[luke]

Originally Posted by deejay

Because she's a woman competing well against men at the highest level in a male-dominated sport. Because she's good looking and charismatic. And because both those things make her interesting and marketable.

Sarah Fisher scored a 2nd place finish at Homestead in 2001. Better than what Danica has ever done as Danica is probably a 1/3rd or 2/3rds lighter than Sarah.

And IMO she isn't good looking. Here is what she looks like without the IRL marketing her the way they do getting her to pose in all the mens mags:

If she's such a non-entity, why do people keep starting threads about her?

Because the IRL even tries to expose all her hissy fits when she never wins. She believes her hype so when things don't go her way she stamps her feet in a huff or blames over drivers like Wheldon the 2005 champ and Indy 500 winner. No one has ever had any problem with him before.

To answer the initial question, I think she CAN win a race, and she could do it without others dropping out as well. She's shown this year she has the pace to run at the front consistently - and with a bit of luck she could get a win. Until he got a bit of luck at Indy this year Dario wasn't looking like much of a winner in IRL either. Danica has been steadily improving since being at AGR. Like has been pointed out, there will be plenty of chances for her to win over the next few years.

Dario has always been good this year. His worst was 7th among other top 3s before Indy. Danica won't win unless nearly the whole field has crashed out. She could have won Iowa but she kept on weaving at the restart when she should have lifted out but caused that 5 wide wreck but that was her arrogance again...

Saying she WILL win is obviously impossible. I mean, at this point it's unknown whether guys like Wheldon and Castroneves will even win again.

At that point that Wheldon and Castroneves will never win again? Castroneves won at St.Pete and should have won at Milwaukee but his rear wing failed and also he spun on a bump at Watkins Glen in the lead. If it wasn't for those dnfs he would be right up there.

Wheldon won a few races at the start and was dominant but at the moment he is having a bit of bad luck and a down patch but he will be back.

It's really beside the point though as she has clearly accomplished a hell of a lot as it is, and is already worthy of note.

She hasn't accomplished a hell of a lot. Until she wins Sarah Fisher still will have achieved a high scoring position than Danica. By that logic we can say Sarah has accomplished a hell of a lot more but that isn't true once again Danica's hype is so bad we have to keep tags on reality.

I'm not sure why people complain about the "hype" in this way though. I don't see a lot of (or any in fact) print out there claiming she is the best driver in the series or anything. People are just interested in her, that's all. This thread is yet more proof.

I complain about the hype because when she came 4th and lead only because she didn't pit and tried to run the race with low fuel she would never have won the Indy 500 as she didn't have enough fuel at the end. She was fastest for like 2 laps because the other leaders had pitted and fell down the pack and were heavier on fuel. I complain about the hype because for that one little burst she got featured everywhere yet Wheldon the winner didn't even get interviewed first or feature on the front of magazines etc, everything.

Sometimes I wonder if the series is called the Danicar series.