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Danica Patrick

racing news

Danica Patrick Runs Into Crewman At Indy, We're Checking To See If That's A First For A Woman

Danica Patrick, the current headline maker of the IndyCar Series has made yet another headline, this time it's not so much of the rah-rah-go-women type. In a practice round for the upcoming Indianapolis 500, she managed to run into Charles Buckman, the chief mechanic for Mario Moraes' Dale Coyne Racing team. Buckman suffered scalp and facial cuts as well as a concussion. We're not going to make stereotypical comments about women drivers, but we can't imagine what is going to happen when the Goodyear ad people find out, they're going to have a field day. [ESPN] (Images via AP; Video via ESPN)

racing news

NY Times Calls Hillary-Endorsing Sarah Fisher IRL's "Top Woman"

In a long article about the Indiana Democratic Primary, there's a picture of Hillary Clinton getting the endorsement of IRL racer and team-owner Sarah Fisher, with the caption "Hillary Rodham Clinton paid an election-day visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Tuesday to appear with race car driver Sarah Fisher, a top woman on the Indy car circuit, who endorsed her this week." This is true in the same way that Hillary Clinton is the top performer in the Democratic race for the White House in that "top" here means "supreme but for those other people with superior records." Technicalities. More »

novelties

The Anatomy Of A Race Car Driver

It pains us to hear it, but everyone is up in arms lately over the racing wins by Danica Patrick and Ashely Force. One of the lingering stances on the matter (and one we heard on that bastion of common sense: talk radio) is that the women have every right to compete and win because racing relies mostly on the car, and not the competitor. Well, anybody whose driven a car faster than 65 mph knows that a car can put strain on the body. Wired put together an excellent infographic detailing parts of the body and what a 200-plus mph can do to it. Click the picture above or the link below to see it in its full glory. If anything, being a race car driver is harder on women who generally have smaller body frames than men, possibly making their victories even more impressive. Now, let the debate begin! [Wired]

racing news

Wife Busts Tony Kanaan's Balls After Qualifying Behind Danica Patrick

She's everywhere these days - Danica Patrick is the Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova of open wheel racing and everyone wants a piece of the moment. Well, maybe except teammate Tony Kanaan and his wife. A quick item at Automobile relays a phone call from Kanaan's pregnant wife after he qualified third and behind Patrick at the last Mid-Ohio IRL race. When she heard about the result, she had a question for him: More »

danica patrick

CBS' Doyel Rules IRL Isn't Real Racing, Danica Is "Junior Varsity"

We all know what Pedro de la Rosa thinks about women in motorsport. Now, we've got CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel weighing in on Danica Patrick's win, proclaiming the Indy Racing League to be an inferior racing series. Most people will agree the IRL isn't the highest pinnacle of motorsports, but Doyel thinks
"the IRL is not real racing. Not real good racing, anyway. It's not the best car circuit in this country — that would be NASCAR ... what is the IRL? It's a training ground for decent drivers who hope to be good enough to race somewhere important some day ... Winning in the IRL isn't a matter of talent..."
" Wait, what? He thinks NASCAR takes more skill? Hmm. Certainly there are some very skilled NASCAR drivers, and sure, there is competition, but it seems to us like Doyel is just shooting his mouth off. Suggesting the IRL isn't real racing, given the timing, comes across like Gregg is trying to deny Danica's skills. Which he then proceeds to do: More »

danica patrick

McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa Thinks Women Are Too Weak To Race In F1

With all the buzz over Danica Patrick wiping the floor at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan last weekend, it's easy to forget there's other talented females engaged in various forms of motorsport across the world. Just look at Michèle Mouton's rally career — multiple wins in her Audi Quattro and finishing a close second place in the 1982 WRC championship. So you know that the girls can go just as fast as the boys — and as we saw this past weekend, sometimes faster. So this ultimately leads to the question, "Can a women be successful in Formula One?" Well, veteran McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa seems to think women might just not be strong enough to deal with the rigors of the track. More »

danica patrick

Danica Patrick First Woman To Win IndyCar Race, Proves She's Not Just A Piece Of Meat

The checkered flag dropped today in Japan, and with it came the paternalistic stranglehold on professional motorsports as Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 — besting her previous highest finish of second place at the Detroit Grand Prix. The win, 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval occurring after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later, makes Patrick the first woman to ever win an IndyCar race. Finally, people will be forced to look at Danica Patrick... More »

detroit grand prix

Tony Kanaan, Danica Patrick Go First, Second In Crash-Filled Finish To Detroit Grand Prix IndyCar Race

Tony Kanaan wins the IndyCar race here at the Detroit Grand Prix, and Danica Patrick took second place in her best ever finish after a shocking last lap and a half. Just before the white flag came up a number of drivers were involved in some "contact" that included "the wall" and "other drivers." Oh and Dan Wheldon came in third despite thrashing his car today earlier in practice— who woulda thunk it? We'll have more shortly — full results below the jump. More »

OMG! Is that really Danica in the lead?!? Oh wait, no — she just hasn't pitted in a while.

detroit grand prix

Mini Scooters: The Official Paddock Transport Of Danica Patrick And All Of IndyCar

First it was Marco Andretti on his li'l scooter and now we've caught Danica Patrick on one just outside of the paddock here on Belle Isle at the Detroit Grand Prix. Which got us noticing there's a lot of these things out here today. Here's our gallery of the little Paddock cruisin' moped-looking things. We're going to walk on over to the grandstand now for the start of the race — we'll bring you an update shortly.

detroit grand prix

Five Questions For Today's Detroit Grand Prix IndyCar Race

We're up and runnin' today from the Corvette chalet here in the middle of the Detroit River to finish off our Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix coverage with some hot IndyCar racing action. So whether you're coming to the race today, watching it on ABC at 3:30 or reading our live-blog here (hint-hint) here's five questions we've got for the race today that maybe you can help us to answer: More »

novelties

Music Videos Make Anyone Look Fast: Danica Patrick Shows Jay-Z And Dale Jr. What She's Got

Quickly, before YouTube ganks it again — and thanks to our brother/sister site obsessed with all things music — check out Jay-Z's latest music video, "Show Me What You Got" — featuring Danica Patrick in a Pagani Zonda S out-racing a Ferrari F430 driven by none other than Dale Earnhardt, Jr. — with Mr. Shawn Carter (aka Hova, aka S.Dot, aka Hov, aka Jigga, aka Lucky Lefty, aka Iceberg Slim, aka — ok, you get the picture, Jay-Z's got a lot of nicknames) in the passenger seat. You know, we kind of feel like this is totally a race Danica could win — one where she's got a car fully 70 hp faster than the competition. Still, we totally know Jay-Z's just going to say he lost cause she weighs less than he and Dale Jr. [Hat tip to will!] More »

news: racing

Oh, Look! Danica's Making More Money!

The domain-name registrars at Go Daddy have signed on to help fund Danica's Motorola-marqueed Andretti-Green car for next season. They find her "edgy, innovative and fun!" according to some guy named Bob who helms the company. H sker D was edgy, innovative and fun. Danica is not H sker D . Meanwhile, in more interesting news, Bumbeck began the initial stages of a Jet-Valvectomy on his Starion up at the place we like to refer to as "Robin Masters' Compound East." Boss pic, non? Danica? Potential. Starion? SUPER POTENTIAL! [Thanks to Haller for the tip.] More »

news: racing

WaPo Co. Slipping? Recruiting Subpar Writers? Danica in Newsweek

Awesome! Newsweek wants to compile a list of 20 women leading their fields. The downside? Well, we picked up an issue of the magazine the other day and it felt a bit light. Has the diluted ad revenue that seems to be endemic across the print-publishing board these days inspired the elimination of the copy desk? Or having interviewees whose finest skills may not be at the keyboard write their own stories? Case in point: Danica Patrick's profile in the September 25th issue of the august newsweekly. What do we get? Subpar writing coupled with the misspelling of "go-kart" as "go-cart," followed by "nerve-racking" instead of "nerve-wracking." We'd at least expect Danica to be able to correctly spell the types of cars she's driven. More »


news: racing

A PR Flack Drops His Guard Regarding the IRL

We're not exactly sure why IRL racer Jeff Simmons' PR guy Karl berbacher had to go list his three favorite records as Fun House by the Stooges, Sabbath's Master of Reality and then poison an until-then fantastic list with Gene Simmons' "I Am Indy" single. But then again, that's why we're broke-dick bloggers who jet-set around the world as Denton permits and Karl jet-sets around the country getting into near bar-brawls and apparently boffing twins while promoting clients. Oh, and there's good Danica dirt, too. Click through, because CJ over at So. Damn. Indy. got Karl to ladle the gossip on the side of racing the sponsors don't want to know about. More »

news: racing

Danica 'Burning Bridges' With Rahal-Letterman

CJ over at SO. DAMN. INDY. had readers send in questions for Rahal-Letterman driver Jeff Simmons, who shed light on the organization's chassis situation, race-day activities, and of course, women. Simmons mentions that he thinks the potential for open-wheel returnee Sarah Fisher at Kentucky tomorrow is high, considering she'd taken a pole there, but of course, the burning question on everyone's mind is Danica Patrick's situation with Rahal-Letterman's organization after the announcement of her departure to Andretti Green for next year's IRL season. Click through for Simmons' comments. More »

news: racing

No NASCAR for Danica: She's With Andretti, Leather

Amusingly-monikered blog My Name is IRL adds to what So Damn Indy broke earlier today. Danica is indeed leaving Rahal-Letterman, but she's not, as has been rumored, headed to NASCAR. Rather, she's apparently off to the land of Andretti-Green, where she'll be paired with the series other Golden Child, Mario's grandson. We'll likely be seeing Mario in a little over a week, so see if we can't ply him for some info then, unless of course, Michael keeps him out of the loop on this stuff. More »