sopwith21

Girls who aren't asking for hype don't appear in men's magazines. Still, she's done a fantastic job handling it and focusing on her driving at the same time. So now the only reason anyone else won the race was because Danica ran out of gas? (Buries head in hands). Heaven help us. We're starting to believe our own propaganda. We should all remember that The Other Guy Who's Name Was Not Danica had already passed Danica once. This Non-Danica Person also passed two other people who aren't Danica... a couple of incredibly fast, incredibly talented unknowns named Vitor Meira and Dario Franchitti. In fact, this Non-Danica Person passed every single car on the track, some - including Danica - multiple times. I'm sorry guys, but when we start diminishing the accomplishments of other good drivers in order to prop up the person that we desperately wish would have won, we all need to take a long look in the mirror. On a related note, I must agree that folks who weren't watching Indycar before may be watching it now. Well... correction... they're watching Danica. They're not allowed to see much of anyone else. Still, more viewers is better. Hopefully she'll win quickly, the media will finally have their female hero, and we can all get back to something resembling auto racing and a civil respect for the accomplishments of other talented drivers. In the meantime, expect the gag factor to be at an all-time high at the next race in Texas. Please, Lord... we're begging you... make it stop. Let Danica win. Quickly. For all our sakes.

Very true. This has been great for the IRL, at least in the short term. It was good publicity, but enough is enough. Let's regain our sanity before it backfires.

Nobody's arguing that she's a good driver. However, she is getting far more attention than her results deserve. She drove a winning car to fourth place. That's a good, solid performance, especially for a rookie. But her average finishing position is still only tenth... if a male driver had similar results, he would go largely unnoticed. In fact, he might lose his job (a couple years back Laurent Redon had virtually identical results for his first three races and is now unemployed... I bet you didn't even remember his name). Meanwhile, Dan Wheldon goes from 16th to 1st and can't get the same publicity. In a desperate bid to revive his career and get a job, Buddy Lazier drove a 15th place car to 5th and barely got an interview. In one of the best drives of the year, Bryan Herta goes from 18th to 3rd - beating Danica - but the network doesn't run a single feature on him while Danica is used as a bumper out of every commercial break. Felipe Giaffone starts dead last in a car that wasn't even intended to be raced and gains 18 positions to end up in the top 15... but his name is never even mentioned. No matter how much I like her, the health of the sport is more important than any one driver. Even Danica. The circus was fun for a while, but now its time to get back to racing. And of course, the only way that will happen is if she wins. Until then, the media will continue to be merciless in their desperate bid to create a female champion. So go, Danica, go! Win one... please... so we can all get on with life and put an end to what has become an embarrasing sideshow.

Yes. No. Very possibly. She's a good driver, and I've known that since I first met her in karts when she was 12 years old. I like her, and I hope that I am able to continue liking her. Imagine for a moment that you eat a bowl of your favorite ice cream. You enjoy it. But just as you finish, someone ties you to your chair and pryes your mouth open and you eat another bowl. Of course, you really do like this ice cream, but you had already had enough. Then they put a funnel in your mouth and pour another four gallons down your throat. The media has been absolutely merciless, ignoring many other deserving drivers in order to cram in another Danica feature. Bourdais was brilliant today and was entirely ignored. Same with Giaffone. The list goes on. Its an embarassment to auto racing. The media will have its female champion no matter what the cost. So for everyone's sake, let's just get it over with so we can all get back to racing. Now let's look at it from Danica's standpoint. To live up to half the media hype, she will have to win at least six Indy 500's and eclipse every record from AJ Foyt and Mario. The expectations are ridiculous. The same pressure was put on Sarah - another good driver - but its impossible to live up to. It serves mainly to shorten your career, as it did Sarah's. Further, Danica will never get any credit for what she's accomplishing. You'll notice that today she was not credited with being the 188th driver to lead Indy... no, instead she's the "first woman" to lead Indy. She's just first in class, nothing more. She wasn't recognized as the top ranked rookie... instead she was the "highest finishing woman" at Indy. The poor girl can't get a lick of credit for anything she does. She's just "the first woman" to tie her shoes, blow her nose, etc., etc. The clowns were fun for a while. But to preclude any further embarassment for auto racing, I hope she wins immediately. Its the only way the circus will end. We all still like the ice cream, but we're starting to gag.

1) Danica Patrick, star driver (and apparently the only driver) in the Danica Racing League, did not win today's Danica 500. Hence, Danica's face will not be on the Borg Danica Warner trophy, much to the chagrin of the broadcasting crew at ABC Danica Sports. However, Danica's face will continue to be on the front Danica page of every Danica sports section in the United States of Danica for the next 83 years. I forget who won the race, but it was some guy who's name wasn't Danica Patrick. The crowd was shocked to find that such a person had shown up. 2) Frenchman Sebastian Bourdais drove brilliantly, advancing from 15th to 5th and positioning himself for a top finish. He would have been the top finishing rookie and lead candidate for Rookie of the Year had he not crashed with two laps remaining... ironically, while preparing to pass Danica Patrick for fourth position. Barring that crash, Indy Racing League officials would have been in a terrible mess. Danica Patrick, the driver they've spent the entire month hyping in the media, would have finished behind a rookie driver from the rival Champ Car series... a MALE driver, of all things. It would have been a public relations disaster. Giving the Rookie award to a male, Champ Car driver was simply not an option. That moaning sound you hear is IRL officials chanting thanks to Allah. 3) Best drives of the day: Bryan Herta, 18th to a well deserved 3rd. Ed Carpenter, 26th to 11th, but no one will give him credit because he's the track owner's stepson. Fillipe Giaffone, dead last to 15th, but his name isn't Danica and he had the misfortune of bumping Arie Luyendyke's kid out of the show. 4) Biggest disappointment: Kenny Brack, sentimental favorite who took over defending champ Buddy Rice's vacant ride and was fast qualifier in the field, only to fade to 26th. 5) Worst luck of the day: Tomas Scheckter, who was unlucky enough to be in Danica's way when she spun. Scheckter was a threat to win the race, but the crash took him out. Danica created her own yellow flag, came down pit road when pit road was closed, changed nose cones on her damaged car and went on with no problem and no penalty. 6) Please, please, Lord... have mercy on us and let Danica win a race soon so we can put an end to this, the most embarrassing media circus since the OJ trial.

Absolutely not! No bump and runs from me! Read the caption on the photo... in the first turn, the car in front of me got caught on the outside behind a slower car. I dove to the inside to pass them both and he had the same idea at the same time. Crunch! I didn't hit him in the rear end... I made contact with his driver's door in the turn. We both spun and kept on racing. I had a good line on him for the pass, but he didn't see me and came down on me. No one's fault, no hard feelings on either side and not much damage done. Almost identical to the (far worse) crash I had when Hurley Haywood did the same thing to me at Road Atlanta a few years ago. Except when he's Hurley Haywood and you're not, its assumed to be your fault. Plus, he had no excuse. He was slow on the restart and came down on me either because he was asleep at the wheel or just to prevent being passed. Then he spent the rest of the day badmouthing me in the pits. There went my respect for him. I guess that's an unrelated story, but there you go.

Thanks for the help in posting these pics. My new gallery is up now... click on the link at the bottom of my post.

(Points to 280z) Hey. How'd he do that?

Thanks. Gallery coming soon I hope. I'm chopping photos down to size to get one started.

Truth is, you guys all have nicer looking cars than mine. I browse through your galleries all the time. Most of yours are streetable and gorgeous, but mine is pure racecar. No interior, roll bars everywhere, no front grill, battery moved inside the cockpit, big ugly tach on the dash, blah blah blah. We've been out twice this year and won both times, which is all that keeps people from laughing at us. Still, the Big Green Monster is mine and I've learned to love it. Its been reliable as sunrise and a real winner. But it doesn't look anything like yours (drools on keyboard). Now, how do I put up that gallery?

Since my avatar has turned into such a conversation piece... No, I didn't paint it or choose the color. The guy who originally built my 260Z found a big sale on the Interstate Batteries Green paint, so he bought enough of it to paint the whole car for next to nothing (budget racer!). At first I hated it, but now I've gotten used to it. I almost like it. Almost. Break-break. Yes, four wheels are better on the ground than three. More rubber on the road makes more traction. More traction makes more speed. More speed is always good. But three wheels makes a cooler avatar. Break-break. I'd love to put up a gallery, but I don't know how. I tried once and gave up. I can drive 100+ mph but I don't know which button to push on my keyboard. Go figure. Someone help me. In the meantime, all hail the new avatar!