Danica Patrick to Run Indy and Daytona 500 Before Retiring Next Season

[Craig Dunkley]

She clearly was very talented, you would need far more than luck to win a IndyCar series race, third place in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, eighth place in the 2013 Daytona 500 and acheiving a pole position in a 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup race, surely nobody can dispute this fact. She does have many more achievements but these are for ... "First woman .....

But yes, there is no doubt in my mind that being female, has taken her far further with regards to a career, than what it would have done had she been a male.

No matter whever we like it or not, she is also a great marketing tool for any team, and maybe even took a seat away from a more deserving male driver, but sadly money is what makes the world go round ....

 

[Rob Every]

I think her lack of success was making it harder for her to find sponsors, even with he marketability, in NASCAR you still need to be doing well to run a full season, and she was running one for years without really doing anything.

it's a tough calendar and she also probably wants to start a family perhaps, so that might also be a reason to quit.

But, she was not really good enough to sustain her ride and that is the bottom line, plenty of other drivers been there before.

But she lasted longer than most because she is a woman.

 

[mceci1]

Here's hoping there comes a day when female drivers are represented well enough that physical beauty doesn't have to be the first thing that comes up when they get mentioned!

So you think Simona has had nothing to talk for, she has a great pedigree overseas and now has a great pedigree in V8s. People are going to get slandered no matter of gender, looks or talent, that's society unfortunately

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

Here is the reason that she gets so much 'hate':
In the five years that she has competed full time in the Cup series her teammates have racked up 22 wins, a championship, and a chance at another championship Sunday while she is still looking for her first career top five. She has a career total of seven top ten finishes. Just to put that into perspective, in the four years that Kevin Harvick has been her teammate he has amassed ninety seven top ten finishes. Her other teammate, Kurt Busch, has racked up sixty eight top tens during that time. Hell, her third teammate Clint Bowyer has thirteen top tens this year, and this year has been by all accounts a miserable failure for him.

The fact of the matter is that if any man, or a woman that doesn't look good in a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, put up her career numbers in a season they would be fired from that ride. Yet she will likely be voted into the Hall of Fame.

Not sure where all these new fans are that she has attracted unless they are camouflaged as empty seats; Nascar ratings how been in a downward spiral for twenty years now, they didn't quit falling any quicker after she got here than they did before.

 

[Ricoow]

Higher life expectancy is a pretty good competition to win. Enduring pain as well, despite coping with intimidating supremacist thoughts and harassments in daily life.

It is however proven that men tolerate pain better than woman, despite them whining about being sick that often.
https://www.sciencealert.com/do-women-tolerate-pain-better-than-men

Still doesnt take away that Nascrap put in a totally sexist remark which points out the reason why there are such few women in racing (and therefore no top talents). Society says women suck at driving, women shouldnt race etc. That puts women off from racing and they don't race until it is either way late to become a great driver or they dont start at all.

 

[Queequeg]

I don't see what the big deal is and what did she hurt? Of course they were going to market her, she was a woman in NASCAR. She was marketed just like all the rest of the drivers. That's part of the game.

Maybe it is part of the game, I wouldn't know because I don't follow Nascar closely. But as Austin pointed out, this marketing was also dishonest and deceitful, downright disrespectful to the real female accomplishers in auto racing.

 

[CC]

never heard of her to be honest , but what is nascar ?

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

what is nascar ?

Racing, but with passing. And big wrecks.

 

[RangerHU343]

Here's hoping there comes a day when female drivers are represented well enough that physical beauty doesn't have to be the first thing that comes up when they get mentioned!

It's already that day because there's a certain Christina Nielsen with championship wins behind her back in IMSA.

 

[MarcG]

Saw her in the flesh when I flew across the Pond for the 2012 Daytona 500, she's done a lot of Female Motorsport in the US and will be missed...not by me though I much prefer Katherine Legge!

 

[Mike Smith]

Women aren't as good as men at any competitive endeavor. That is an evolutionary fact.

Courtney Dauwalter would like a word...

 

[NASCRAP]

Still doesnt take away that Nascrap put in a totally sexist remark which points out the reason why there are such few women in racing (and therefore no top talents).

Why must we perpetuate the lie that women and men are exactly the same? Men are better at some things; women are better at others.

There are so few women in racing because they aren't any good at it. They aren't any good at it because the biological role of human females has always been that of nurturers. Men have always been the hunters and protectors; that is why they are superior at competition.

Women are better at cooperative things.

 

[Michael Hornbuckle]

 

[NASCRAP]

 

[Chobonator]

Higher life expectancy is a pretty good competition to win. Enduring pain as well, despite coping with intimidating supremacist thoughts and harassments in daily life.

Delusion doesn't improve their skills.

 

[Piotr Dul]

 

[Andrew Harper]

I actually always felt it was a mistake going from Indycar to NASCAR, what the temptation was I don't know. Money? Fame? Whatever, it just hasn't really worked for her and yes I agree with those above, regardless of whether it's a man or a woman she's lucky to have held onto her ride in NASCAR for so long. One point I would make though is although I don't catch all the races during the year the amount of times she get's caught up in other peoples crashes doesn't help. Sometimes luck plays a role as well.

I would have preferred her to have returned back to Indycar, even for just one year.

I do remember that picture of her Indycar win though, one of the best (and most humorous) podium pictures in motorsport

 

[Sennanzo]

what about that time she got the pole at Daytona? You have know that the fix was in for sure.

 

[randMracer]

Not sure where all these new fans are that she has attracted unless they are camouflaged as empty seats; Nascar ratings how been in a downward spiral for twenty years now, they didn't quit falling any quicker after she got here than they did before.

NASCAR is the second most viewed televised sport in the USA after the NFL. Probably since there are more ways to view racing these days more than ever, only the diehard race fans go to the track. That might account for the empty seats at these events.

I know that my daughter and all her little friends, plus other girls I know, started watching NASCAR just to root for Danica. Like I said before, I don't see any harm in anything she did or how she was marketed.

 

[Durge Driven]

Women aren't as good as men at any competitive endeavor. That is an evolutionary fact.

Brittany Force is the NHRA Top Fuel Champion ?

lol