You thought F1 was fixed? Nascar adjusts time itself for Danica! ;)

I just think its an amazing coincidence that a midfield driver with a unique story/angle gets on the Pole of the first race of the season.

Its a miracle.

 

I love how people are expecting a massive change in the car for 2014 to really shake up the F1 grid, but when the exact same thing happens in NASCAR it's "RIGGED"...

 

Someone give this man a prize!!!

 

Maybe somehow her car didnt have its restrictor plate installed?
BTW Nascar qualifying at a track like Daytona is not exactly hard. You are on the track alone with your foot to the floor the whole time

 

Go to Daytona.
Try to qualify a car.
Then come back and tell Fchat it doesn't take talent, determination, and guts.

 

If she was driving an open wheel car, people would complain because she's twice as aerodynamic as other drivers.

 

Perhaps. But racing on a proper track is harder, the ones where you have to turn left AND right.

 

I like the drags and they don't turn at all.

 

What can I say?
The woman has a face that could stop a clock.

 

I really doubt that 42 other drivers would go along with anything like this. Danica qualified early, cooler weather, clean track, and she did drive a great line for the way her car was set-up.

So I would disagree with the thinking that "time changed" for her qualifying, she really did do it. Don't forget, she did qualify well on the IRL ovals.

But, unlikely she will continue that performance in the race. Entirely different situation, she is not experienced enough to keep up with front pack

 

A friend told me today if you pour a bag of m&m's in the toilet and flush, you have a nascar race.

 

It takes talent and guts to logroll too, but that doesn't mean it's exciting. I am not kidding, I actually prefer to watch logrolling over NASCAR.

Pack racing is boring.

 

She weighs too little lol.

People used to say that in Indy Car. I think she's a surly ****** (from 1st hand experience) but I think she's a good enough driver to perform on the pole.

...I mean, achieve pole position.

What's up with that Franco character and his "Drivers, and Danica, start your engines"? Was that supposed to be a slam or compliment?

 

^^^ hahaha, perfect!

 

"Those apples were probably sour anyway..."

 

I think it's both. She is a bonafide ass...very diva-ish and rubs fans the wrong way. The guys in the pitlane (in Indy Car, at least) were resentful of the amount of publicity she received (despite the fact that she somewhat saved the series) versus her lack of success on the track.

I think she's a legitimate driver (not elite though) who understands her value to racing (as explained by her handlers) and accepts the riches, but doesn't like anything else about the hype-machine. If she could have the same money, I'm certain she'd rather just race and forget the rest.

 

I assure you after racing for 10 years myself and working in NASCAR for 8 years that the drivers in NASCAR have H U G E balls or ovaries in the case of Danica. As an aside I don't think she is anything more than an average driver.

I love road racing and that is all I ever did in the SCCA in SRF and other classes, but I took hundreds of people for rides in the pace car at Rockingham when I worked there and even at 90mph it is a bit scary...at 170 there you would have balls the size of bowling balls.

By the by, I am not a NASCAR fan at all. F1 and Indy and Sportscars all the way, but NASCAR drivers are very talented.

MB

 

In this corner, weighing in at 132 pounds … Takuma Sato. And in this corner, weighing in at 195 pounds … Justin Wilson.

In the eyes of INDYCAR, the sanctioning body for the IZOD IndyCar Series, both competitors are equal by weight if not height. A strictly enforced driver equivalency weight is in place for the 2012 season.

Click it: Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg entrant list

Drivers such as Sato, driving the No. 15 Honda-powered Rahal Letterman Lanigan car, will have ballast added to the car to reach 185 pounds (53 pounds in his case). The weight of the road/street course car is 1,565 pounds. At technical inspection, the car weight with driver equivalency is measured less 18.5 U.S. gallons of E85 fuel (a gallon weighs 6.6 pounds) and driver sitting in the cockpit (1,618 pounds for Sato’s car).

Driver weights were set at INDYCAR physicals in January.

“It’s something the drivers have been pushing for,” said team owner/driver Ed Carpenter, who will add 16.5 pounds of ballast to the No. 20 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka car. “It’s nice to see some change happening, and at this level of racing I think it’s good that we’ve gotten to this point to help equal things out a bit more.”

Dallara has made provisions for driver ballast in the form of steel or tungsten plates to be bolted to the cockpit floor – under a compartment behind the driver’s seat – and on the front side of the pedal bulkhead. Ten pounds is allowed in the latter, with any remainder directed to the seat location.

Steel plates weigh about 4 pounds each; tungsten is about 9 pounds. They can be combined as necessary to achieve the required ballast.