Danica Patrick has become a bad distraction for the IndyCar Series.
As much as she’s done for the open-wheel series, she’s been a real pain for the series the last three years.
She hasn’t been terribly competitive on the track, and the focus on the ‘will she or won’t she’ leave
scenario is taking attention away from where it should be, on the real front runners, and the sponsors that power them.
Dealing with the annual rumors of Patrick’s departure will at long last come to an end today when Patrick and her sponsor—Go
Daddy—publicly announce her plans to drive over to NASCAR full time next year.
There is no shortage of media outlets pontificating on how Patrick’s departure will lead to the demise of the IndyCar
Series. Like a band-aid covering a scab, it’s time to tear Patrick away from the series. Be done with it.
Patrick isn’t the series’ biggest problem, and she’s certainly no cure-all either. The current attendance
figures and television ratings bear that out.
But Patrick’s daily flirtations with everything NASCAR have to be a serious distraction for IndyCar Series CEO Randy
Bernard and a cumulative detraction from all the progress he’s made.
The focus on Patrick’s saga is only part of the damage she’s brought to IndyCar. She not only takes focus away
from competitive IndyCar drivers and the growth of the series, but it also puts the spotlight on the notion that all IndyCar
drivers want to leave for NASCAR, well, because that’s where all the money and fans are. So what’s the IndyCar
Series? The only alternative is the minor leagues.
The open-wheel series needs to distance itself from that idea, and Patrick in the process. Here’s hoping she doesn’t
return to Indianapolis. That race can get along just fine without her, and the sooner the world realizes that, the better.
Another thing I fear that Patrick has done is create this idea that every woman who wants to make it as a race car driver
has to be a sex symbol.
While there are women with real talent and dedication in racing such as Simona de Silvestro and Ana Beatriz who do not try
to make themselves into a cover girl, there are no shortage of young women in racing feeder series nationwide—even globally—who
have taken a cue from Patrick’s Maxim magazine spread, and are as worried about their glamour shots as they
are improving their on-track results. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably following at least one of these
women on twitter.
Long live Danica—thankfully starting next season that will be in NASCAR. Hopefully, her legion of wannabes will follow
after her to the land of the fendered cars.
For my part, I think it would be better for the IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500 if someone like de Silvestro or Beatriz—someone
who is truly and totally dedicated to the sport of open-wheel—becomes the first female winner of the Greatest Spectacle
in Racing.
There was a time when Patrick winning the Indy 500 would have been the greatest thing for the series. Now, it would only
serve to sour the milk in victory circle.
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her existence as a so-called race car driver under less scrutiny and criticism.
But here is my prediction: Five years from now she will be out of the sport altogether. Wealthy, yes. But a passe pop culture phenomenon. Ten years from now, she'll be a trivia question.
I never liked the Danica Patrick idea or the monster it created. It took a modestly attractive woman (face it...on the street would you look more than twice?) and a modestly talented lower-level formulae mid-packer and turned her into a monstrosity that suggests are society's less virtuous and intelligent impulses.
Danica is to racing what Brittney Spears is to pop music. And about as critically relevant.
Probably a good move from a business perspective, but if you want results to justify it don't hold your breath.
â... sheâs been a real pain for the series the last three years. She hasnât been terribly competitive on the track...â
Not competitive during the last three years? I believe that includes 2009 and 2010. Pay attention:
The top two teams in IndyCar, Penske and Ganassi, have dominated IndyCar for the past several years.
At the close of the 2009 season, out of the 40 drivers competing that year, Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) won the championship; number two was Scott Dixon (Ganassi), number three was Ryan Briscoe (Penske) and number four was Helio Castroneves (Penske).
Number five was Danica Patrick.
And anyone who still doubts her abilities should study her two best races of 2010:
At Texas, starting near the back of the pack, battling aggressively with driver after driver to get to the front, she beat them all but one Penske driver with a faster car. Roger Penske, the most respected owner in racing, said after the race, "I take my hat off to Danica. She was terrific tonight." A headline the next day declared, "Danica Goes Toe-to-Toe With The Big Boys."
At Homestead, starting again near the back, she fought her way up among the leaders and during the last 19 laps battled lap after lap with the 2004 IndyCar champion, Tony Kanaan, wheel to wheel, inches apart, at close to 230 mph, finally faking him out and darting down below him to cross the finish line a nose ahead for 2nd place, beating every driver in the field except one Ganassi driver with a faster car.
* Cut your hair leaving a mullett
* Drives the Viagra car
* Have your husband acussed of wearing the
driver suit in the family
* Thinks Kyle Busch is hot
* Drives with Playtex racing gloves
And to purport "that every woman who wants to make it as a race car driver has to be a sex symbol" is preposterous. Like as many of her male counterparts who have been given the opportunity, Danica capitalized on her on-track success and built her professional image (How many opportunities do you think Simona de Silvestro and Ana Beatriz have been offered?). It's all too typical for men to discredit an attractive woman's success but to see that vein of sexism present in a professional journal is offensive. The face remains, you don't have to be an unattractive woman to be successful in any field.
Danica's success on and off the track speaks for itself - she has received attention as a competitive driver in the series and has inspired a group of people that may otherwise not have paid any attention to her or any of the other drivers in IndyCar.
She did a lot for the league, yet many irl fans have turned on her. They think that she owes IMS for her success.
It used to be that winning the Indy 500 made the man. But who outside of a few forums could pick Franchitti or Wheldon out of a line-up?
DANICAR is to NASCAR what she was to INDYCAR. The hopeful savior. She'll get richer, but at the end of the road, she'll still be dismissed as a modestly talented race car driver and the series will be smaller.
This is just how it is. Major auto racing in this country is headed back to third tier.
Live with it.
Maybe one day we will find out how she really feels, but until then we are stuck with merely her brand. The reason she is going to NASCAR is because she brings funding and because her agency, IMG, sees an opportunity to use her to make millions upon millions of dollars. Their (and her) real money won't be made on the track...it will be made via endorsements and merchandising. That is the way of the world these days. If in Danica's Indy Car place we get a real race driver who gives us as much or more excitement on track, I will be happy.
Meantime, we should echo those who possess sportsmanship and wish her well in NASCAR. She has a better opportunity than most to do OK.
What is wrong with this picture? I'll tell you what! You all have become a bunch of whiney mealy mouthed gossip queens more interested in Princess Perma-Pout and her antics than you are about racing. THAT'S WHAT.
Its really sad how bad the racing community has sunk over the last 15 years. the Indy 500 - 1/2 the race it used to be. American Open Wheel Racing - destroyed to the point they are renting tracks and holding "festivals of speed" with 10 year old spec crapwagons run by a field of has beens, never weres, and ride buyers. Its everything that sucked in CART and the very worst of the IRL, all rolled up and stuffed into some 3rd rate TV Channel nobody knows about. The officiating is horrid, and the stands are empty.
So, a REAL racing series comes to town, with outstanding world class talent, at a very reasonable ticket cost, and not ONE word written about it?
Hmmmm....look in the mirror, you just might see who is responsible for the state of racing in Indy these days....
...All pablum puke poopy-doo, of course, because you can't turn a J.D. McDuffie and Jimmy Means hillybilly sport into an MTV reality show filmed in a Knott's Landing neighborhood without non-racing fans eventually losing interest due to boredom and lack of authenticity, or realizing, as many did, they have been had.
Indy Todd is correct. It is a niche sport. A very popular niche sport with the loyalists, but a niche sport nonetheless.
Danica is the latest effort at reviving the sport for one last try at mainstream acceptance. The media will fall in line and it will appear so for a litle while but because she is not overly talented, unless wins are outright dictated, she will become the Kournikova of the sport and in due time, two, three years, if that, be dismissed by curiosity fans, just as those same people are dismissing NASCAR altogether.
NASCAR, much like IndyCar racing, and other motorsports as well, have had their day as close-to-mainstream, entities. Racing will never again be a "major league"-level sport. The Indy 500 may survive. We'll see. But NASCAR's days as a NFL-challenging sport are as lost as all the old lies.
Those with even minimal intelligence hardly see a mess. They see a growing series with risk taking leadership. A series that will get paid nearly $20 million every year for the rest of the decade for just TV rights. A series that will generate $200 million in series sponsorship by 2013. A series that attracts millions of actual racing fans along with a handful of bitter, obsessed children. A series whose key metrics are UP again this year.
(copy'n'paste)
Might as well save the little fella some time, eh?
Nonetheless, calling all drivers in the series has beens, never beens, or ride buyers is over the top, even for you. Too many fit that description, but there are a handful of winners and a couple of rising young guns that don't deserve the handles you've laid on them.
Well, at least we can now say that nascar has the two most overrated drivers in all of professional racing. And you know who I mean.
The trouble is the atmosphere. It lacks excitement, energy, whatever it is...the IndyCar Series just seems so lackluster, even in person. The fans showed enthusiasm but almost forced at times.
The racing was ok. Not great, not bad. Just ok. I sense people are not wild about the same cars up front. Pantano got more cheers.
Overall, I'd say it was a break-even weekend for the IndyCar Series. Nothing gained. Nothign lost. Just a race in the books now and Baltimore next.
We'll see, but I think the series is, truly, a real minor league entity. It just feels like it in person.
For all the fears about CART's birth in 1979, it did one thing...brought popularity to this sport.
So, the IRL/IMS is caught between a rock and hard place. Fans want a CART-like series without the IMS or IRL (and the permeated stink that goes with them) involved, and the empty grandstands and low TV ratings speak volumes.
With Danika gone now it will only get worse...stay true to your guns and DUMP these tracks again that are underperformers. Places like Toronto, Edmonton, New Hampshire, Milwaukee, Iowa, Sonoma etc. Give the fans what they really want...to have the IRL ERADICATED from their tracks. Just like all the others, now 24 and counting like Kansas, Watkins Glen, Gateway, Homestead, Pikes Peak, Nazareth and all the other markets detroyed by the creation of the IRL.
Randy...you should have apologized. Continued grade F- .
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/30/ahead-of-baltimore-grand-prix-pit-row-is-filling-with-lawsuits/
Here's where KEY METRICS come in handy...
So, when you are dividing up that 0.3, keep in mind that if, say, 10 more 18 to 34 year old males luckily by accident click upon the race looking for cycling or shooting a chipmunk close range with a 12 gauge...well, that put into the key metric calculator could mean HUGE gains, as much as 25%, for sponsors who are willing to dump HUNEDREDS of millions on the IRLZ carz.
Yup, the evolution moves forward at breakneck pace....
Seriously, Randy Bernard needs to be fired immediately...for allowing that travesty of a series to continue to embarass itself on a daily basis.
Robin Miller's mailbag today contains some very searing candid remarks by the fans of the sport. The IZOD Indy Car Series is revealed as a hapless failure.
Randy, it's over....resign immediately.
So Daddy also has it right, which is not bad for a Broad Ripple drop out, career lube rack tech, with a barber's license he never used. The series basically sucks and I love Daddy for saying it.
HaY Indyman, now 2X IRL has killed the Milwaukee marketplace.
Randy should have apologized. Too late now...
Preston shook her head as she walked across the skybridge between Lombard and Pratt streets.
âThis is a mess,â Preston said. âAnd they want those little cars to run up and down the street. This whole thing is a waste.â
EPIC IRL FAILURE.