Danica: Winner or whiner?

I didn't see the deal with Carpenter, but I've seen the deal with Dan Wheldon a couple of weeks ago, and I really do think she had a valid gripe - he did come down on her.

 

You nearly caused me to choke to death on my coffee!

 

Like that's gonna happen.

Did you see the end of the Indy 500 this year?

Think again. Did you really *see* the end of the race?

What I saw on TV was the odd half second shot of cars lined up behind the safety car in the rain before the cameras cut back to Ashley Judd in the pits jumping up and down in a wet T-shirt.

You know where the networks' priorities are.

Dang few viewers know the dynamics of passing at 200kph on a banked turn. But most of them know how to oggle hooters. (or toes, in a few cases. )

Now Ashley is one of my favorite babes, and it was nice to see her smile (something she rarely does in her films). But if you're covering a race, I might have asked the cameras to look for the rain's effect on tires rather than on t-shirts. (But then, I'm an old geezer. )

 

Bobby Rahal is nobody's mug - he must have felt DP had latent talent or he wouldn't have got involved.Maybe somebody should invite Susie Stoddart (from DTM),Sarah Fisher and Danica into comparable equipment and see how they go......

 

It wasn't a t-shirt. It was a very nice floral print summer dress. She was just cheering for her husband and the more it rained, the closer Dario was to victory. As the sprinkles turned to a downpour the dress began to cling......


Nevermind, it wasn't a t-shirt.
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I think she is hot and the most successful loser in top level open wheel racing.

I can think of a lot of other drivers worth bashing more than her...Like Alonzo.

 

Or, maybe this one: Elizabeth Junek - the queen of all Bugatti champions, and still probably the greatest Check racing driver of all time.

Or, perhaps, Mrs. J. N. Cuneo - prewar (pre WW ONE) racing driver, famous for her Glidden tour driving in the White steam cars, later Locomobile, Simplex, and others.

After all, that girl that got her legs broken looked like a heroiene of figure skating until she blubbered out "why me?".

 

In which case he should stick to writing about Honda Civics and Ford Fiestas because he obviously doesn't know **** about motorsport IMHO.

My 02c,
Cheers,
Ian

 

Here's the catch-22 I see her in.
Shes like the Red Socks. While she doesn't win, she's the underdog. Everyone on the edge of their seats waiting for her to win, rooting for the hot chick. When she finally does win, she becomes just another driver. The pressure to win again will become even worse. If she can't back up the win soon after her first, most will figure she got lucky, not that she has talent.
Like I said before I think she'll win eventually. But it will be because of team stategy and luck, not because shes got talent. Of all the females in IRL, she's got the best chance at it. Sarah doesn't have the equipment, and Milka...... Now there's a female who doesn't have anywhere close to the talent to be a front runner, let alone a winner.

 

Pete

Her record or lack thereof, speaks for itself. Obviously she's not completely useless in the car but she seems to lack that special something to make her a winner. The girl hasn't won anything since gokarts. When she does win, it will be because half the field crashes. She's in the car for business reasons not because she's a stellar driver. Her little fits make her more annoying. She comes off like a little brat. Senna, MS or whoever might have thrown fits at thier teams, but they didn't do it on national TV. (MS trying to kill DC was different, i would have blown a gasket too, untill i saw the video and realised it wasn't anyone's fault)
Before you start with the oh your jealous thing, i will say that yes, yes i am, lol, but i'm all for women in motorsport when they win and prove deserve to be there. I think it's unfair that Danica should have a top seat in the IRL while Katherine Legge gets a half ass ride in champcars. I'm also a big fan of Ashley Force and hope she wins soon (if she hasn't already, i tend not to follow the NHRA that closely). Milka Duno fits into the Danica category, she's there because of money. Women have every right to be racing if they can run with the big boys and even beat them once in a while. If not then get out of the way.

Luis

 

foremost, it is a business. she sells. racing is the front.

 

I can't say I'm a DP fan (or an IRL fan for that matter) but I went to the IRL race in Nashville last weekend, and I'll tell you from the looks of it, she was the fastest on the track. Carpenter was holding her up. I had a scanner and found myself listening in to her channel the most.

She is one fiesty little sucker. It was interesting. Her spotter went from a dude with a southern accent to who I was assuming was Barry Green (had an Aussie accent) after lap 100. He was constantly in her ear to focus and keep her pace. During the second to last stint laps 100-130 she was on fire... closing the gap and picking her way thru traffic like no one's business. Then she got sucked up behind Carpenter.

By that time the track was a one groove track and she couldn't get enough momentum into 1 or 3 to pass him. He also on 3 occasions shut the door on her, hard (the last time on the final restart where his crew told hers that he'd let her by!) A knock on her was that after Carpenter shut the door she'd drop massive F-bombs and fall off the pace... like her anger was affecting her driving. She'd start in about having them blag flag him and blah blah blah. Essentially managing from the car. I thought to myself "Shut up and drive!"

The weird thing was there was an IRL official in Carpenter's box the entire last half of the race. Every time by they'd blue flag him and he'd just hold his ground. A pretty BS move IMO. What's the IRL's rules on this? If ti was F1 he'd been in the garage after the second flag.

On the cool down lap Barry was in her ear telling her that he didn't want to see any unprofessional behavior from her. They were going to use the proper channels to file a complaint.

As a spectator with no dog in the hunt, I'd say she did get screwed and I think she could have gotten around Dario. As for Dixon? I don't know, but she fast all day. She put a move on Marco earlier in the race to pass him that was pretty damn impressive and ballsy for lack of a better metaphor. I predict she wins one this year. She is fast.

 

And LH in F1 doesn't. Black, British kid that also happens to be sitting in the best car on the grid. Now in a Honda he would be noticed, but only by the expert F1 fans and the rest would not be getting so excited and it wouldn't be causing the British population to re find F1.

Oh and racerx3317 everybody wins a race because others stuffed it up. Basically you don't like her. Fair enough but get off her case and let her have her chance.

Oh and Senna, etc. DID do their tantrums in front of the whole world to see ... they could not give a stuff, as I would not care either. This is a very emotional sport and somebody telling me to "keep control of myself for the professional image thing", would cause me to tell that person to stick it right up their @rse. Give me a break, you are out there risking your life and you have to worry about image!. Emotions are actually a GOOD thing!

And as for Carpenter, the perfect definition of a complete wanker. Didn't want to get lapped by a women. He must have the smallest penis of them all. And ofcourse if she pushes rightly through with an official protest ... you will call her a whinger, but ofcourse if she had a penis 'he' would be rightfully standing up for fair play.

Pete

 

Sorry about your coffee. She's just the fluffy part.

 

Her chance to do what? She's had plenty of chances and has yet to come good. When she does, i'll lay off. Otherwise she's in the whiner category as far as i'm concerned.

LH in F1 is different, he's proven himself very quickly. She has yet to.

Carpenter is a wank. There a lot of those in the IRL. Danica is right to complain about that one.

 

I can't believe earlier posts about LH and Danica - NOT even a comparison - Lewis is real talent, head and shoulders above her. If she's so good, she's had plenty of opportunity to have won a race by now.

Carpenter . . .good things happen when daddy-in-law is Tony George.

Carol

 

I'm a bit confused by the criticism over her driving record. While she has not won a race yet, her finishing record is pretty damn good.

The best way to measure a driver is against their team mate, using the same equipment. Last year she out-pointed her Indy 500 winning team mate in the standings (his Indy win was in a prior year). This year she is 7th in the standings. Marco Andretti is down in 11th. Why aren't people calling him out?

Fact is she is a better driver than most of the field in IRL. Sure, she gets more media attention than she deserves based solely on performance but that is part of the game. This is her career and how she makes a living. She should leverage whatever attention she gets. You would too.

 

There are a LOT of people that have been around 'forever' and have never won, so what ?
There WERE a lot of guys in first-class cars that didn't do much with them, then they get dumped, or they jump-ship for more money. Think Kimi, think Alonso, think Ralfie, hell, think MS 13 years ago.

The thing is, she (Danica) always seems to be in the top 10 - and maybe that's all she will ever be, but there are a lot of folks that spend their entire careers around 15th-20th.

Now, if Danica always qualified in the bottom 25 percent, and always finished in the bottom 50 percent, I'd agree with you, but she is usually around at the finish, near the front.
As someone else said, look how long it took Mansell to get his first win.

You guys can wish and hope and pray Danica races head-to-head with other women in equal cars, but we are still waiting for that with the MEN, especially in F1. I'd LOVE to see Heidfeld, Button, and a few others back in today's Ferrari or McLaren.

 

OK, fellas...

How do you explain the exemplary effort today at Mid-Ohio?

-Peter (hopelessly, unabashedly in love)

 

It's not that unusual, she often goes well in qualifying but fades during the race, we'll see how she does tomorrow.

 

Not true (except for Motegi).

Look at her stats...

Homestead-Miami Speedway S13 F14
Streets of St. Petersburg S11 F8
Twin Ring Motegi S4 F11
Kansas Speedway S10 F7
Indianapolis Motor Speedway S8 F8
The Milwaukee Mile S17 F8
Texas Motor Speedway S6 F3
Iowa Speedway S11 F13
Richmond International Raceway S8 F6
Watkins Glen International S15 F11
Nashville Superspeedway S7 F3
Mid-Ohio S2

 

That's this year, last year and the year before she sometimes went well in quailifying, even got a couple of poles but seemed to drop back during the race.

 

She just gets a lot of attention positive and negative because she's a woman, and cute.

No doubt she's a *****, and there are some idiots on the track at the IRL due to nepotism, mainly because they have trouble getting money to fill the drivers' seats. But you don't see people getting on anyone else's case as bad, who's been in the IRL for even a longer period than her and hasn't won yet.

She's definitely got talent, keep in mind that the IRL is basically a spec series, all the cars are primarily the same, and she's managed to be a top tier driver. I think that in the IRL, since the top teams manage to get the bulk of the sponsorship money, they are able to attract the better drivers (i.e. pay them more) therefor you see the same people on top.

She's good, but she's no LH, from what I've read just driving an F1 car is difficult, and LH has proven himself a great driver, but he was a winner in all the lower classes as well. He's not getting any favoritism because of his color, whereas Danica is definitely getting exposure and doors opened because she looks good in ads and brings in the money.


OT- Anyone know where she got that scar on her lip?

 

I can't begin to tell you where you are wrong. She has won quite a lot just no INDY race yet. Plenty of FA and other racing bodies.