92nd Indianapolis 500

[prisonermonkeys]

Hypocarcy at its finest!

The author says this on the immediate aftermath of the incident:

There have been a lot of compelling questions in the days since Patrick’s stroll.

Here are some answers:

Was she right to be upset?

Absolutely. No question. I can promise you, if Briscoe had clipped any one of the 30 men in the race, the majority of them would have reacted in a similar way. Maybe they wouldn’t have walked through the pits to confront Briscoe at that very moment, but there would have been some ugliness, probably after the race and back in the garage area.

And a few paragraphs later, this:

Was she out of line in the way she reacted?

Given more time to think about it, I’d have to acknowledge that she did cross the line — a little bit. While I loved it for its theatrical quality — and the fact it provided plenty of column fodder — the fact is, she should have taken the fight back behind the pit wall. Or gone to the garage and, after the race, confronted Briscoe there.

One of the things that has been overlooked is that the race was still going on, albeit under a yellow. Briscoe was in his pit box, his crew checking to see if the car could get back into the race. And the pit box she crossed was still hot. If anybody should understand the potential danger of walking on that side of the wall, it’s Patrick, who accidentally ran over a Dale Coyne Racing team member who had wandered there during a practice.

So far, so mental. But the author also says this at the very beginning of his entry:

We had none of this over-heated and often sexist commentary when A.J. Foyt rained blows on Arie Luyendyk’s head in 1997. Or when Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr.’s dad crossed paths at Watkins Glen last season.

That was just boys being boys. That was just racin’.

So it's perfectly acceptable to start beating each other senseless over an accident - or at least, beating each other while wearing helmets - but it's not acceptable to approach the driver at fault for what could just as easily be a heated-though-reasonable discussion? I'm willing to bet Danica's actions wouldn't have been decried if she's been born with an XY chromosome.

Yes, I know there was a safety issue; pit lane isn't the most appropriate place to be stalking after somebody who arguably just put you out of one of the world's most prestigious sporting events because of their stupidity. But while I'm not up on Indycar rules, Danica wasn't - as the author of that blog puts it - attempting to cross the interstate. I gather the pit lane is open while under yellow flags, but surely she would have noticed if a team were getting ready to receive a car and gotten out of the way. And they certainly would have warned their driver that Danica was marching down pit lane.

No, I'm not defending her; she certainly could have been more sensible about it. And I'm certainly not trying to justify everyone walking up and down pit lane dring race days. But she's a racing driver, a person who makes a living piloting a 300km/h missile. "Sensible" is the last word I'd use to describe her or anyone else in her profession. Briscoe was still in his car. Danica was certainly pissed off. She took the most direct route. Emotions don't make you act rationally which, surprisingly enough is why they're called emotions. Danica acted in the heat of the moment, and it's easy for us to sit back and call her down for it, be we simply discussing it on the forums or writing a column for a newspaper. In her situation, I'm betting we would have done the same thing.

I know I would.

 

[Earth]

She took the most direct route. Emotions don't make you act rationally which, surprisingly enough is why they're called emotions. Danica acted in the heat of the moment, and it's easy for us to sit back and call her down for it, be we simply discussing it on the forums or writing a column for a newspaper. In her situation, I'm betting we would have done the same thing.

I know I would.

That sums it up perfectly

Danica is more emotional then most drivers. She reminds me of myself.

I don't think what she did was any more dangerous then when NASCAR drivers walk onto the track or near it during yellow flag periods to throw their helmet at the driver who wrecked them or when they retaliate with their cars in pit road with crew members servicing the car or under high speed green flag conditions.

I'm willing to bet Danica's actions wouldn't have been decried if she's been born with an XY chromosome.

I'll admit thinking about whether or not her being female has something to do with her getting so emotional during races. But after thinking about it for a while I think the deal is some poeple wear their emotion on their sleeve.

When Tony Stewart or some other notoriously rough driver pulls something similiar he is seen as a badboy, but Danica is seen as a you know what.

From the ABC telecast she complained that the handling of her car didn't allow her to be fast enough to pass people. That tells me she is a very competitive driver, the fact that she wanted to have a car that was fast enough to pass people, not just to handle well. You have to pay attention to the details.

I don't know I'm trying to disect everything I can to pry insider her mind to figure out why she did what she did.

But it appears the simple answer is that she doesn't like getting taken out by stupid mistakes from a veteran. Sure she took out alot of cars in her rookie Indy 500 but she was a rookie.

----------

As for Marco Andretti he told the press to remember that his teammates flipped him over twice last year.

First off that's what you are suppose to let your teammates say. They, not you, are suppose to say no problem we're even. Not you.

Second, the comment sounds like he is somehow trying to give reason or relieve himself of guilt concerning the accident. Sorry, but wrecking a midpack car out of the Mid-Ohio 200 is nowhere near as bad as wrecking the fastest car in the Indy 500.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I'll admit thinking about whether or not her being female has something to do with her getting so emotional during races. But after thinking about it for a while I think the deal is some poeple wear their emotion on their sleeve.

I'm thinking down a slightly different line of thought: I'm willing to bet that if any other driver - with the exceptions of Katherine Legge, Milka Duno, etc. - did it, there wouldn't nearly be as much stuff on it. We've seen drivers stalk down pit lane before to confront another driver who they feel has wronged them; hell, in Formula One we've seen two drivers - Piquet and Salazar - decide not to wait until they were behind the safety barriers to settle their differences (though as it was before I was born, I obviously can't recollect the media attention).

The thing is, Danica is a woman. Ever since she joined the series, there's been a lot of attention focsed on her, and the majority of it negative. The difference might be slight, but the media has come down on her more than it has credited her. Yes, they gave her praise when she won at Motegi, but not a few of those self-same articles went looking for things - quotes from others, mostly - to downplay her achievement. I think a lot of the flak that's being aimed in her general direction isn't being sent that way because she's done something a little unsafe (however much the articles might say it), but because she is, in fact, a she. Yes, women can be more emotional, but if a man were poised to take a top-five finish in the Indy 500, I seriously doubt he'd say "C'est la vie". Danica is taking the heat for this because she's a woman. Briscoe was at fault in the incident, but they dwnplay that and make him out to be something of an almost-innocent bystander in the aftermath. The chances that he would have stayed in his car and shrugged it off if the situation had been reversed are not odds that I'd play.

 

[Earth]

Look at Robby Gordon did in this video. Look at what he does at :14. If that's not 100x more dangerous then what Danica did I don't know what is



If that was Danica Patrick what do you think they would say?

Any guy from NASCAR can do things like this and they look the other way

 

[prisonermonkeys]

If it were Patrick, I imagine they'd say it was that time of the month again, and use it to support the notion that women shouldn't be in motorsport. I remember one time in the V8 Supercars, Russell Ingall and Mark Skaife had a coming-together at Eastern Creek; Ingall kept going, but Skaife was out of the race. Skafe ignored safety rules and stayed within the boundaries of the racing circuit to have a go at Ingall on his next lap ... oddly enough, Ingall was penalised, and Skaife got away without punishment.

Danica, more than any othr driver, needs to win again, and soon. She's done it once, and that's great, but instinct is telling me that people would be a whole lot kinder to a woman with no wins in her career than a woman who only won once. Danica needs that second victory to clear her name, or it's like she'll be remembered more for her death march down pit lane than for being the first woman ever to win an international motorsports event. Immediately after her victory at Motegi, people were saying all sorts of things: that Helio Castronevers (I think it was him) let her through, that her victory was a product of luck rather than any strategy. If someone like Marco Andretti had won the race, there wouldn't be any of this, an I'm at a loss as to explain why ...

... But I do have a theory. This is one that I've been working on for a while, and it doesn't just apply to women in motorsport: womb envy. Women are tough. Women are stong. Women are able to bear and raise children, and they can often do it without a man's help. But for some reason, we've got this whole notion that half the population have come out the wrong way. Women are somehow weak and inferior because they are women. I've seen it everywhere, rife in popular culture: music, film, television and now sports. It's like the stories we used to hear of Chinese parents killing their baby if it were female because females wouldn't carry on the family name under the One Child Policy. It's almost if, at the very beginning of human history, a bunch of males got together and said "Alright, let's make hunting and gathering the awesomest achivements there are, and we'll make giving birth kind of weak and not-awesome" because they were jealous of the fact that women had a stength men never could have.

Danica has gone against the trend and won a race. But the womb envy mentality is really getting in the way of her efforts: the men are finding ways of downplaying her victory, and after her march down pit lane, they're finding ways of discrediting her as a racer because she's a real threat to their egos. I think her winning a race is to be lauded, and that one victory is far more impressive than whoever wins the overall championship (unless it's her).

But I still hope Danica continues to win. Maybe it's just what the motorsport world needs.

 

[RACECAR]

If it were Patrick, I imagine they'd say it was that time of the month again, and use it to support the notion that women shouldn't be in motorsport. I remember one time in the V8 Supercars, Russell Ingall and Mark Skaife had a coming-together at Eastern Creek; Ingall kept going, but Skaife was out of the race. Skafe ignored safety rules and stayed within the boundaries of the racing circuit to have a go at Ingall on his next lap ... oddly enough, Ingall was penalised, and Skaife got away without punishment.

Danica, more than any othr driver, needs to win again, and soon. She's done it once, and that's great, but instinct is telling me that people would be a whole lot kinder to a woman with no wins in her career than a woman who only won once. Danica needs that second victory to clear her name, or it's like she'll be remembered more for her death march down pit lane than for being the first woman ever to win an international motorsports event. Immediately after her victory at Motegi, people were saying all sorts of things: that Helio Castronevers (I think it was him) let her through, that her victory was a product of luck rather than any strategy. If someone like Marco Andretti had won the race, there wouldn't be any of this, an I'm at a loss as to explain why ...

... But I do have a theory. This is one that I've been working on for a while, and it doesn't just apply to women in motorsport: womb envy. Women are tough. Women are stong. Women are able to bear and raise children, and they can often do it without a man's help. But for some reason, we've got this whole notion that half the population have come out the wrong way. Women are somehow weak and inferior because they are women. I've seen it everywhere, rife in popular culture: music, film, television and now sports. It's like the stories we used to hear of Chinese parents killing their baby if it were female because females wouldn't carry on the family name under the One Child Policy. It's almost if, at the very beginning of human history, a bunch of males got together and said "Alright, let's make hunting and gathering the awesomest achivements there are, and we'll make giving birth kind of weak and not-awesome" because they were jealous of the fact that women had a stength men never could have.

Danica has gone against the trend and won a race. But the womb envy mentality is really getting in the way of her efforts: the men are finding ways of downplaying her victory, and after her march down pit lane, they're finding ways of discrediting her as a racer because she's a real threat to their egos. I think her winning a race is to be lauded, and that one victory is far more impressive than whoever wins the overall championship (unless it's her).

But I still hope Danica continues to win. Maybe it's just what the motorsport world needs.

I absolutely agree:tup: Because I haven't to see a male driver get the amount of negative attention she gets. It really irritates me. Obviously, It would appear by all this that woman are still not on equal ground with men and its quite damn sad.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

If a male driver gets negative attention, it's probably because he's an idiot. Danica Patrick obviously isn't one. While I hate agreeing with her, maybe Ashley Judd is right about Milka Duno: someone who deliberately drives ten miles an hour slower than anyone else (though I don't know if Duno is doing it deliberately for some reason or she's just terrible at setting the car up) shouldn't be there as they're dangerous; far moreso than someone who marches down pit lane. But Danica didn't do that. As I said, she just let her emotions get the better of her.

 

[RACECAR]

If a male driver gets negative attention, it's probably because he's an idiot. Danica Patrick obviously isn't one.

And thats what infuriates me. They make her out to be something she is not.

As I said, she just let her emotions get the better of her.

Thats true. If I'm not mistaken, she is still new so she has plenty of time to control her emotions.