Profile: Danica Patrick
By Andrew Cutler December 11 2007
I must admit that I have been reluctant to do this profile. I realize that most of you here at SN have little knowledge of the IRL and, therefore, little reason to have an opinion of most drivers one way or another. In die-hard IRL fan circles, however, Danica Patrick is a HIGHLY polarizing figure.
I must admit that I have been reluctant to do this profile. I realize that most of you here at SN have little knowledge of the IRL and, therefore, little reason to have an opinion of most drivers one way or another. In die-hard IRL fan circles, however, Danica Patrick is a HIGHLY polarizing figure.
So, in addition to giving you the customary biography/racing background information, I feel that I should also touch on how this "love her or loath her" state of affairs came about and what her detractors see when they gaze her way.
Danica began karting at age ten, in part because her younger sister was also trying the sport on for size. Quickly proving herself to be a "natural", she won several World Karting Association Regional, National & Grand National titles.
In 1998, at age sixteen, Danica moved to Britian and started competing in the Formula Vauxhaul series. By 2000, although she had not yet recorded a win, she moved up to the British Zetek Formula Ford series. In that same year she finished second in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, the best finish ever for a woman or an American. For 2001 she remained in the Zetek series.
By 2002 Danica had caught the attention of former CART driver/then CART team owner Bobby Rahal, who brought her into the CART developmental ladder to drive for his Barber Dodge Pro Series team: She ran five races that year with a best finish of fourth. She also competed in a Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at the CART Long Beach GP that year, winning the Pro division. It was her first - and, so far, only - race victory since her karting days.
For 2003 Bobby Rahal moved Danica up to the Toyota Atlantic Series, the last rung on the ladder below CART. She remained there for two seasons, piling up an impressive tally of top five finshes (including two seconds) and even leading the points standings at one point in 2004. Still, she couldn't seem to find victory lane.
By 2005, when Rahal decided that Danica was ready for the "majors", CART was no more & Rahal-Letterman Racing was an IndyCar Series team. From day one she has been a publicity windfall & marketing bonanza for the series. Leading in the late going of the '05 Indy 500 & eventually finishing fourth, the best performance ever by a woman in the event, made her a public celebrity well beyond just the IndyCar fan base.
Danica won the 2005 Rookie of the Year honors for her on-track performance. She also won the Most Popular Driver award that year; and each year since. Still with Rahal-Letterman in 2006, she finished ninth in the points chase, with a season-best finish of fourth on two occasions, despite the fact that the team "stuck it out" with the Panoz chassis for most of the season when nearly everyone else had come to prefer the Dallara.
For 2007 Danica moved from Rahal-Letterman to Andretti-Green Racing, the championship winning team for three of the past four seasons. While victory still eluded her this past year, she did notch her first second-place finish (at Detroit), which tied her with Sarah Fisher (2nd at Homstead-Miami in 2001) for the best series finish by a woman.
So...
By now you've already figured out the crux of the "Danica-haters" arguement; she doesn't win races, so why is she here? And from that, all other sort of ill views flow.
Comfortable in her role as a media figure, many see in Danica someone who is too in love with being a celebrity to concentrate on her job as a driver. As unfazed about getting in another driver's face out of the car as she is in mixing it up with them on the track, and often quite emotionally charged over her two-way radio after any incident or problem occurs, some see a whiney, spoiled princess who is quick to blame everyone else for her mistakes.
Another aspect of the whole "Danica issue" is the question of her "fan-friendliness". While she is hardly the only driver who isn't always willing to stop for a quick autograph (to be fair, she does do her share of pre-planned autograph sessions), a waive or other form of acknowledgement of her fans, for her detractors "not always" becomes "basically never". Thus, to them, Danica is an ungrateful and rude (insert your favorite derogitory term here) who should remember that she is a role model to countless young American girls.
So, exactly which Danica is the REAL Danica: the woman the Bobby Rahal hailed as being "the real deal" when he brought her into the series, or the the woman whom her detractors have made her out to be?
Follow along in 2008 and decide for yourself.
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StumbleuponRe: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: Loki2007 (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:12:14:56:49
Before we start quoting "best finish" stats, it is important to realize that the IRL is a pale shadow of USAC and even CART. I doubt that Danica or anyone else competing in the IRL today would even have been allowed on the track when past Indy 500 greats like AJ Foyt, Jim Clark, Dan Gurney, and Graham Hill were mixing it up at the Brickyard.
In a nutshell, open wheeled racing (on asphalt) in the USA is a farse and any discussion of how good Danica Patrick may be, is farsical unless it is limited to comparing her talents to those of the yobos she races against in the IRL.
In a nutshell, open wheeled racing (on asphalt) in the USA is a farse and any discussion of how good Danica Patrick may be, is farsical unless it is limited to comparing her talents to those of the yobos she races against in the IRL.
Re: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: IndyAndy (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:12:19:14:47
I take it that you are not an IRL fan then, huh?
Any attempt to compare/contrast drivers from different eras is pointless because there are from different eras. We will never know how the drivers of today would stack up against the old guard because they weren't there. Likewise, the old guard aren't here now (competing), so we don't know how they would react to the speeds and "tech" of today's cars - which todays drivers are used to.
I respect the great drivers of the past, but this is now and these are the drivers who will be out there on the track in 2008.
Please visit: Race Fan With a Camera
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007:12:12:19:17:12 by IndyAndy.
Any attempt to compare/contrast drivers from different eras is pointless because there are from different eras. We will never know how the drivers of today would stack up against the old guard because they weren't there. Likewise, the old guard aren't here now (competing), so we don't know how they would react to the speeds and "tech" of today's cars - which todays drivers are used to.
I respect the great drivers of the past, but this is now and these are the drivers who will be out there on the track in 2008.
Please visit: Race Fan With a Camera
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007:12:12:19:17:12 by IndyAndy.
Re: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: gturner (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:12:19:55:14
Last I checked, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher didn't race against Clark, Gurney, and Graham Hill either, so maybe we should reduce their stature. The fact of the matter is that no other American did as well as Danica in the Formula Ford Festival except Danny Sullivan and no other woman has done as well at Indy, bearing in mind that St. James and Fisher also raced in the IRL era.
As for the controversy around Danica, she seems to be hit with a lot of double standards. People made a big deal about Danica stomping around after running out of fuel, but little was said when Helio behaved the same way after he caused a crash with Miera. When she gets in someone's face, she a spoiled princess, but when other drivers do it, they're tough competitiors. If her behaviour is poor, then AJ Foyt's was deplorable. Is it not possible that she behaves the way she does because she is simply very competitive? Or that she sometimes doesn't respond to fans (and I've seen just about every IRL driver walk past waiting fans) simply because she's focused on the job she has to do?
"Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you."-Jeremy Clarkson
As for the controversy around Danica, she seems to be hit with a lot of double standards. People made a big deal about Danica stomping around after running out of fuel, but little was said when Helio behaved the same way after he caused a crash with Miera. When she gets in someone's face, she a spoiled princess, but when other drivers do it, they're tough competitiors. If her behaviour is poor, then AJ Foyt's was deplorable. Is it not possible that she behaves the way she does because she is simply very competitive? Or that she sometimes doesn't respond to fans (and I've seen just about every IRL driver walk past waiting fans) simply because she's focused on the job she has to do?
"Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you."-Jeremy Clarkson
Re: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: IndyAndy (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:13:05:02:48
Surely you're not implying that A.J. had a temper, are you? 
I'll never forget that year at Indy when he came into the pits for repairs after an on-track incident & got so angry with the pit crew that he climbed out of the car, pushed one of them out of the way, and began to beat the front suspension rods back into shape himself!
Classic A.J.
As for Danica, I think that if the wins start comming, the double standard will disappear.
Please visit: Race Fan With a Camera
I'll never forget that year at Indy when he came into the pits for repairs after an on-track incident & got so angry with the pit crew that he climbed out of the car, pushed one of them out of the way, and began to beat the front suspension rods back into shape himself!
Classic A.J.
As for Danica, I think that if the wins start comming, the double standard will disappear.
Please visit: Race Fan With a Camera
Re: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: Loki2007 (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:17:17:44:51
Andy, of course I am not trying to compare Clark, Gurney, Hill and Foyt to the current drivers, whether I agree with your implication that they may not have had the reflexes to drive in the IRL.
But it is valid to point out that Clark and Hill were F1 world champions. Foyt and Gurney had wins in F1, USAC and even LeMans. They were among the best drivers of their era. That alone would seem to put them a few cuts above the current crop of IRL drivers. We're not comparing one era against another but we're comparing the current IRL drivers against the best drivers of their era. Certainly Clark and Hill were among the best F1 drivers of the time when they dorve and won at Indy. I don't think for one second that you or anyone else could keep a straight face while trying to comparing Danica or Sharp or Foyt IV to Alonso or Raikkonen or Hamilton, much less Schumacher.
But it is valid to point out that Clark and Hill were F1 world champions. Foyt and Gurney had wins in F1, USAC and even LeMans. They were among the best drivers of their era. That alone would seem to put them a few cuts above the current crop of IRL drivers. We're not comparing one era against another but we're comparing the current IRL drivers against the best drivers of their era. Certainly Clark and Hill were among the best F1 drivers of the time when they dorve and won at Indy. I don't think for one second that you or anyone else could keep a straight face while trying to comparing Danica or Sharp or Foyt IV to Alonso or Raikkonen or Hamilton, much less Schumacher.
Re: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: IndyAndy (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:17:20:08:59
Granted, the current crop of IRL drivers do not do alot of "moonlighting" in other series, but how much of that is down to the different time/contractual obligations of the current era of racing?
Please visit: Race Fan With a Camera
Please visit: Race Fan With a Camera
Re: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: gturner (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:18:01:26:09
How about comparing the actual top IRL drivers to F1 drivers? Franchitti managed to tie Montoya in the 1999 Champ Car season, and last I checked Montoya was a respectable F1 driver. With Kanaan, Castroneves, Dixon, and Wheldon all being able to challenge Franchitti on a regular basis, I don't think the quality of the IRL field is all that poor. Besides, for all the talk about Hill, Gurney and Clark, they only drove Indy Cars for one race each year, leaving the field for the rest of the season somewhat weaker. If Schumacher and Alonso showed up at Indy and both finished in the top 5, would that somehow validate the quality of the rest of the field?
Can anyone seriously compare Foyt IV favorably to Alonso? Of course not. But then again, I feel safe assuming that nobody ever compared a Mike Mosley or Bill Voukovich II to Hill and Clark.
"Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you."-Jeremy Clarkson
Can anyone seriously compare Foyt IV favorably to Alonso? Of course not. But then again, I feel safe assuming that nobody ever compared a Mike Mosley or Bill Voukovich II to Hill and Clark.
"Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary... That's what gets you."-Jeremy Clarkson
Re: Profile: Danica Patrick
Posted by: SonnyT (IP Logged)
Date: 2007:12:18:12:52:05
"How about comparing the actual top IRL drivers to F1 drivers?"
That might be possible if IRL could stop the leakage of its top drivers to other series, like NASCAR and ALMS.
That might be possible if IRL could stop the leakage of its top drivers to other series, like NASCAR and ALMS.
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