NationStates Jolt Archive

For the first time in 89 years, a woman held the lead lap @ the Indy 500, not just 1 lap, but 19, and went on to finish 4th, also a first in the history of the Indy 500. She was within reach of victory but low fuel made it impossible for her to hold the lead. This is so cool. Anyone who follows motorsports knows why this is a such a milestone.

Women have been champions in othe racing leagues, but not in something as high profile as the Indy 500... Danica Patrick is well on her way. Unlike most sports, racing is a completely level playing field where both men and women are totally equal to the task, no excuses acccepted. Big up to Danica Patrick for givng more proof that equality is fact and not politcal jargon.

She's also a rookie, I believe. That makes it even more of a big deal. Although, from all the media hype going into this race, you get the feeling that anything short of victory is going to be treated as a loss. :(

For the first time in 89 years, a woman held the lead lap @ the Indy 500, not just 1 lap, but 19, and went on to finish 4th, also a first in the history of the Indy 500. She was within reach of victory but low fuel made it impossible for her to hold the lead. This is so cool. Anyone who follows motorsports knows why this is a such a milestone.

Women have been champions in othe racing leagues, but not in something as high profile as the Indy 500... Danica Patrick is well on her way. Unlike most sports, racing is a completely level playing field where both men and women are totally equal to the task, no excuses acccepted. Big up to Danica Patrick for givng more proof that equality is fact and not politcal jargon.

she is cute too

She's also a rookie, I believe. That makes it even more of a big deal. Although, from all the media hype going into this race, you get the feeling that anything short of victory is going to be treated as a loss. :(
Yeah, she is a rookie. If the reaction of the fans and media @ the race when she took the lead is anything to go by, not taking 1st doesn't really matter. She's proven herself far better than hundreds of men who've raced @ the Indy. She's a contender and with this result nobody will be able to ignore that fact.

"TAKES FOURTH" is right. After she made a rookie mistake on a restart and took several contenders out of the running, then used that yellow flag to fuel out of sequence for huge track position and a gamble that paid off with yellow flag laps giving her enough fuel to hang on.

That said, she is an outstanding driver and will do well. But today she was a rookie and it showed. Her finish was out of proportion to her performance...

-Tom Steele

she is cute too

Aye, that she is. And she's young, too. 23. My age.

I was waiting for her to run out of gas today, that would have been classic, you have to admit that... She came darn close...

And she had 300,000 people on their feet when she took the lead and held onto it. Next year she will win the race I hope. I was so cheering for her to win.

wasn't the best part of the race when they kept turning the camera back to David Letterman, who seemed enthralled in the race, I was waiting for him to do one of his little quips from his show like "Hey kids" or something...

And she had 300,000 sheeple on their feet when she took the lead and held onto it. Next year she will win the race I hope. I was so cheering for her to win.

Whatever. She is a great racer, but it is sad to see the buy-in on the hype. If the media sells it hard enough, people will buy it.

All we will hear about is that she is the first woman to lead a lap. No one will mention that she took out several cars on a bad restart that allowed her to get where she did in the race.

To her credit, she said most of those things when they interviewed her after the race. For that, I like her in spite of the hype-machine that is going on around her. I'd be on your side if she had done any of those things based on merit today, and I'm sure she eventually will - but until then I'm just looking on with disgust at the sheeple (and women who THINK they have something to prove) buying into the hype.

(Ever heard of Shirley Muldowney? We already knew some women can race cars.)

-Tom Steele