Why is IndyCar ignoring Danica Patrick?

Over the last two weeks when she was in NASCAR, all you heard about from the NASCAR people was Danica, Danica, Danica.

Patrick is at an IndyCar test in Alabama this week – it’s her regular, permanent employment as compared to her part-time stock car job – but you wouldn’t know it from the press releases.

Oh, it’s not that they’re ignoring her. She was quoted in one release Wednesday down around paragraph 15 or so.

But they’d rather tell you about Ryan Briscoe (who?) and Will Power (who?) and Helio Castroneves (okay, we know who he is) than Danica.

Which is indicative of the mindset in the open wheel community. They’d rather not risk browning off the other drivers by singling her out than by singing her praises – or failures – to the sky and yelling to the general population at large:

SHE’S HERE AND SHE’S OURS!

NASCAR has no such qualms. She was the only story in Daytona. Okay, Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500 but everybody knows who the real story was. And even though she got her butt kicked in California last weekend, they still talked about her most of the time.

And it’s because she’s a star and NASCAR knows it and IndyCar, for some curious reason, doesn’t.

By the way, in her first day of testing back in IndyCar, Danica stunk. Of 20 cars on the circuit at Barber Motorsports Park, she was 17th fastest, or third slowest, take your pick. She just beat rookie Simona de Silvestro, up from Formula Atlantic, and Sarah Fisher, who’s not bad turning left but can’t really count road-racing as one of her skills.

Having said that about Danica, she was only two seconds off the pace set by Briscoe. His time was 1:10:5052 as compared to her 1:12:5369, so it’s not exactly as if she’s out to lunch.

Meantime, Graham Rahal – one of IndyCar’s rising young stars who is not at Barber this week because he doesn’t have a ride – is now sufficiently discouraged that he told Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star that he has scheduled a meeting with NASCAR officials about employment over there.

Now, NASCAR might take a pass on paving the way into a car for Rahal, because it already has a good number of ex-open wheelers doing very well already, thank you (Sam Hornish Jr., A.J. Allmendinger).

But the fact that they’ve agreed to see him is worrying.

NASCAR is a big, dirty business and as well as working to put the best product possible on the track for race fans to enjoy, it will also do anything in its power to stamp out the competition.

That’s why it’s welcomed Danica with open arms. They are in the process of stealing IndyCar’s biggest star and IndyCar doesn’t seem to be too worried about it (see first paragraphs above).

(Can you imagine what would happen if Dale Earnhardt Jr. started musing about taking a crack at IndyCar? I can tell you right now it wouldn't get past the talking stage because NASCAR would do anything it had to do to keep him there. You can bet on that.)

If IndyCar wants to protect its heritage and traditions, not to mention its long-term financial prospects,  it would be in its best interests to get Graham Rahal (and Paul Tracy, by the way) into a car asap – even if it means having to write some team owner a cheque.

And to start reminding the world, regularly, that Danica Patrick is an Indy car driver.

Comments

[Damon]

Oh, it’s not that they’re ignoring her. She was quoted in one release Wednesday down around paragraph 15 or so.

But they’d rather tell you about Ryan Briscoe (who?) and Will Power (who?) and Helio Castroneves (okay, we know who he is) than Danica.

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That's because they're trying to build up the rest of these guys in the series for why you should care about Indycars instead of it being Danica and 19 Nobodies as it was in 2005 when several drivers complaining about how much attention she was getting, the way guys like Kyle Busch are now.

By the way, keep on an eye on the Nationwide TV ratings when she leaves though, because all the people who are sick of her have their chance to show ESPN that they aren't tuning in just to watch her, but to watch the race and that they ought to cover it that way. If the ratings are lower, then the fans/Nascar media will have nothing to complain about when Danica comes back and kicks the ratings back up and who knows, she might be coming back in June at Loudon as an Indy 500 winner, wouldn't Nascar just love that?

[Whinnie]

Only the IRL would think hiding the biggest name in US motor sports in a closet is a good idea. These guys somehow get more incompetent by the minute.

[allenparkpete]

Nice try Norris. Danica got the headlines in the IRL for years at the expense of the other drivers in the series. Ask Dan Wheldon what he thinks. If the IRL has to rely on some chick who is a 5th place racer at best on a good day for any type of exposure it pretty much seals the deal that the series should not even exist. NASCAR would promote a blind dog if it would improve their exposure but the phoniness of it all can only go so far.

I do agree on the Graham Rahal thing. I watched him in karts way back when. Yes, he is talented but much the same as Marco Andretti, there is a sense of entitlement there with those famous last names and if both had the last names Smith and Jones nobody would even know about them right now.

[t]

Maybe they'd rather talk about somebody who wins races. That's what it's all about, right? I may be out of the loop, but I believe she's won ONE race at this level in her entire career.

[exCARTRace fan]

I for one am so sick of Danica...So sick in fact, if a head line has her name on it..I don't read it...Norris, find some one else to write about PLEASE!!!

[Bill Taylor]

Danica Patrick is a manufactured star who has given little indication that she's the real deal. Her novelty value has passed for IndyCar and she's just another also-ran. To NASCAR and its fans she's still new, interesting and different. But unless she delivers the goods, that will pass too and they'll move on to the next bright, shiny object.

I'd like nothing better than to see a woman -- or, preferably, several women -- get into IndyCar and NASCAR racing and start naiingl some consistent top-three finishes. Danica Patrick has had her shot and has proved, I think, that she's not the one to do it.

[Ken Chevis]

Norris, while I agree that the IRL needs something (try major surgery) to brighten its' image in the racing world, I am not convinced that using Patrick as their poster driver is a positive step. First off, the IRL is a fourth- or fifth-rate racing series, falling behind the likes of Formula 1, NASCAR, the Australian Supercar, etc., and Patrick is a mid-level driving talent (as we have discussed previously). As a racing driver of some 55 years (albeit as an amateur), when watching events I inevitably examine driving talent (or lack of same). When examining Patrick, always in the context of a driver, but not as a driver with breasts, I see some competency and a few scattered flashes of brilliance. She would not survive in Formula 1 as she does not posses the talent of even recent GP2 graduates. As for NASCAR, Patrick might have a chance in one of the lower support series.
Ken Chevis