lack any sort of realism or content besides hyping the race.
Meanwhile, the women racers in drag racing who actually are successful fly totally under the radar. - utdrew182, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2I need you to not spam
- PainCompliance, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Personally I have two thoughts, #1 is I'd hit it twice :P
And #2, If she gets people interested in and watching American open wheel racing again then I say more power to her. Open wheel in this country is in a sorry state with the CART-IRL split doing really nothing good for either series. So if viewership is up, advertising is up and therefore revenue for the series is up.
Open wheel racing is my first love and although F-1 will always be the pinnacle of motorsport, open wheel American style has alot to offer, I just wish the two series' would quit all the petty bickering of the las few years and merge into one open wheel series again with a mix of ovals and road courses, that's what made CART in it's heyday so interesting to watch.
oh, and get Danica in playboy ASAP!!!! I think that would REALLY help ratings, and even if it didn't, so what?? Think of the race fans Danica. - CircleFusion, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1IMO, she doesn't really have to win for her career to stay afloat for a few more years. All she has to do is perform "well enough" to maintain attention. That is what is needed for endorsement deals. Needless to say, that would start to run out eventually. After that time is up, she can take her endorsement money and invest it into something else, start a business, or whatever
For her to be an icon, she does need to win. It really depends on what she wants to accomplish. She is probably going to be successful regardless of whether she gets a win. - WestonP, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4No, we're talking about driving in circles, left. :p
Seriously though, racing isn't limited to circle and oval tracks. Road courses can make things more interesting. The appeal of the circle/oval tracks is that spectators can see the most of the track all the time, and that there's generally a lot of width (makes it harder to keep people from passing you). Road courses are more technical to drive and require more strategy to make a pass, but with most professional-level road courses, spectators can generally only see their own segment of it. - WorldRTomi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0"With the exception of pioneers Shirley Muldowney, one of the greatest drag racers of all time, and Janet Guthrie, the only woman to race in the Indy 500 and NASCAR's famed Daytona 500, Patrick is one of the most accomplished female drivers in motor sports history."
stupid americans who have never heard about Michèle Mouton
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mich%c3%a8le_Mouton
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xwr02_michele-mouton-audi-quattro-s1 - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Nice zoomers
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/28/Milka_alone.JPG
Anyone can get a Masters if they got the money. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4A more pressing question is
"Should I give a rats ass"
She's got a foot to press the gas and hands to turn the wheel, the only difference between her and a male driver is she squats to pee. - swordedge, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1she can't win because she lacks the skill.
- swordedge, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1so Maxxim isn't good enough?
She did pose for them a couple years ago. - DarthTurducken, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2If only Leilani Munter would hit the big top. She was a body double for Catherine Zeta Jones.
http://www.leilanimunter.com -
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