The Big W

Sherman, set the WABAC machine to 2005, when Danica Patrick stomped the gas and stormed to lead late in the Indianapolis 500. After having her lead threatened by Dan Wheldon with a handful of laps to go, Danica hit the overtake button to defend her lead as hundreds of thousands erupted in cheering at IMS, as did millions of others watching on TV worldwide. Danica became Danica!.

But despite the ensuing years of publicity, the dream seemed to have ended there. Her crew told her she was low on fuel and she had to let others pass and finish in fourth. Observant fans soured on her ability, pointing out that she benefited from being one of the few drivers to have Honda power that year. Another 45 races would pass, each one bringing more sneers towards this unabashed and self-promoting girl and further embarrassment for IndyCar fans who had to endure the ribbing that our sport’s most popular driver was a winless farce.

Her arrival in 2005 was supposed to be a great moral victory, the culmination of the quest for gender equality in racing initiated by Janet Guthrie. But moral victories always show up in the loss column, and despite the best attempts of Danica!, Lyn St James and Sarah Fisher the girls just couldn’t score the win. That is until this weekend when the Big “W” – the real victory, moral and otherwise – finally arrived, giving frenzied media types reason to waste time asking Danica! when she’s going to win again.

Unfortunately this monumental occasion has been met with resistance by those who say this win doesn’t count because it was based on fuel strategy. Weak. I guess Dario Franchitti has to give back his 2007 hardware since his two biggest wins were claimed on fuel conservation and weather strategy. Anything less than the fastest car and you might as well go home, right? (I’m looking at you Bob Margolis and Gregg Doyel, and I’m sending the Diecast Dude over to knock some sense into you.)

There are many ways to win a race, and the best a driver can do is put himself or herself into a position to utilize any of them. A lot of that starts before the race in trying to be with the best possible team, a lot of it rests in the hands of engineers and pit crew members, and a lot of it is up to chance. Those are all parts of racing – heck, any sport – and to count any of them as reflecting negatively towards a driver is simply ignorant. Or in this case sexist, but frankly I don’t really want to go there.

Look, you don’t have to be Danica!’s biggest fan to know how much her success means to open-wheel racing, and as such it makes no sense to try to diminish her victory with absurdities like saying the other drivers let her win or it doesn’t count if she wins on fuel strategy. She won, legitimately, against the best in the league, period. So for all of those who are trying to find a way to diminish this historic victory, take a breath and step back from the bitterness. Just because you would rather watch Helio climb a fence or Dan Wheldon spin some donuts doesn’t mean this win needs to be downplayed.

People don’t watch races to see cancer cured; they want to live vicariously, feel the visceral thrill, and maybe even find a hero in an increasingly cynical world. And in this context that petite brunette who doubles as a swimsuit exhibitionist fits the bill. Think of the women who carry a chip on their shoulder in the workplace. Think of the hormonally charged boys (regardless of age). Think of the young girls who want to compete with the other gender. Think of people who want to see something different in sports. Think of the folks who cheer exclusively for Americans. Think of Todd Harris.

All of these people find themselves watching races, buying tickets and scooping up Patrick’s merchandise not because of what she has done but because they of what they want her to do. And for them, the millions of Fanicas, their driver finally won. And you know what else? OUR driver won, because like or not among non-race fans Danica! is the most prominent face of this series, and her victory on Sunday just helped that face go from “farce” to simply “over-hyped”.

Just yesterday your humble host was driving in to work and listening to a local morning show host enthusiastically babble about – you guessed it – Danica Patrick. Nothing like hearing how in the closing laps “Danica took the pole” (Hello!) from “Helio Castro-novus”. Ah, well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?

Color her overrated if you want, but name a sport that doesn’t have an overrated superstar. (*cough* Dale Junior *cough*) Hype is all around, and yes the Danica! promotion is only going to grow even more monstrous from here. But the AGR driver has finally fulfilled her promise, and in doing so she’s lifted the monkey not just off her back, but also off the backs of her fans as well as fans of the entire sport.