NASCAR's Danica Patrick is a lightning rod for criticism, being the sport's only female driver in the Sprint Cup Series. She has also had very limited success in the Sprint Cup while still achieving a huge fanbase, which seems to ruffle the feathers of certain NASCAR stalwarts.
Richard and Kyle Petty, racing royalty, are clearly not fans of Patrick despite the backtracking they tend to do after their rough-around-the-edges remarks. Still, they aren't the only ones who have said ridiculous stuff about NASCAR's leading lady.
Robby Gordon on Danica Patrick's "unfair advantage" way back in 2005 during her Indy Car days.
"The lighter the car, the faster it goes," Gordon said. "Do the math. Put her in the car at her weight, then put me or Tony Stewart in the car at 200 pounds and our car is at least 100 pounds heavier. I won't race against her until the IRL does something to take that advantage away."
^That's all.
"If everybody else stayed home. "If she'd have been a male, nobody would ever know if she'd showed up at a racetrack...This is a female deal that's driving her. There's nothing wrong with that, because that's good PR for me. More fans come out, people are more interested in it. She has helped to draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport."
First of all, Danica has competed well in many of her races with the "big boys" in NASCAR. Second of all, fans are not attracted to subpar racers, nor do they care about them; if she was so horrible there would be very little PR buzz around her. She's been racing in the big show since 2012!
Kyle Petty, son of Richard, trying to differentiate between "drivers" and "racers":
"She's not a race car driver. There's a difference. The King always had that stupid saying, but it's true, 'Lots of drivers can drive fast, but very few drivers can race.' Danica has been the perfect example of somebody who can qualify better than what she runs. She can go fast, but she can't race."
Not only is it questionable whether or not Kyle Petty can race, check out his stats, the most important factor in racing is going fast. There's obviously a ton that goes into being successful as a NASCAR racer, but really if you can go just as fast as the top dogs then you're in good shape.
Danica put him in his place better than anyone else could though: "It was funny how (Petty) said that I could qualify, but I can't race, because those ... that actually watch what I do would know that I can't qualify for crap. In the race things go much better."
ShapingYouth.org criticizing Danica for participating in racy GoDaddy ads:
"It drives me crazy...She could have used her racing prowess and "breakthrough barriers" persona to elevate the collective knowledge in marketing female athletes to show and tell that it is NOT about bods, it's about capabilities, but alas...she has achieved the exact opposite in terms of the 'first glance' headline sports world."
Alright, kind of hard to hate on the message they are pushing. At the same time, it's silly to thrust the marketing of all female athletes on just one person, especially Patrick who has to deal with all the other dummies listed above.
Could she keep her clothes on and be more "respectable?" Sure. But she could also increase her Q rating, and build up a fanbase (over one million Twitter followers!) with these GoDaddy.com ads running every Super Bowl Sunday. If she wants that mantle she can take it. If she doesn't? Hey its a free country. Leave her alone.
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