The Official Danica Patrick Fan Site

Daytona - Summer 2012

Discuss the Daytona race here.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Daniel on July 8, 2012 at 1:07pm

Still a bit bummed for the outcome but she was being so awesome it's either negating it or amplifying it... I really can't decide. :-\ She sure does have a lot of fans tho... ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Damon on July 8, 2012 at 1:28pm

I'm glad he did or else I would've fallen asleep :)

Becky said:

On another topic...can Kurt Busch go from hero to goat any faster than he has this year. Not sure why he felt the need to go three wide at the point he did but I knew something bad was going to happen when he did it.

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Permalink Reply by Damon on July 8, 2012 at 1:38pm

Another thought on drafting though and the usual suspects who complain about how Danica runs the plate races and always point out that she pulls away from whoever is pushing her.

Just ask yourself this, how many times to do you see somebody get turned when they get a tap from behind in the two car tandem? It's quite a few. So if you can run solo up front, keep the speed up and not have to push somebody all around the track and avoid the chance they could be slow (see Jeffery Earnhardt) and possibly check/backup at some point (Timmy Hill) for whatever reason to impede your progress, by all means, do it.

If you don't, it'll end up badly.

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Permalink Reply by David Williams on July 9, 2012 at 12:54am

What if it is true that pulling away from whomever is pushing you will discourage other drivers from wanting to run tandem with you when it counts?

Damon said:

Another thought on drafting though and the usual suspects who complain about how Danica runs the plate races and always point out that she pulls away from whoever is pushing her.

Just ask yourself this, how many times to do you see somebody get turned when they get a tap from behind in the two car tandem? It's quite a few. So if you can run solo up front, keep the speed up and not have to push somebody all around the track and avoid the chance they could be slow (see Jeffery Earnhardt) and possibly check/backup at some point (Timmy Hill) for whatever reason to impede your progress, by all means, do it.

If you don't, it'll end up badly.

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Permalink Reply by DanicaPowerX on July 9, 2012 at 8:41am

Many drivers pulled away from her at Talladega. I don't really believe it discouraged her from wanting to draft with them.

David Williams said:

What if it is true that pulling away from whomever is pushing you will discourage other drivers from wanting to run tandem with you when it counts?

Damon said:

Another thought on drafting though and the usual suspects who complain about how Danica runs the plate races and always point out that she pulls away from whoever is pushing her.

Just ask yourself this, how many times to do you see somebody get turned when they get a tap from behind in the two car tandem? It's quite a few. So if you can run solo up front, keep the speed up and not have to push somebody all around the track and avoid the chance they could be slow (see Jeffery Earnhardt) and possibly check/backup at some point (Timmy Hill) for whatever reason to impede your progress, by all means, do it.

If you don't, it'll end up badly.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Weber on July 9, 2012 at 8:54am

Thank you DanicaPowerX, that's how I was looking at this. I wasn't listening to any in-car audio so my perceptions are just based on what I saw. At the last plate race she had trouble finding drafting partners. So this time, it looked like she was saying "scr@w that I'll do this on my own." She was reacting to a situation, not causing one. But there were plenty of other times where she *was* running with other people, quite successfully.

Sorry if someone has said this earlier and I missed it...basically, if everyone else was telling her to do something and she refused to do it, then that's on her. But I cannot justify blaming her for making the most of a situation that she didn't cause.

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Permalink Reply by Becky on July 9, 2012 at 10:08am

Actually, she ran the race the same way Dale Jr. or Tony Stewart would run it... Back when it was predominantly two car tandem neither of them were about finding a single partner. They just wanted to go with who it made sense to go with at the time. The way she was drafting on Friday was very reminiscent of Dale Jr...he wants to drive his race and not worry about a partner...that is one reason he hated the full-tandem racing (he hated being stuck with a single partner all day long no matter what).

Based on listening to her scanner the plan was for her and Cole to basically run their races and try to stay towards the front and when the race was on the line late in the race Danica and Cole were going to partner up but that obviously went away after Cole was involved in the big one. If she would have been up front in the final few laps she would have had a partner because she had a powerful car...

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Permalink Reply by Scott on July 9, 2012 at 5:46pm

I agree she ran exactly like Dale Jr would, sometimes perhaps to his detriment in these years with the tandem. When they have been on the track together in the past it has been amusing to listen to them have the same reactions to situations. They'll both say we don't need push here, the car is fast enough by itself at basically the same time.

If I could point to one mistake that was made it was not hooking up with Allgaier coming out of the caution after the big one where they were in the front row together after Danica had pushed him to the lead just ahead of the big one. That's a mistake by the spotter though and not Danica who would have hooked up with anyone that wasn't going to wreck her.I was listening to his scanner at the time in addition to Danica's and they were looking for a partner, but they assumed right away that Danica was going to try and hook up with Ricky so they never asked TJ. I thought TJ should gotten her hooked up with Allgaier considering at the time the Cup drivers were likely to leave him hanging too with their per-determined partners and team affiliations and Allgaier's driving a Chevy with a Hendrick engine like Danica. As the leader he could have pulled down in front of her and they could have gone right back to the front of the pack away from everybody. It didn't really seem to enter TJ's mind though either. And in the end TJ whiffed on finding her definite partner and that led to Danica getting shuffled far back into the pack and set up the rest of the night. Listening to TJ these last few years with both Danica and Dale, I have some doubts that brokering deals is one of his strengths.

Becky said:

The way she was drafting on Friday was very reminiscent of Dale Jr...he wants to drive his race and not worry about a partner...that is one reason he hated the full-tandem racing (he hated being stuck with a single partner all day long no matter what).

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Permalink Reply by Damon on July 9, 2012 at 5:56pm

Agreed, when I saw Austin Dillion was restarting behind Danica I knew she would get out front and get left behind by that cheater and that's what happened.

Of all the cars left, Allgaier was the safest choice after the Big One happened. The second thing is once Ricky dumped Brad Sweet and setup that next caution, Danica got stuck behind some slower cars and Tony Jr. wanted her to push whoever was in front of her (it wound up being Timmy Hill) when it reality she just needed to get past them.

Had they just let Danica race her way back through the field, maybe she gets past Hill and avoids the wreck.....maybe.

Scott said:

If I could point to one mistake that was made it was not hooking up with Allgaier coming out of the caution after the big one where they were in the front row together after Danica had pushed him to the lead just ahead of the big one. That's a mistake by the spotter though and not Danica who would have hooked up with anyone that wasn't going to wreck her.I was listening to his scanner at the time in addition to Danica's and they were looking for a partner, but they assumed right away that Danica was going to try and hook up with Ricky so they never asked TJ. I thought TJ should gotten her hooked up with Allgaier considering at the time the Cup drivers were likely to leave him hanging too with their per-determined partners and team affiliations and Allgaier's driving a Chevy with a Hendrick engine like Danica. As the leader he could have pulled down in front of her and they could have gone right back to the front of the pack away from everybody. It didn't really seem to enter TJ's mind though either. And in the end TJ whiffed on finding her definite partner and that led to Danica getting shuffled far back into the pack and set up the rest of the night. Listening to TJ these last few years with both Danica and Dale, I have some doubts that brokering deals is one of his strengths.

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Permalink Reply by David Williams on July 9, 2012 at 9:32pm

Of course not. She is the one who needs drafting partners, not them. But her pulling away from them may give them an excuse to avoid running tandem with her, something that in their gut they would prefer not to do. The first time Tony Stewart pushed her he was publicly accused of "kissing Danica's ass." I can imagine that in the privacy of the garages there is a lot of mutual muttering about being told to help Danica for the good of the sport.

DanicaPowerX said:

Many drivers pulled away from her at Talladega. I don't really believe it discouraged her from wanting to draft with them.

David Williams said:

What if it is true that pulling away from whomever is pushing you will discourage other drivers from wanting to run tandem with you when it counts?

Damon said:

Another thought on drafting though and the usual suspects who complain about how Danica runs the plate races and always point out that she pulls away from whoever is pushing her.

Just ask yourself this, how many times to do you see somebody get turned when they get a tap from behind in the two car tandem? It's quite a few. So if you can run solo up front, keep the speed up and not have to push somebody all around the track and avoid the chance they could be slow (see Jeffery Earnhardt) and possibly check/backup at some point (Timmy Hill) for whatever reason to impede your progress, by all means, do it.

If you don't, it'll end up badly.

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Permalink Reply by David Williams on July 9, 2012 at 9:38pm

Reading some of the usual nasty comments prompted me to post the following, which I thought might interest you all:

Except for crossovers from IndyCar, virtually everyone racing in NASCAR started in midgets and sprint cars and such like cars as that. They drove ovals, many of them on dirt, where they learned to drive a loose race car. It took them quite a while climbing the NASCAR ladder through all its rungs to develop the skills that allowed them to reach the level they’ve achieved.

It has been said that the difference between NASCAR and IndyCar racing is so great they are actually two different sports. Patrick came up in open wheel, racing on road and street courses. The first oval she ever raced on was her first ever race as a member of the highest level of IndyCar racing, in a full-size 650 hp Indy car. In her fourth ever race on an oval (or in an IndyCar), she qualified P2 and on the first turn of the first lap took the lead away from pole sitter Sam Hornish, Jr., and led for the first 18 laps, ran in the top five for virtually all the race, and finished 4th. In her next race, the 2005 Indy 500, her fifth ever race on an oval (or in an Indy car), she qualified P4, led 19 laps, becoming the first woman ever to lead the 500, and finished 4th. That year, her rookie year, she won the pole three times, tying a record set by Tomas Scheckter that still stands.

The point is this: what others learned as kids, in midgets or whatever, on small town tracks, over a period of years, Patrick is learning, in Nationwide and in Cup, on the highest level of NASCAR, in the full glare of worldwide television. Every aspect of her performance during the long learning process is being judged and criticized – and sneered at by those incapable of civil discourse – and that she has progressed as much as she has under that often hostile scrutiny is nothing short of remarkable. The criticism directed toward her can often be valid. The crude, virtually swinish way it is often expressed is something that I, as a NASCAR fan, find very offensive and an embarrassment to the sport.

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Permalink Reply by BudmaninTx on December 18, 2012 at 9:18pm

Responding to my on post of 07/07/12:

WOW, THIS IS KIND OF SCARY! CNN is reporting Adam Lanza lived in his mother's windowless basement.

BudmaninTx said:

Yes David. Most reside in the deepest darkest corner of their mothers' basements and only emerge after dark along with the other rodents. Danica is an easy target for their rage because they know she cannot and will not respond.

David Williams said:

Yes, I agree. I approach them more or less the same. My belief is that they are sick people, fill of rage and resentment, and if Danica and her context didn't exist, they would have to find someone or something else at which to direct their hatred.

DanicaFans said:

Usually it's futile, like trying to push a rope. But occasionally, some blogger will leave themselves wide open and I just can't resist. The key is to be polite to the point of nausea while hitting them with the hammer of facts.

I won't, however, get into an argument in a comments section. Those folks (all ten of them) are there because they share the same warped sense of reality and have somehow found each other like bugs at a zapper. It's easy to ignore them if you picture them at the keyboard in their underwear with belly buttons full of Cheetos crumbs and a greasy Playboy within reach.

David Williams said:

I would respond to more of the haters if I didn't have to sign up to some publication I don't want to receive endless emails from. For instance, there's a tweet down there right now with a link to Business Insider which says "Danica Patrick Crashes at Daytona Again, Blowing Chance for First NASCAR Win." That's about it. Just that bald statement, nothing to do with the facts.

Lisa Weber said:

DanicaFans you are my hero. That was a perfect response. I've forced myself to take a break from the forums and blogs so its fantastic when I get to read other people fighting the good fight.