May 16, 2008
Is Danica For Real?
Is Danica Patrick just a celebrated figment of the media’s imagination?
Because Patrick gets special treatment from the media, which is satisfying a demand by viewers and readers interested in her story, Danica’s detractors ask constantly, ‘What has Danica done? She’s never won a race.’
The Indanapolis Motor Speedway publishes a list of drivers who have led laps in the Indy 500. Relatively, it’s a short list. Patrick’s name is on it.
The Speedway also has a list of drivers who have set the fastest lap of the month at Indy. Given only 89 events prior to this year, it’s an even shorter list. Patrick’s name is on it.
(Teammate Kenny Brack edged Danica’s previously fastest qualifying lap when he qualified during the second weekend, but Danica retained the fastest lap of the month over-all.)
The number of drivers who have won multiple poles during any IRL or Champ Car season is relatively short. An IRL rookie, Patrick won three poles last year.
The list of “rookies of the year” in Champ Cars or the IRL is also short, since this promotional idea is a latter-day imitation of baseball’s rookie award. Against F3000 veteran Tomas Enge and Ryan Briscoe, the Australian teen sensation who had been signed to a test contract by Toyota’s F-1 team, Patrick came out ahead. She won the rookie title by a considerable margin as these other lads crashed out constantly.
The Speedway’s own Indy 500 Rookie of the Year began in 1952 (five years after the National League’s first rookie award was won by Jackie Robinson.) Versus five others in 2005, Patrick won Indy’s rookie award as well after leading the race three times for 19 laps.
And, finally, it bears repeating from our earlier posting, Patrick is the highest finishing American to ever compete in the prestigious Formula Ford Festival in England, where she finished second to Anthony Davidson. Because that so infuriated so many in the U.S. and elsewhere who believe racing is reserved for men, the myth arose that Danny Sullivan had done at least as well as Patrick, an inacuracy repeated in the media regularly as gospel. Not so.
OK. No race victories in the IRL. Yet. Can’t wait to hear the excuses then.
