Danica Patrick sitting on Pole at the 500

That first pit box has never been easy. She's doing fine. This race will be won or lost on the last two laps, probably the last lap. If she's still in that lead group she may get hung out to dry through inexperience. I hope not. Fabulous in car footage with the camera behind the drivers head. Really shows the steepness of the banking when your looking through the windscreen and have the dash as a level for reference. Fantastic!!!! :cheer:
 
This is brilliant. A while ago Jeff Gordan was well back in the field after leading early on. He's now worked his way back up to 6th. Danica has dropped back to 9th, was 10th, which wouldn't be a problem for experienced drivers but her learning curve will really start now. Somehow she has to figure out the best way to use the traffic around her to work her way to the front for the last few laps. Junior is brilliant at doing that. Capable of going from 15th or so to the win inside four or five laps. It's not a criticism of Danica but that would be beyond her this early in her NASCAR career. It would be huge for motorsport worldwide if she can do it though. :popcorn:
 
Under caution, 22 to go. Danica in 8th. They all have the same problem. They're racing in single file and are all too scared to pull out of the line to try a pass. As soon as they try they'll loose the draft and its like hitting a wall. They'll fall back and lose so many places. However soon they're going to have to try. The team owners all agree its about to get hairy. :o
 
No problem F1ang-o. She was fabulous all race. I'm sure she will have silenced the few critics that are left. Her greatest difficulty at Daytona and she'll have the same problem at Talladega, is finding a dance partner for the final lap. I said she needed to go with Earnheart but in fairness to her she couldn't. Earnheart chose Mark Martin, a far more experienced driver and ultimately she was left without a partner. It will be an ongoing problem for her until the other drivers are prepared to trust and partner her on that crucial last lap. Wonderful result anyway and hopefully other drivers will go with her in the future. :thumbsup:
 
Kewee I was just trying to show she had the aggression. While she couldn't touch wheels in IndyCar I'm pretty sure she spent a lot of time wishing she could. Tony Stewart came from IndyCar too and neither him or Danica have any problem going after people. I don't really think that makes much of a difference. I think its just kind of "Ooh I can bump people now? Sweet!"
 
Hi F1ang-o.......You quite possibly understand the finer points of drafting on the Super Speedways but just in case you don't I'll explain exactly what happened to Danica on that last lap.
Two cars will always go a lot faster than a car on its own. The reason and what happened. Earnheart was tucked in behind Danica which creates a huge vacuum which enables Danica to raise her speed which then allows Earnheart to get dragged alone behind her hence they both benefit. What happened next is what Earnheart is so good at, as was his father. He saw Mark Martin coming slightly quicker on the inside line and he wanted a push rather than feeding off Danica's drag, and he timed it perfectly. He moved out of Danica's slipstream and across in front of Mark Martin and at that point he went from having a drag from Danica to a push from Martin. It was absolutely seamless and worked perfectly for Earnheart and Mark Martin who could both then work together through to the finish. For those that understood what Earnheart did, it was beautiful to watch. Sadly for Danica as soon as Earnheart made his move she lost the vacuum behind her and she also wasn't close enough to the car she was following to pick up a drag and her momentum was gone. No fear for the future though. Her car owner, Tony Stewart may have got taken out early in this race but more often than not he's a front runner on the Super Speedways. If he had been there this time he would have worked with her. He's another master at drafting and he cares about her and will guide and teach her so we have a lot to look forward to. Cheers F1ang-o :)
 
Here's an interesting statistic. Danica Patrick was only 0.658 of a sec behind the winner, in fact the top 11 were within 1sec of the winner. Only in NASCAR and IRL on the US ovals do you see racing that close. I love F1 with a passion but there's an awful lot to love about the American scene also.
 
Having looked at all of Danica's performances over the years and judged most of her aspects, I would have to say, out of two, I would definitely give her one.

:whistle:
 
cider_and_toast......As I said on a previous posting, as a female the bar to measure her success has always been set somewhat higher than it is for the men. I don't hear criticism's of the scores of men she's consistently beaten during her career in IRL and I would suggest we will be able to say the same of her career in NASCAR if today is anything to go by.
I never have understood why some people feel the need to drag someone down rather than take pleasure in their achievements. :(
 

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