After three years of trying, and placing as high as 4th in the Indy 500, 26-year-old Danica Patrick finally won her first IndyCar race this weekend. It was the Japan 300 at Motegi on the international Indy series, making her the first female winner in IndyCar history.
“Boys, move over. The lady is coming through,” shouted the announcer as her Andretti Green Racing car blurred across the finish line.
Danica was constantly being hounded about when she was going to win her first race. Many had the idea that women just couldn’t win in this sport. Many, however – and that includes some in the sports media –don’t realize that a motorsports win is almost a bonus. A top 10 finish is a big deal. Too much circumstance can happen in a race — with the car, with the track, with other drivers’s cars – to make wins frequent for anybody. All-time leading IndyCar driver Sam Hornish Jr. has only 19 wins and 32 top 10’s out of 117 starts.
But there were other concerns about Danica. Unlike the other hot women drivers out there, who have some depth in their racing records, with wins in other series and other types of car, like sprint cars and late models, Danica had never won a thing before she strapped into IndyCars. That, and her willingness to pose in scanty girl clothing for the tabloids, led some to dismiss her as “not a real racer — just a chick who’s looking for publicity.”
Danica’s win was a fuel-strategy win. Her team calculated it right down to the last teaspoon of gas, and she stayed out to take the final lead while other competitors had to pit for more fuel. Second was Helio Castroneves, he of “Dancing With the Stars.”
Fifty starts, one real racing win…and now Patrick has to win again, pretty soon, to keep up. – Patricia Nell Warren
on Apr 20th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
FYI, she had one second-place finish and two third-place finishes last year.
The problem Danica has is that she grew up running road courses with standing starts. IRL/IndyCar/whatever primarily runs ovals with moving starts. Good for her, it was only a matter of time before she pulled one out.
on Apr 21st, 2008 at 8:32 am
Patricia where are you getting your information? Unlike many of the women drivers of the past D. Patrick has the same or greater racing experiance than most open wheel drivers. She started as a child in “karts” then moved to the UK at 16 to race Open wheel. There is nothing more irresponsible than UNINFORMED reporting.
Note SI swimsuit issue not exactly a “tabloid:
on Apr 22nd, 2008 at 12:07 am
I never said that Patrick was lacking in experience. I looked back over her racing record, clear to Karting, and didn’t find any mention of actual race wins. She has quite a few top 10 and top 5 finishes, and a couple of titles based on accumulating points. There is nothing wrong with this. Hers is a strong record. And it’s tough to actually win a race in motorsports. Quite a few top drivers never do better than top 10s or top 5s.
Other women out there, in other divisions, HAVE won races. Chrissy Wallace, for example, in late models.
In Danica’s case, the important thing about this historic IndyCar win is that hopefully people will stop doubting her talent because of all the tabloid posing she did. And, with all due respect for your definition of tabloid, I’ll stick to my own definition.
on Apr 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 am
SI itself is not a tabloid, but the swimsuit issue is another matter. And it isn’t the only place she’s posed for such pictures.
You just know that alot of these guys she races against must be fuming that they lost to a “girl”. Let’s hope this win puts the focus on her racing results and not her looks and her infamous temper tantrum she threw after a race.
on Apr 23rd, 2008 at 12:14 am
FYI, the numbers on Hornish are actually 19 wins, 80 top 10s in 116 starts…
on Apr 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am
There’s a thing called Wikipedia, Patricia…