Glad for Danica Patrick... waiting for this day for a long time, but why no press or TV coverage about the other girl driver..Florida 's own #70 Long... she will be making a record at the 500 tomorrow, the youngest female race car driver in a national series. the coverage on her is non existant! Why this ?

Why is this your first NASCAR that you are covering? And also, although I think Danica is great, a great driver and gorgeous too, isn't it a little old to be making the point that women can drive? The "woman driver" jokes that I used to hear when I was a kid are long gone.
Women can do anything that men can do. If they want to, of course. Boxing, driving trucks, pumping gas, being a soldier, etc. it's old news.

y opinion is that she is a media darling, at least in part due to her appearance, which is pleasant! I have yet to see the consistent talent that makes her a RACER! She gets the amount of "press" that she gets more for her appearance than for her driving skill or her winning ways! Time will tell, NASCAR has throttled the aggression of their drivers to such a degree that it could be mild enough for a "less tough" driver. I don't believe that she would have been able to make it in the "rubbin' is racin'" era!

Congrats to Danica, I wish her as much luck in the race !

Love Danica, wish her safe victory; she is our modern goddess Nike of speed and victory.

Nascar? Are you serious. Of course woman can compete with driving circles around some track. Can woman compete in Formula 1: Not a chance. Can woman compete with male tennis or boxing: Not a chance. But with something as laughableas Nascar an 80+ year old could still win i can gauranthee it. Pedal to the mettal + Some healthy Common sense + Practise makes perfect. Finally add some good luck and you will be able to win an event. With Formula 1 you even see someone as legendary as Micheal Schumacher who is a bit older then most of his competitors is no longer able to finish at the top.Same for cycling or other extremely intense sports. Nascar should count as a sport as much as sleeping does.

Henk

Get a life

Why do women want to do everything men do? Do they wanna be men that much or do they simply admire us too much?

In a way I do agree...Women can be as good as men... with less bulk But there are limits.... No I donot compare women with men... that would be stupid. F1 compared to NASCAR is stupid by itself as is football compared to flying an F-18.... So what´s the point of arguing... as long as we reach our best.. it´s okay with me... Good luck Danica.... Donah..//

One win in her entire career, over three years ago. This lady gets too much attention for being...eye candy...not for her racing abilities. Her 15 minutes was up a long time ago, but the media keeps fueling the fire.

Really, cause she's female and over-corrected right into the wall?

I do find it interesting that her own teammate bumped her though- hell, he could have tried that before getting into the car.

Can woman drive just as good as men? Yes. Women can drive – and for those dont believe – get over it, its 2012. However, the question is – Can Danica drive? Well, yes – if alone on the track. She does not do well in traffic, never has, probably never will. She is great, if in her own "lane".

I think what people don't realize about Danica is that she's a competitor. Yes, she's got the looks, and yes to a certain extent she's the Anna Kournikova of racing in that she gets far more attention than her achievements warrant because she's attractive. But that's not her fault and who can blame her for exploiting the opportunities she gets. On the flip side when you see her interviewed it's clear that she's in it to win it as much as any male driver and it's that attitude that should set the standard for the public's opinion of her. Don't hate her because she's beautiful.

I am a liberal woman who will root for women anytime. I flew planes when few women did but guess what ? It is nice to have these testosterone hormones when competing in NASCAR. I see it as an old boy sport. The reality that Danika is doing well there proves me wrong. The spirit can evidently win over these damn hormones ! Go girl !

I find it so funny that everyone is just now "questioning" the abilities of women in motorsports. NHRA has had women regularly competing and winning for over 40 years and are more than welcomed by us competitors! I've competed in the upper levels of drag racing for just about 30 years and I can tell you, there is NO difference! Actually in the NHRA Pro Stock class speed record is currently held by Erica Enders, a girl barely in her 30's. These cars are VERY hard to DRIVE and the class is super competitive. The national speed record? Yup, try 213 mph which she set nearly 1 year ago is. That's right, ZERO to 213 mph in about 6.5 seconds. All with her whipping a 5 speed and steering at the same time! Imagine that all you sofa racers!! Yes, this is you impulse60, Henk or anyone else who is clueless...This kind of horsepower makes a car go everyway BUT straight! You can tout your crap that NASCAR, drag racing, or other forms of racing is easy because it isn't F1 or whatever....But know this zippy, NO racecar in ANY form of motorsport is "easy" to drive. If you do think that, you're obviously on the spectator's side of the fence and are too scared to strap into one to find out how "easy" it really is!

My daughter at the age of three has always wanted to race and she works as hard as any other racer on the track. Yes she does get the attention of being "that girl" but when she straps on her helmet she is just like the rest of them. A driver who wants to win.
Go Molly!

She needs to stop crying (literally tears streaming down her face) so much. Racing is an aggressive sport and no one is going to "let" you pass them in traffic, you have to look for an opportunity and take that next position towards the lead.

I watched her ball on network TV (in tears) after a race last year because "no one would let me pass them". Boo hoo. No one "lets" anyone pass them. That's the whole idea!

She'll never be taken seriously until she starts acting more mature and drives as aggressively as the sport demands you to. Til then she's just a woman driving in nascar, which is kind of a big deal, but she's not a serious competitor. She's just driving in circles behind the rest of the drivers.

Let's see...she started kart racing 20 years ago at age 10. At age 16 she moved to England and raced for 3 years in Formula Ford, Formula Vauxhall and earned a second-place in Britain's Formula Ford Festival. Since then has worked her way up the sport. There are plenty of male drivers that no one remembers who never attained as much in 20 years. They did not give her anything. She can go another 20 years and get better (like many of her male counter-parts). Which one of you couch potatoes can claim any thing remotely like that? I bet she beat a lot of little boys at age 10. She can do it at age 30.

A woman in any business should be given due credit exactly like a man would be. Any discrimination, positive or negative, based on gender or anything else for that matter should be unacceptable. That said, let's face it that motorsports is a male-dominated world -as is the world in general, realistically speaking- and women have yet to go a long way before being taken as serious contenders in this field. There are a few brilliant moments here and there, as BiggieSmalls has probably correctly mentioned (I couldn’t care less about drag racing) but surely men have a few records of their own to brag about and not just in sports. So I won’t be dragged into that debate. And yes, I still remain sceptical of women's driving capabilities. By the way, this male-dominance is exactly the reason MrCrabs, that there are plenty of male drivers that no one remembers but equally mediocre achievements of female drivers are blown out of proportion. Too bad pal, you started off being illogical and ended up giving away your immaturity.

We have several Local women who are standout drivers in their respective sports. Brianne Corn was named an SCCA driver of the year last year. She won the OPEN class in 4wd Time Attack class at the Pikes Peak Hill climb. She then went on to win the SCCA Solo B-Modified class at SCCA Solo nationals. There is no reason whatsoever that a woman that decides that she enjoys racing cars and puts the time in to do well can't do as well as a man on equal equipment.

Get A Life Henk

Patrick started in kart racing and later raced Formula Ford in England before returning to the United States and moving up to IndyCars. She was named the Rookie of the Year for both the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and the 2005 IndyCar Series season. She holds the IRL record for most consecutive races running at the finish: as of October 2, 2011, she had completed 50 consecutive in the running (besting the record by 18).;'