Danica wins Daytona 500 pole -> we are DOMED!!!

[leonidas]

Pole is important because it gets you on TV! It delights your sponsor and means you can run season long...

Glass ceiling? When she's matched Michelle Mouton and come within a hair's breadth of winning a major world championship I'll be a bit more impressed.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Adam43

They actually fix the result? Isn't that illegal?

At the 1997 Formula 1 season finale, the two title contenders Schumacher and Villeneuve TIED in qualifying times! So did Frentzen...

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

At the 1997 Formula 1 season finale, the two title contenders Schumacher and Villeneuve TIED in qualifying times! So did Frentzen...

I believe you are confusing the concept of coincidence with fixing there.

Anyway, I wasn't being so serious. I'm fully aware of the perceptions of this kind of thing in motorsport. I should have made that more obvious. Merely commenting on the ease of the accusations. Not important here.

Originally Posted by Hamness

Certainly got media attention over here and had a slot on the main BBC News. " History was made today " was how the story started !

John Humphrys talked to Susie Stoddart about it. Never thought I'd hear Humph talk NASCAR.

[Knowlesy]

Why are people shocked that Danica got a pole at Daytona? She has a god car and it's a wide open track, she got a good push from the wind down the back straight supposedly. Hardly a massive conspiracy.

The race is what matters at Daytona.

[fieldodreams79]

^Exactly, it's not a shock or a conspiracy. Stewart Haas had 3 cars in the top 5 and Danica weighs at least 150 lbs less than Smoke and Newman, which made the difference.

Great story, honestly, but let's get the race started so this will be behind us and we can go back to talking about Danica on Ricky's.....

[Paradise City]

I have a couple of sets of ear-plugs in anticipation of the 500. My remote control has been cleaned with precision instruments - twice - just to be sure so that the mute button doesn't get stuck when I press it. And if there was a failure I even have a 'back-up' remote control that should handle any difficulties that may arise.

I'm ready.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Why are people shocked that Danica got a pole at Daytona? She has a god car and it's a wide open track, she got a good push from the wind down the back straight supposedly. Hardly a massive conspiracy.

The race is what matters at Daytona.

Clever people know a conspiracy when they see one.

Backwards in the race, yep. There are a lot of strong drivers out their and that often happens anyway, even with a man like Stewart.

[kiwi20]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

^Exactly, it's not a shock or a conspiracy. Stewart Haas had 3 cars in the top 5 and Danica weighs at least 150 lbs less than Smoke and Newman, which made the difference.

Great story, honestly, but let's get the race started so this will be behind us and we can go back to talking about Danica on Ricky's.....

According to BK. Less weight is actually a hindrance at Super Speedways.
Also Mark Martin prob doesn't weight much more than Danica why is this any different from when he gets pole.
We all know if she doesn't do well it will be cause she is hopeless but if she wins it it will be fixed. This has nothing to do with ability....

(This coming from someone who crews and owns car for female racers and knows how hard it can be for them to be accepted)

[Paradise City]

While I can't account for every Internet or online comment few are talking about it being fixed. People are opening threads saying 'betchya y'all think it's fixed' unleashing a hurricane of posters chipping in from their perch of reason and moderation criticising these fictional conspiracy theorists for even saying such a thing - but that's different. People are talking about how much they hate Danica alright and various white knights who have never watched NASCAR are saying 'layoff thegirl' and 'it's good publicity''. You sit through the torturous experience of non-stop Danicamania and then disagree with me

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by kiwi20

According to BK. Less weight is actually a hindrance at Super Speedways.
Also Mark Martin prob doesn't weight much more than Danica why is this any different from when he gets pole.
We all know if she doesn't do well it will be cause she is hopeless but if she wins it it will be fixed. This has nothing to do with ability....

(This coming from someone who crews and owns car for female racers and knows how hard it can be for them to be accepted)

Interesting insight on the weight issue but seeing that Mark Martin's time and speed resulted in the 28th fastest speed as opposed to Newman's 4th and Stewart's 5th, don't really see the point...sorry for the insulting joke.

[HJJ]

From "Bad Brad's" USA Today story from Friday..

When Danica (Patrick) gets in the car, I don't think, 'Oh there's that girl.' I think, 'Oh, there's that 30th-place driver.' That's the reality of it. People who talk to me about Danica and say, 'Man, you need to give her more of a chance.' No, you need to give her less of a chance. You need to treat her equally and think about those who never came even close to getting the opportunity she had."
Pretty good stuff. And today he's already had meetings w/Nascar and two France family members.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports...ascar/1937443/

http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/cu...t-down-sprint/

[FIRE]

He is right.

[Knowlesy]

But does that mean this was a fixed result? No.

Of course Danica should be on an equal playing field to everyone else.

[HornetV8]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Anytime Danica qualifies first it will be now referred to as 'sitting on Stenhouse'.

She can sit on my pole anytime....

Gibber aside, its brought some attention to the NASCAR world from other countries and hopefully may cause some people to tune in and see that its not all "going left" afterall (can only be a good thing if it brings in more fans)

[Paradise City]

Originally Posted by HornetV8

She can sit on my pole anytime....

Gibber aside, its brought some attention to the NASCAR world from other countries and hopefully may cause some people to tune in and see that its not all "going left" afterall (can only be a good thing if it brings in more fans)

Popularity ruins good sport. Alright, I want the sport to have a certain level of awareness but Danicamania without the performance is not needed.

[NaBUru38]

Well, she finished 8th and kept on the front bunch pretty much the whole race. This will get interesting.

[MJ_N_09]

^ Yep. The real tests for her will be...any track that is not an RP track and a road course. I do hope she does well simply so that all the media surrounding her will be justified.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Well, she finished 8th and kept on the front bunch pretty much the whole race. This will get interesting.

I would very much like to see Greg Biffle's times for the last 5 laps of the race, it looked to me that he just rolled out of it on the last lap and backed Patrick out of the results.
I find it absolutely incomprehensible, but that is what it looked like to me, and I would like to see his lap times for the last 5 laps.

[Adam43]

Well he was slower than others. You miss the draft, everyone else uses all their speed at the end. It is quite common someone loses touch in those situations. Someone thinking I so want to ruin another's race I wish to ruin mine too? That ain't so common.

[Knowlesy]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Well, she finished 8th and kept on the front bunch pretty much the whole race. This will get interesting.

40th place on the grid for Phoenix.

Must be a conspiracy.

[morninggents]

Not too much of a Danica fan and count myself amongst those who think she has been a driver with some talent but possibly a bit lucky to be where she is. Or I was until now. I was lucky to have been at Daytona for the 500 and she ran strongly the whole of the race - most of it in the top 5 and only shuffled back on the last lap, but she was not the only one to do that. She deserves to be there.

[NaBUru38]

Hey, there's something here going on that I don't understand

She bounced off the wall and into the path of David Ragan, who slammed into the driver side of Patrick’s car, ripping the door from the car body.

[gomick]

That was a hard lick she took there, she was doing what she had to do running on the lead lap - a pity her tyre blew...

[MJ_N_09]

She was running ahead of almost all the smaller teams, some multi car owned, except for Phoenix Racing. Also had only 2 S&Ps in the field with the rest of the DNFs being tire related crashes. Wasn't great, but not terrible either.