Danica at ARCA.

Well I tuned into the ARCA race to see Danica Patrick's stock car debut like the rest of the racing universe, while I did think she did a fairly good job I don’t really think this race series won me over. Most of the race field consisted inexperienced drivers who ended up putting their cars into the wall, some so much so that cars completely flipped over several times destroying their cars completely. One crash was so bad the race had to be red flagged and stopped but thanks heavens the driver another women racer Jill George was able to walk away unharmed. People who say they go to the races to see wrecks are not race fans. It was also amazing to hear the announcers treat Danica like this was her first race EVER despite her having being racing since an early age. The announcers gushed about her surprised that she could actually drive. The other interesting phenomena to watch was the twitter verses and the intense hate directed towards her. Mostly because she dared to be an attractive woman in a man’s sport and market herself well, and then actually have the nerve to be talented.

I freely admit that I was not on team Danica when she first appeared at Indy, in fact the hype and the circus that surrounding her debut was quite annoying. I had seen many accomplished racers show up at Indy like Nigel Mansell expecting an automatic win since they were there now. It’s a little bit harder than that, and I relished seeing most of them fail in thier first attempt. Some like Helio Castroneves got lucky and were racing for Penske and were able to grab the brass ring first time out. So I completely understand where the NASCAR community is coming from at this time since where ever Danica goes hype follows although that is not her fault. She was the complete opposite of one my favorite drivers girl next store type Sarah Fisher. She hasn’t ever been about hype and is all hard work; the fact that she has built her own Indycar team that isn’t cheap (about 5 million to start from scratch) amazes me. You can’t help but root for her. She is “the little engine that could”.

A funny thing happened on the way to my not liking Danica, I watched a person handle intense pressure and pay her dues in the Indycar series, and prove that she did have driving talent. When she made the switch to Andretti Green, she continued to improve and grudgingly earned my respect. In fact I started to root for her and was glad when she broke though and won the race in Japan. While she will never be my favorite driver, I can say I would be very happy if she actual won at Indy. I have seen the tape of young teenaged Danica frizzy hair and all and her trophy case talking about the only thing missing is The Borg Warner trophy from Indy. She clearly wants it you can’t fake that.

Rumors persisted all her time during INDYCAR that NASCAR wanted her and she was about to make the jump every year. I knew what this would mean to my sport of INDYCAR. The lost viewer ship and media attention would be an economic blow to a sport that was already struggling before the economy turned sour. The thing is I knew that NASCAR didn’t really want her and they still don’t. It is southern based unlike the INDYCAR car series that runs up north and NASCAR is very old boys’ network. They don’t like ANYBODY new that didn’t come up via their system of Nationwide or ACRA. It doesn’t matter if you are an Indy 500 winner like Sam Hornish Jr. or Dario Franchetti; the welcome mat is not out. Get out and stay out. So how dare this young unproven woman think she can drive NASCAR? The other thing I don’t like about NASCAR is the fact that they hog all the sponsors, and attempt to field 35 to 40 or more cars per race. I was very infuriated to see a Menard’s car running around this 2-bit race after they dumped INDYCAR’s Vision Racing 2 weeks ago and caused them to shut down operations. You have money for this crap race but not INDYCAR? Grrrr.

The other phenomena that I mentioned is the unabashed hatred she has had to contend with that is mostly gender based. There is one racing person I am following on twitter that I am considering dropping because his negative attitude about her. He seems to have no problem with any of the other female racers he like to tout and I sometimes feel like he is practically slobbering all over them reading his blog. I do realize that Danica gets an inordinate attention, but she also gets plenty of hate. How she deals with this so well, I don’t really know. I doubt I could be as diplomatic in her shoes.

There was something else I noticed which is bad news for all you haters out there. After the race I saw a happy Danica Patrick, a person who had clearly enjoyed racing and had fun with what she had just done. She didn’t win but she did have a big smile on her face and seemed joyful. That’s not the Indycar post race sullen and introspective Danica Patrick that I’m become accustomed. Even at her Indycar win at Twin Ring Motegi, she seemed more relieved than happy. So I’ve got bad news for all you haters out there, Danica is coming and she isn’t looking back, you’d better get used to the idea. She might even make you a fan she certainly changed my mind. I can’t say there are any ARCA races in my viewing future. I’ll stick with INDYCAR thank you.