LINCICOME: Patrick just Indy gimmick

By Bernie Lincicome, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 25, 2008 at 10:49 p.m.

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Jamie Squire / Getty Images

Danica Patrick, left, was clipped by Ryan Briscoe while trying to leave the pit area Sunday during the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500. The mishap disabled the car of Patrick, who finished 22nd in the race won by Scott Dixon.

The winner of the latest Indianapolis 500 was not Danica Patrick, although it sort of was. Never mind who it actually was. A guy from New Zealand, someone said.

Until Patrick wins the race, it will not matter much who does, and it is unclear to whom this is more important, the race itself or Patrick.

Ask anyone on the street about "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and the answer will most likely be Danica rather than Indy.

She has almost alone returned the 500 to a watchable place on the American sports calendar and her little snit after being bumped out of the race in the pits Sunday only adds to the growing fascination.

For a moment there, it looked like she was going to smack somebody in the mouth, until the tiny little woman was guided off the track by bulky security.

This was the most compelling television of the afternoon, with the race itself an incomprehensible blur of matching paint and odd noise, even the various crashes caught late if at all, usually on replay.

Not that the cameras strayed far from Patrick back there all day around 10th place as her onboard mike caught her frustrations and annoyance about not being able to go faster, but they missed the moment when it ended for her.

Leaving her pit stop, driving in her proper place, she was clipped by another driver, Ryan Briscoe, ruining her car's rear end and Patrick's day.

This sort of careless collision has caused grown men to whack each other around at racetracks before. Maybe the most memorable was between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, a fistfight at Daytona that is credited with establishing greater appeal for NASCAR.

Certainly, had Patrick actually found Briscoe and thrown a punch, it could not have hurt either auto racing or Patrick at all.

Last July 4, after a race in Milwaukee, Patrick did shove Dan Weldon because of a race incident. Ah, yes. Feisty and lovely. That doesn't hurt racing at all.

As has been tediously documented elsewhere, the Indianapolis 500 is no longer the greatest anything, if inarguably still a spectacle. There is no more tasteless, cluttered, loud, rude, self-interested, inhospitable place in sports. I'm surprised the French didn't think of this place first.

During the lost years of the dispute between Indy and CART, the place fought to remain a fascination, to collect the curious and the morbid, both for the same ticket price, and since Patrick showed up the fashion press as well.

The appeal of great speed and danger was not enough, and the thought of humans of any gender placed inches away from death for the amusement of witnesses and the ego of elders grew dull.

Part of the problem for "open-wheel racing" (can't have a fender bender if there are no fenders to bend) is that the part of the public that had elevated Indy into a special realm of sports, along with the Masters and Wimbledon and the women's Olympics gymnastics final, had generally lost interest.

Danica has brought it back, if for reasons other than the original attraction of cars crashing into hard walls.

Legendary names seem musty now, Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt and all those Unsers and Andrettis annually mixed into an exotic recipe that the public digested with its baked beans and coleslaw each Memorial Day.

And now the attraction void has been eagerly filled by Patrick, such an overpowering figure that what happens to her is of greater interest than who wins the race, though she was only in her fourth Indy and has won on the circuit only once.

Patrick's gender is no longer an issue, since in this race were two other women, Sarah Fisher and Milka Duno of Venezuela. Women are no longer scoffed at but allowed to risk their lives and the lives of others and to build the gate.

The first woman in the race, Janet Guthrie, took and retook the test to get entered and was discouraged all the while.

Now a trim body in eye shadow is the face of the place.

They did not even allow women to write about the race until 1974, and now the presence of Patrick is being hailed as if she were the pilot of Apollo 11.

Contemptuously, it seems to me, Patrick uses Indy and is being used in return as less an honest example of equality than a convenient gimmick for a place that needs all the feel-good press it can get.

Or a punch in the nose. Even better.

• May 26, 2008

  7:37 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  mafoppa writes:

  I would like to see Danica shove or march down to a pitt that has a woman driver or a woman pit crew member there. Someone that can shove or fight back. Then let's see how fiesty she is.....!!

• May 26, 2008

  10:44 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  R8R_H8R writes:

  Danica Patrick is a large-breasted Dog-n-Pony show. As a race fan, I am sick and tired of hearing about her. There were literally hundreds of men who had paid their dues, worked hard in lower ranks, that deserved an Indy Car ride far more than she did. She has shown time and time again that her ability is average at best. I can't imagine anybody tuning in to watch the Bimbo-Bobble-Head, but if they did, they aren't race fans at all, and will come and go quickly. I tuned in to watch the race specifically because the I.R.L. and Cart/Champ Car re-united. The two apart made for watered down mediocre competition not worthy of viewing. Hopefully the sport will build back up, but if it's under the pretense of tuning in to see a bimbo win, it will quickly collapse. Indy cars (Open Wheel) can not race close together, side by side, because if the tires rub, they wreck easily. The capability of the cars, the performance, especially of the Forumula One cars, is amazing. But the racing is awful. They get in a line, and stay in a line. If they dont, they wreck. The performance capability of the cars on the track at a Nascar track are not anywhere near what an open wheel car is, but the racing is Far Better because they can race in the straight away, and they can race through the corners. Front to back, cars are fighting for every position.

• May 27, 2008

  9:07 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Hawkins writes:

  I get that Danica's a bit overhyped (and not all that large breasted).

  But she's won a race, she's legit, and she's a competitor, not just there to be a feelgood story. I happen to find her temper a bit unsavory, but Sarah Fisher and Milka Duno are more "gimmicks" who only seem to race indy, than Danica.

  Simple fact is Indycar made rules to make sure Danica was held back, which should make the boys happy. Indycar's dying anyway and I'm sure Danica's temper will be welcome on NASCAR, where she and Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart can duke it out.

• May 29, 2008

  12:02 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Cwillyrun1 writes:

  Bernie, guess you need to get out from under that rock.

  Danica has publicly admitted if the media wants her attention and to expose her to the public as they do, she's willing since it means PR for Indy Racing. She's also said that the PR needs to go to all drivers in Indy, not just her.

  R8R_H8R........ as much as it must bother you, the owners actually make a choice of who they want in their cars. If they want Danica, so be it. And what's your expectations of who's deserving and who's not? Let me give you an example. Joey Logano, who just turned 18, is scheduled to drive in the Nationwide series on Saturday. It's rumored he'll be racing in Sprint Cup next year. Using your logic, shouldn't Gibbs Racing pull Jimmy Spencer out of the booth to drive the car, since he's paid his dues for years and this 18 year old kid hasn't done anything at the top levels yet? If her ability is average at best, then most of Indy Racing has drivers that are average at best.

  I like it that she's out there, she brings a different personality to racing and she's easy on the eyes, two qualities that don't hurt. Are you afraid female competition is sub-standard, and that only males should race in cars? Or is it just the idea that a female driver can't look good if she wants to be taken seriously?

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