When have you ever seen Danica initiate a wreck? It hasn't happened this year. I know that doesn't absolve her of any blame, but people seem to love running over her. There are much worse drivers. Kyle Busch wrecked himself at Vegas. Of course Peblo is a bumbling idiot who always wrecks himself pretty much anytime he's out there (even during practice). Even Jimmie wrecked by himself in practice.

I wouldn't mind an example of a time Danica has done this. If anything I would describe her as too patient of a driver and that hurts her results too.

 

As Alan Kulwicki once said, "First you learn to drive fast, then you learn to drive fast in traffic, then you learn how to do it for 500 miles." I think Danica is in the "learn to drive fast in traffic" phase. Danica is fast in practice, fast in qualifying, and ends up 4 laps down in a race.

Now although she hasn't caused many wrekcs (I don't feell ike searching replays, so I'll just shoot from the hip), she has been at least partially at fault in a hand full. And in things that weren't even necessarily her fault, there were things she could have done differnetly. That incident at Daytona, for instance... not her fault, but Kyle Busch and several other guys would have never let that car get away form them and into a wall.

She just hasn't mastered this pack racing yet. Indy is more about race the track first, then the next guy. NASCAR is more about race the next guy and let the track just sort of fall into place. This is a hard switch for anyone, one Stewart struggled with in Nationwide yet ran through Cup pretty easily.


I think Danica PAtrick will win a few Nationwide races, possibily even one before teh end of the year. (Hey, if Elliott Sadler can win one, it's possible.) She may even win a cup race before her career is out. However, I do'nt see her contending for a Chase or a Championship on the cup level in her career either.

 

that would be funny to have members drunk dialing you

 

Posting drunk is funnier cause everyone gets to read it and it is on record. I even amuse myself with it the next day when I come online and start reading all the crap that I posted and have absolutely no recollection of. One time I was posting about 3 Stooges which is totally retarded as I do not like 3 Stooges or know a thing about them. Luckily, I have never gotten belligerent drunk on the forum before, but there's a first for everything!

 

Are you kidding? For starters, she never did hit the wall. She totally threaded the eye of the needle in that wreck going through the grass and the annoucers even said so. She was in pretty good company in that wreck too. Jimmie shot up suddenly in front while she was going through a hole and I don't think Kyle or anyone in the car/space/moment was getting out of that one.

Review again here: Danica Patrick Jimmie Johnson 2012 Daytona 500 Crash - YouTube

But I agree with your general point that she isn't exactly great at saving these things. When Cole Whitt double bumped her in the corner that would not likely have been the re-action of the pros. Same with the wreck in the Duels when Almirola got into her - everyone else seemed to keep it off the wall.
But I think a lot of this happens because no one respects her. They wouldn't run over Mark Martin like this. Well... maybe Junior would!

 

No, I'm not kidding you and I will stand behind my statements.

I wasn't really thinking about that Daytona 500 crash... I was thinking about this one.

[HD] Danica Patrick Pissed Off - NASCAR Nationwide Daytona Crash 02-25-2012 - YouTube

Kyle Busch would not have crashed that car. The thing in the Duels... not exactly her fault.


The Daytona 500... "threading that needle" was more luck than anything, she was out of control by the time she threaded the needle. But since you bring it up, Brent, and since you insist on "LEt's review the clip"... well, lets look at that clip and cehck out what in my opinion was the blatently obvious that Fox didn't catch, or ignored, I'm not sure which.


And I am certain that Fox is doing the best they can, but Danica is at fault for having to thread that needle anyway. She drove into the left of that 34 car, that got her tuned towards the wall and heading at Jimmie Johnson anyway... the 34 was about to miss that accident. About 25-30 other drivers got through that car without getting anyone else involved. Danica messed up.


Once again, I stand behind my statement.... Danica Patrick can not drive fast in traffic, although she is learning.

To a certain extent, she may be one of those "snake bite" drivers. Ryan Newman, Juan Montoya, and quite frankly, Trevor Bayne (won one Daytona 500, has wrecked in every other Daytona-Talladega race he was in ), who just cannot seem to get through a lot of these races without crashing. They hit jet dryers. They end up on their roof.s They get caught up in accidents that aren't really their fault, but they could still have avoided them. It's just how it is. And Danica is one of these drivers who still has much to learn of how to get through traffic.

Fox wanted to make Danica sound as good as they could. But had she stayedo n the brakes, stayed the course, she woudl have gotten an opening to the left and been in the race longer.


But this is all just a game of arm chair racing.... could I have done better? No. But I'm not paid to do better either. My job is to sit back and criticize people whom I have never done their job. And I'm pretty good at it.

 

The 34 was racing against that yellow line like it was a wall! And steering her right into Jimmy. That contact is definately where she lost control, but Ragan had a lot of room and she did not. I agree that no one really has control when going through the grass like that, but she kept the car moving relatively straight (not spinning like the others) so she was doing something right.

Everyone - even the haters - always have so much to say about Danica. That is good business for everyone in racing.

 

Camera doesn't show us how much before that shot that Ragan was following the yellow line... but there was a silver car going under him and grass coming up so maybe he figured he needed to stay up to let a car go by on his left. Maybe considering how much Ragan has been attacked over the years by NASCAR for switching lanes, maybe he figured if he passed Jimmie below the line that he would get to lose a lap or something.

He could have been lower, I agree. But even if you do that, you justify one of about 10-15 crashes Patrick has had in two years.

Could I do better? Probably not. But then, you have to look at which stage she is in... "Learn to drive fast in traffic."


Side note: Your hero Benny Gordon is 1 point and 2 positions ahead of her in points as of this post!

 

Ragan and everyone else! (except Pyle Buschit who stole a truck race from Almirola racing down there). And Nascar is right off their rocker making calls now. Ragan was probably understandably afraid he'd get a $100,000 fine and a six week suspension if he went below the yellow line!

Poor Benny took a pretty good lick in that last one. The good news is that he finally got a little camera time!

 

Pyle Busch just isn't running like I would like to see him run right now. Good ,but not great. I suspect he will be strong, but he has a monkey on his shoulder with bad luck right now. Greg Biffle has good stats here. Biffle was fast in practice and set the pole. Edwards was fastest in 1st practice, and qualified 8th. Those are good pit boxes!!!

1) Greg Biffle
2) Greg Biffle
3) AJ Allmendinger

YEE HAAAA



Matt Kenseth fans beware: Brian Vickers is starting htis race.

I guess that means everyone should beware.