For all the media attention, pressure, and expectations that has been dealt to the IRL’s Danica Patrick, female, she perservered and silenced the critics over the weekend in Japan.
Or did she?
Now, anybody this side of Tony Stewart would call a win a win. But, in my estimation, there are a few extenuating circumstances surrounding Patrick’s first trophy ceremony (look at the size of tha thing) that, in some people’s eyes, may taint the accomplishment.
Let’s look at a few:
It was the last race before the reunification of IRL and Champ Car. Champ Car, formerly CART, filed a lawsuit in 1996 against Indy Motor Speedway owner Tony George after his decision to all but exclude Champ Car drivers from the Indy 500, effectively making them a second-tier racing circuit. The bad blood continued for more than a decade, and only recently have the two sides come to terms on a merger which begins, coincidentally, next week. So Danica’s win came at the last possible moment before the field of world-class drivers was doubled. No one here is calling the win questionable… just a little convenient timely.
It was a fuel-mileage race. By her own admission, she did not have the fastest car in the race, nor did she out-drive any other racer for the victory. Rather, she–with the help of her crew chief–chose a bold and risky strategy to not pit for fuel, but rather drive the last leg of the race conservatively and hope her existing fuel tank would last. This is by no means a new strategy in any racing series (see NASCAR’s Stewart at Kansas in 2007 and Jimmie Johnson 3 weeks ago at Phoenix), it may, to some however, lessen the accomplishment.
The race was held in Japan. For all the dough Motorola and Andretti-Green Racing dropped to have the biggest name in IRL under contract, the winner’s circle interview was done on an island across the Pacific, in the middle of the night. Yes, it made headlines all across the racing world, but when you bankroll a risky driver with unlimited media potential, you want that first win to come on national TV in primetime. So maybe that doesn’t mean anything less to Patrick, but for sales of the RAZR, it might. Also, this the ONLY Indy Racing League event outside the US.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to take anything away from the accomplishment itself. But let’s be thorough here and all understand that this was by no means a dominant performance that established any kind of credibility that she’ll contend for a championship any time in the future. Congratulations Danica. Now we’ll see how it goes with a full lineup at Indy.
