Post by krisco on Jul 22, 2006 22:20:41 GMT -6
The smoke and mirrors that have clouded the reality check on Danica Patrick are fading rapidly.
The darling of the sporting world after her fourth-place finish in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 - the reality being it was her race to lose - was slipping out of the spotlight week by week, and she needed a boost.
She got it from her father, T.J., who told one of the country's most-respected motorsports writers, Ed Hinton, that Danica might be ready to jump to NASCAR.
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This seems like a ploy, pure and simple, to get more money from an owner, whether it's Rahal Letterman Racing or a new team. The IRL would go to extremes to keep her, despite the fact she hasn't won yet and clinging to the hope that she soon will. The league is struggling to regain the interest of fans, and even a merger with the Champ Car circuit won't solve all the problems.
Patrick said Thursday she is leaning toward staying in the IRL, and that would be the best course of action for her. At this stage of her career, she's not ready for the rigors of a NASCAR season. Three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip says Patrick could realistically win an Indy car race but not be victorious in a stock car any time soon.
Waltrip agrees that the situation seems to revolve around money.
"It's not about her coming to NASCAR," he said. "It's about her contract being up. She's had a huge impact on the IRL, and she probably thinks she's a little underpaid.
"She probably didn't get what she wanted, but she didn't how know popular and how big she was going to be. Now she's trying to leverage that popularity."
Open-wheel racing in America needs a face, and that distinction has fallen on Patrick, largely because of her gender, her looks and performance in one race. It's a tenuous foundation for sure - but losing her for the 2007 season would tumble the IRL closer to irrelevancy.
As for Patrick's relevancy, sooner or later it needs to be enhanced with a victory, and that's much more likely to happen if she stays put in the IRL.
Open-wheel drivers are reluctant to get too aggressive in tight quarters for obvious reasons, but not a single driver in the Nextel Cup Series would hesitate to make contact at any time or place on the track if he thought Patrick was in the way.
And this wouldn't be a onetime thing. It's a treacherous, exhausting 36-race schedule.
Adding to the problems of someone not familiar with the aggressive driving style are restrictor-plate races that encourage three or four-wide racing, which is like an open invitation for contact.
"There's a huge amount of intimidation these drivers use," said Waltrip, "like putting the bumper to you to knock and push you around. That takes some getting used to.
The first time somebody puts a bumper to you going off into a corner at 180 mph, it's quite an experience - one that you've probably never had before, and you're probably not going to want to do it again for a while.
"I just don't know how you can jump out of an Indy car or a Formula 1 car and get in one of our machines, which are the hardest cars to drive in the world."
Former Indianapolis 500 champion Tom Sneva, who, like Patrick, lives in the Valley, made the switch to stock cars a few times in his career to run in the Daytona 500, where he had a best finish of seventh. He said preparing for a onetime switch wasn't difficult.
While some believe Patrick's slight frame and lack of strength would compromise her chances in NASCAR, Sneva sees it a different way.
"Stock cars have power steering," he said. "Indy cars are half the weight . . . but you get downforce which makes the car weigh a lot more than a stock car at 200 mph, and the fact that Indy cars have no power steering, it makes them harder to drive.
"I found, and she'll probably find, that in a stock car you can slip and slide and get away with a lot more, but to go fast, you have to be smoother in a stock car than in an Indy car."
Both Waltrip and Sneva make good points, but DW gets the nod here.
Stay put, Danica.
The darling of the sporting world after her fourth-place finish in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 - the reality being it was her race to lose - was slipping out of the spotlight week by week, and she needed a boost.
She got it from her father, T.J., who told one of the country's most-respected motorsports writers, Ed Hinton, that Danica might be ready to jump to NASCAR.
advertisement
This seems like a ploy, pure and simple, to get more money from an owner, whether it's Rahal Letterman Racing or a new team. The IRL would go to extremes to keep her, despite the fact she hasn't won yet and clinging to the hope that she soon will. The league is struggling to regain the interest of fans, and even a merger with the Champ Car circuit won't solve all the problems.
Patrick said Thursday she is leaning toward staying in the IRL, and that would be the best course of action for her. At this stage of her career, she's not ready for the rigors of a NASCAR season. Three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip says Patrick could realistically win an Indy car race but not be victorious in a stock car any time soon.
Waltrip agrees that the situation seems to revolve around money.
"It's not about her coming to NASCAR," he said. "It's about her contract being up. She's had a huge impact on the IRL, and she probably thinks she's a little underpaid.
"She probably didn't get what she wanted, but she didn't how know popular and how big she was going to be. Now she's trying to leverage that popularity."
Open-wheel racing in America needs a face, and that distinction has fallen on Patrick, largely because of her gender, her looks and performance in one race. It's a tenuous foundation for sure - but losing her for the 2007 season would tumble the IRL closer to irrelevancy.
As for Patrick's relevancy, sooner or later it needs to be enhanced with a victory, and that's much more likely to happen if she stays put in the IRL.
Open-wheel drivers are reluctant to get too aggressive in tight quarters for obvious reasons, but not a single driver in the Nextel Cup Series would hesitate to make contact at any time or place on the track if he thought Patrick was in the way.
And this wouldn't be a onetime thing. It's a treacherous, exhausting 36-race schedule.
Adding to the problems of someone not familiar with the aggressive driving style are restrictor-plate races that encourage three or four-wide racing, which is like an open invitation for contact.
"There's a huge amount of intimidation these drivers use," said Waltrip, "like putting the bumper to you to knock and push you around. That takes some getting used to.
The first time somebody puts a bumper to you going off into a corner at 180 mph, it's quite an experience - one that you've probably never had before, and you're probably not going to want to do it again for a while.
"I just don't know how you can jump out of an Indy car or a Formula 1 car and get in one of our machines, which are the hardest cars to drive in the world."
Former Indianapolis 500 champion Tom Sneva, who, like Patrick, lives in the Valley, made the switch to stock cars a few times in his career to run in the Daytona 500, where he had a best finish of seventh. He said preparing for a onetime switch wasn't difficult.
While some believe Patrick's slight frame and lack of strength would compromise her chances in NASCAR, Sneva sees it a different way.
"Stock cars have power steering," he said. "Indy cars are half the weight . . . but you get downforce which makes the car weigh a lot more than a stock car at 200 mph, and the fact that Indy cars have no power steering, it makes them harder to drive.
"I found, and she'll probably find, that in a stock car you can slip and slide and get away with a lot more, but to go fast, you have to be smoother in a stock car than in an Indy car."
Both Waltrip and Sneva make good points, but DW gets the nod here.
Stay put, Danica.