Danica Patrick wins Japan Indy Car

[Don]

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/...goryId=2378529

[Don]

From the New York Times.com:


April 21, 2008
Racing to Victory, and Leaving the Men and the Doubters Behind

By DAVE CALDWELL
When a 23-year-old rookie named Danica Patrick became the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 three years ago, she raised the tantalizing possibility that in a male-dominated American sport, a woman might for the first time stand in victory lane.

Patrick eventually finished fourth in that race, but she quickly became a phenomenon. Companies embraced her willingness to market her good looks, and babies began emerging from maternity wards with the name Danica. But along with her celebrity came a question: When would she win?

It was answered Sunday in Motegi, Japan, where Patrick, now 26, became the first woman to win an Indy car race. She defeated the two-time Indy 500 winner Hélio Castroneves by nearly six seconds in the Indy Japan 300.

“I feel way too young to be giving life advice, but this is a great platform to have,” Patrick said Sunday night in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where she had landed after a virtually sleepless flight from Japan. “This reaches outside racing. This is about finding something you love to do, and following through with it.”

Besides saying thanks, Patrick said she was unable to say much more to her crew amid her tears immediately after the race. Back in Los Angeles, she again became emotional when she relived her long road to victory.

“It’s going to be nice not to have to answer those questions anymore,” she said. “They were just so hard to answer, because I believed in myself. I just didn’t know when it was going to happen.”

There was a time when Patrick could not have competed in Sunday’s race. A few years before Janet Guthrie, an aerospace engineer and road racer, became the first woman to qualify for the Indy 500 in 1977, women were not allowed in the press box, the garage area or the pits.

As Guthrie wrote in “Life at Full Throttle,” an account of her career in racing, women were dismissed as lacking the strength, endurance and emotional stability to compete against men. Even a driver with Guthrie’s credentials as a road racer was seen as dangerous.

“A woman might be a reporter, a photographer, a timer/scorer, she might own the race car — but she couldn’t get near it at any time for any reason,” Guthrie wrote. “A woman on the track itself was unthinkable.”

On Sunday, Guthrie showed little surprise at Patrick’s victory.

“Anybody who didn’t think she had a chance of winning just hasn’t been paying attention,” Guthrie, 70, said in a telephone interview from her home in Aspen, Colo. “She’s been in the hunt for a long time. It was just a matter of time, as far as I’m concerned.”

Guthrie then said, “I absolutely hope this will put all of the naysayers to rest.”

For Patrick, the naysayers’ chorus had grown increasingly loud as her winless streak wore on. A year ago, in search of a stronger team, Patrick jumped from the IndyCar Series team co-owned by the talk-show host David Letterman to the team co-owned by Michael Andretti, the former racer who is the son of Mario Andretti.

Michael Andretti said he believed the diminutive Patrick, 5 feet 2 inches and 100 pounds, had the skill and desire to win regularly. He provided her with a powerful race car and with his team’s expertise, which helped her win the race Sunday at Twin Ring Motegi, a mile-and-a-half oval.

When Patrick burst on the racing consciousness three years ago, she brought with her an extensive racing background. Her father was a racer who introduced his daughter to driving at a young age. At 16, Patrick moved to Europe, alone, to compete.

By 2005, the combination of her promise on the track and her willingness to capitalize on her looks — her biography in the 2008 IndyCar Series media guide includes a photograph of her in a white bikini — soon had marketers clamoring for her.

An IndyCar Series official said in 2006 that Patrick’s merchandise outsold that of any other driver, 10 to 1. The series said that the name Danica jumped to No. 352 from No. 610 on the list of most popular baby names from 2005 to 2006. Patrick was in a Super Bowl advertisement this year for Godaddy.com. Expectations became heavy.

Before she drove her car to victory lane, she said Sunday night, she was unable to speak because, “it was an indication of how much had been on my mind — how long it had been since the start of my IndyCar career.”

Patrick said her team tried to conserve fuel from the first laps of Sunday’s race. When three drivers running at the front of the pack had to make pit stops for fuel in the final 10 laps of the 200-lap race, she charged into second place, behind Castroneves.

Castroneves had enough fuel to finish the race without making a pit stop, but he had to conserve what little he had. Patrick, who lost the 2005 Indy 500 because she had to stretch her fuel supply, took the lead with two laps left on Sunday and won easily.

“In recognition of Danica’s talents, she did a good job,” Castroneves said in a postrace news conference. “She passed me fair and square. I didn’t have enough fuel, even if I wanted to, to fight with her.”

Next month, Patrick will return to the Indianapolis 500. The competition at this year’s race is expected to be much tougher after a merger in the off-season with Champ Car, another open-wheel racing series.

“I think Danica is such a fantastic person and I’m thrilled for her that the monkey is finally off of her back,” Michael Andretti said after the race. “We have all believed in her, and she proved today that she is a winner. Frankly, I think this is the first of many.”

Another woman on the IndyCar circuit, Sarah Fisher, 27, has formed her own race team. She did not race Sunday in Japan but has said she hopes to drive in the Indy 500, among other races. Fisher said Patrick’s triumph made Sunday a memorable day not only for drivers and open-wheel-racing fans, but for women.

“Today marks the celebration for all of us who have chipped away at the barriers that many women have faced in fields that are dominated by men,” Fisher said in a statement. “To finally have a female win an open-wheel race is simply a progression of what Janet Guthrie started.”

[Ron61]

Don,

Good posts. I for one like her and was happy to see her win. She had a great shot at winning the Indy race that time except they messed up on their fuel. I watched the NASCAR race in Mexico yesterday and Rusty Wallace said she was the best female driver he had ever seen.

Ron

[Smokingcobra2]

Would not mind going a few laps with her. lol
joeg

[Sharroll Celby]

Maybe even lubing her chassis!

Congratulations to her...I hope she wins many more times in her career.

[J. T. Toad]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H-Ce...eature=related

[imagine2frolic]

She has won lots of hearts already....congradulations on winning a race....LOL

[Don]

To be ahead of Earnhardt Jr & Gordon in endorsements, smiling all the way to the bank:

" In the categories of trust, trend-setting, noticeability, aspiration and endorsement, Patrick is ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, but her overall DBI score trails the NASCAR superstars only because of a much lower awareness rating. "



http://www.usatoday.com/sports/motor...ck-cover_N.htm

[powerslide]

Has anyone interviewed AJ Foyt about Danica's win?

[Don]

From MotorSports.com

Danica Patrick first win teleconference

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=286171

The aftermath of Patrick's historic win

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=286108

[Don]

With the unification of IRL and Champ Cars, open wheel racing hopefully will reverse it's downward trend. The TV audience this year for the Indy 500 should be a good indicator, especially if the IRL gets a corporate sponsor.

From MotorSports.com:

Danica in demand: Danica Patrick's victory lap started in Japan, cruised through Los Angeles and is heading full steam to New York. Patrick, who claimed a spot in history with her victory April 20 at Twin Ring Motegi, is tabbed for numerous interviews while in the Big Apple April 23-24, and she will walk the red carpet for the premiere of the movie "Baby Mama."

Among the stop on Patrick's schedule are MTV, New York Times, "The Late Show with David Letterman," "The CBS Early Show," "On The Record with Greta Van Susteren," Bloomberg TV and "Late Night with Conan O' Brien."

Patrick's merchandise is selling fast. Indianapolis-based MainGate Inc., which has an exclusive deal to handle licensed products for the 26-year-old driver, already is seeing major sales increases in items bearing her image. MainGate, which also operates Patrick's Web site, had a T-shirt designed for Patrick's first victory.

"DanicaRacingStore.com traffic has increased 550 percent since her victory, and sales are up 900 percent," said David Moroknek, MainGate CEO.

MainGate plans to have a complete line of new products commemorating the victory for May in Indianapolis, where the company will operate three mobile trailers dedicated to Patrick.

[Don]

From AutoWeek.com:

By STEVEN COLE SMITH

The latest wave of Danica mania comes as no surprise, but what is a little surprising is that the news that caused it occurred almost in a vacuum.

That news was her first Indy Racing League win in 50 starts, which happened late Saturday night at the rain-delayed race at Motegi, Japan, before a small crowd there and a similarly small audience watching it on ESPN Classic.

There were virtually no major motorsports journalists on hand, as even track owner and IRL engine supplier Honda couldn't find anyone who wanted to travel to Japan, despite the fact that the track has heated toilet seats outside the press room and actually constructed the tire barriers from brand-new tires.

There were two reasons for this: The Motegi oval seldom generates a good race, and with the final Champ Car race scheduled for the next afternoon in Long Beach, California, most media outlets figured that would be the better story. And it would have been if Motegi had been the site of the first win for, say, Vitor Meira instead of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model.

So we get Patrick on Late Night with David Letterman and on Rachael Ray's cooking show. We get the Wall Street Journal asking Bruton Smith, of all people, what he thinks about Patrick's win ("It's great for motor racing everywhere," Smith revealed), and we get promotions such as the one AirTran, the airline that sponsors Patrick, instituted last Monday when they stuck a big photo of the driver on the side of a Boeing 717 and dubbed it AirTranica Won, which caused AirTran CEO Bob Fornaro to comment off the top of his head: "Danica Patrick knows the need for speed, and we do a bit of driving of our own--our airline's commitment to driving down fares allows our customers to take advantage of the service we offer to cities hosting the league's most exciting races."

The fact that this occurred one day before AirTran announced a first-quarter loss of more than $34 million, which sent stock prices down 21 percent, is probably irrelevant--really, how far might the stock have plunged if it didn't launch AirTranica Won?

There is no argument that Patrick's win, accomplished on smart fuel management or not, is excellent news for the IRL, eclipsing even Helio Castroneves' stirring Dancing with the Stars victory.

And while at least one Champ Car stalwart suggested that it was "disrespectful" for the IRL to jet Patrick to the Long Beach Grand Prix for a press conference after the last Champ Car race, it was also understandable. The win is gold, and the IRL needs to mine it for all its worth. Disrespectful though it may be, Patrick's news conference drew double the attendance of the Champ Car podium finishers' conference a half-hour before.

And you know what? This is a different Danica Patrick. Thoughtful, reflective, a little humble, she has been in the process of losing the chip on her shoulder for the past year, and it appears that her win knocked off what little was left.

"A long time I've waited for this," she said at Long Beach. "I wish it would have happened a long time ago, but I'm not going to argue with the program. It happened the way it was supposed to happen, and I believe everything happens for a reason."

Patrick credited her teammates, past and present, for helping her get to the point where she was ready to win, fellow drivers who "have always been very kind," talking to her not about whether or not she would win but when she would win. She recalled speaking with Bryan Herta last year at Mid-Ohio.

"I was on the front row for the first time on a road course, which was great, and he said, 'You know, when you win your first race, you're going to go, I wasn't doing anything different that day, it just happened.' I wasn't doing anything that different yesterday, it just happened. He was right."

As for the IRL, "the momentum of the series is clear," now that it has absorbed the bankrupt Champ Car World Series. "It's a bright future for IndyCar, and this is just the start," Patrick said. "Everything will snowball from here."

You heard it from the snowball herself.

AutoWeek | Updated: 04/23/08, 5:03 pm et