Sports Commentary
While several of NASCAR's best and brightest were strutting their stuff in Mexico, where Kyle Busch won yet again in the Nationwide Series, stock car racing was being upstaged, for once, by the Indy cars.
Danica Patrick waits to qualify for the Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 auto race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., Saturday, April 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)
Orlin Wagner, AP
LEXINGTON, OH - JULY 18: Danica Patrick drives the #7 Motorola Andretti Green Racing Dallara Honda during practice for the IRL IndyCar Series The Honda 200 on July 18, 2008 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. (Photo by Darrell Ingham/Getty Images)
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IndyCar driver Danica Patrick drives her Motorola Honda through a turn Friday, July 18, 2008 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, during practice for this weekend's Honda Indy 200. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar
AP
IndyCar driver Danica Patrick walks through the paddock to pit road for practice Friday, July 18, 2008 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, for this weekend's Honda Indy 200. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar
AP
Danica Patrick speaks at a press conference Friday, July 18, 2008 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, prior to practice for Sunday's Honda Indy 200. (AP Photo/Tom E. Puskar
AP
Forest Whitaker, right, and Danica Patrick present the best upset award at the ESPYs Awards on Wednesday July 16, 2008 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
AP
Indy car racer Danica Patrick arrives at the ESPYs Awards on Wednesday July 16, 2008 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
AP
Indy car racer Danica Patrick arrives at the ESPYs Awards on Wednesday July 16, 2008 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
AP
IRL race car driver Danica Patrick arrives on the red carpet at the 2008 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles, California July 16, 2008. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
IRL race car driver Danica Patrick arrives on the red carpet at the 2008 ESPY Awards in Los Angeles, California July 16, 2008. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (UNITED STATES)
Reuters
It's been awhile since that happened.
The embattled, but finally unified, Indy Racing League got a long awaited boost when Danica Patrick won for the first time. The first female Indy-car winner broke through in her 50th attempt.
NASCAR greatly benefited from the open-wheel split that lasted more than a decade. When it happened, in 1996, Indy cars were a potent, if already troubled, force in American motorsports. By the time the split finally ended this year, the long term decline in attendance and television ratings had relegated IRL and ChampCar alike into a once great, but trivialized, outpost of the sport.
So what happens next? Does Patrick's victory spur a long term restoration or just a short term boost? How does it affect NASCAR? Does a rise in open-wheel interest create a fall for NASCAR? Or is the health of motorsports overall beneficial for all parties?
There is no Danica Patrick on the NASCAR horizon. Women have occasionally competed but without notable success. NASCAR diversity efforts have been focused on ethnicity, not gender, in part because the modest success stories have mostly involved men.
This week, Patrick will enjoy the kind of acclaim normally reserved for a Daytona 500 or Indy 500 victor. Her victory occurs at almost a perfect time, leading into the tradition-filled month of May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Patrick was featured in a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue pictorial earlier this year. She is attractive, articulate and vitally concerned with her image. There won't be any reluctance on her part to capitalize on the attention.
If there is to be some torrid battle for attention, NASCAR also brings considerable firepower to the front lines. The next five weeks feature races likely to create excitement: perilous Talladega, roughhousing Richmond, tradition-rich Darlington, and then the two contrasting races, the rock-'em, sock-'em Sprint All-Star Race and the prolonged Coca-Cola 600, at Lowe's Motor Speedway. NASCAR's longest race falls on the same day as the IRL's most important, the Indianapolis 500. In recent years, television viewers have often preferred "the 600" to "the 500."
Tony Stewart is a two-time Cup champion, but he won the IRL title in 1997 and has twice competed in both Memorial Day weekend races on the same day. While Stewart's commitment to NASCAR has grown over the years, his concern for the plight of Indy cars remains. If the IRL hadn't declined, Stewart might have never left.
Melanie Troxel becomes the first female driver to qualify No. 1 in NHRA Funny Car history during an incredible final qualifying session. Troxel topped 325 mph in her ProCare Rx Dodge Charger to accomplish the feat.
Auto Imagery Inc., AP
Troxel, pictured here at an ESPN event in 2006, isn't the only talented female driver making her presence felt in the racing world. Click through to see some of the other women known for their prowess on the track.
M. Phillips, WireImage.com
Chrissy Wallace is well known for being a member of the Wallace Racing Family, but the 20-year-old also made her own mark with a promising debut in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last March.
Mark Humphrey, AP
Ashley Force, another driver who has made NHRA history before, follows in the great drag racing legacy of her father, 14-time NHRA Funny Car division champion John Force.
Jose Carlos Fajardo, Contra Costa Times/MCT
Former IndyCar Rookie of the Year winner Danica Patrick has made a big impact on her circuit, winning the Indy Japan 300 in her 50th career start.
Thomas Concordia, WireImage.com
Indy Racing League's Milka Duno holds the record of highest finish for a female driver in the 24 Hours of Daytona (a second-place finish in 2007), despite not beginning her racing career until the age of 24.
Gustavo Caballero, Getty Images
Sarah Fisher competes in the IndyCar Series and is best known for being the youngest women to ever compete in the Indianapolis 500. She also became the first woman to win a pole for a major-league open-wheel race at Kentucky Speedway in 2002.
Gavin Lawrence, Getty Images
Hillary Will is an accomplished racer in the Top Fuel Dragster category. In a qualifying run last February, the 27-year-old became the fastest female driver in the history of NHRA drag racing with a lap of 334.65 mph down the
quarter-mile.
Mark J. Rebilas, US Presswire
Angelle Sampey is an American Pro Stock Motorcycle racer who has won the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship three times (2000-2002). Since her debut in 1996, she has earned over 40 event victories.
Mark J. Rebilas, US Presswire
Erin Crocker ran a select number of ARCA Series events in 2007, and clinched the Hoosier Tire Superspeedway Challenge Championship last October, becoming the first female driver in the 55-year history of the ARCA RE/MAX Series to earn the prestigious award.
Mark J. Rebilas, US Presswire
"I'm afraid, in all reality, it's hard to get sponsorship over there, and I think that's a big issue," Stewart said recently. "I don't think drivers are going to necessarily have the opportunities that they had when the IRL first started. It kind of weaned itself away from that, anyway, and it got to where just the financial side was too difficult. For (IRL) owners to get sponsors, too often they need a driver to come along and bring sponsorship dollars that give them an opportunity to get a ride.
"What the IRL was designed for in the first place was to get away from that and give opportunities to guys who didn't have multimillion-dollar partners and sponsors to help out. I don't know if it's ever going to get to that stage again. That's what the IRL was intended to do from the get-go, and it worked for a little while, but it still goes back to car owners having to rely on that sponsorship money to make it work."
How does Patrick's breakthrough affect the image of the IRL in the marketplace? It helps, but how much?
What makes this situation even testier is the fact that the economy is down a cylinder and struggling to find more horsepower. The economic engine drives race cars as much as the drivers. NASCAR attendance is down. Even a fan watching on TV can see it despite all the efforts by Fox and ESPN to shoot the action in a way that hides empty seats.
But, to borrow the lingo of journalists, only time will tell whether the Danica story "has legs." The 26-year-old female driver is going to be "the rage." What isn't known yet is whether she is going to be a savior.
MEANWHILE, IN MEXICO ...
-- Kyle Busch has won in all three of NASCAR's "major touring series" (Sprint Cup, Nationwide, Craftsman Truck), captured three Nationwide Series in a row and won on almost every kind of track.
-- The hottest item out of the Mexico City race was a bitter dispute, on track and off, between Australian driver Marcos Ambrose, who wound up finishing second, and Boris Said. Ambrose apologized for taking Said's car out. Said, uh, said he wasn't going to get mad but let everyone within earshot know he planned on getting even. He reportedly apologized to Ambrose's crew for "the car they're going to lose later on." One would think NASCAR officials would be troubled by Said's words. How troubled? The weekly penalties and assessments usually are announced at midweek.
-- Busch is third in Nationwide points and second in Sprint Cup points. He is starting to hedge a bit about giving the Nationwide championship a shot. He hadn't planned on running every race. "I'm not going to let anything out of the bag just yet," he said.
-- The top five drivers in the Nationwide Series points are also Sprint Cup drivers. The top three -- Clint Bowyer leads Carl Edwards by nine points and Busch by 66 -- all finished in the top six at Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
-- Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Bowyer, Edwards, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, David Ragan, David Reutimann, Greg Biffle, Reed Sorenson, Patrick Carpentier and Dario Franchitti all will attempt to compete in both races, Cup and Nationwide, scheduled for Talladega this weekend.
DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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DAYTONA BEACH, FL - FEBRUARY 15: Singer Keith Urban performs during pre-race prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 15, 2009 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
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