Sunday, April 20, 2008

Patrick Is First Female Indy Car Winner

Danica Patrick became the woman to win an Indy event in the history of the race, edging out 5th season “Dancing with the Stars” winner, Helio Castroneves by 5.8594 seconds. Patrick said. “It was a fuel strategy race, but my team called it perfectly for me. I knew I was on the same strategy as Helio and when I passed him for the lead, I couldn’t believe it. This is fabulous.” It seems that Patrick was able to lead the pack after other front runners had to make pit stops for fuel.

The 26-year-old Patrick won in her 50th career IndyCar start, taking the lead from Castroneves on the 198th lap in the 200-lap race. At the 2005 Indy 500, she became the first female driver to lead the race en route to a fourth-place finish. It was the best finish by a woman at Indy, and helped her take rookie of the year honors. Patrick finished a career-best seventh in the season standings last year, and was second in the Indy race at Detroit’s Belle Isle.

5 comments:

The Rock Chick said...

I don't follow racing at all even though the hubby sits glued to NASCAR most weekends.

I'm glad to see that women are driving and that Danica actually won. One of my friends went to one of her races and they said the crowd was just crazy about her.

Good for her!

X. Dell said...

I see endorsements in her future.

I wonder if her insurance is less than that of the male drivers.

Malcolm said...

I was glad to see Danica finally break through. It's definitely great for the sport. Here is the link to an interesting article about Danica's win:

http://sports.yahoo.com/irl/news?slug=bm-patrick042008&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Malcolm said...

I see that you got Spammed by some blog called TV Digital. :-(

pjazzypar said...

RC, I am not really a racing fan per se, but I have been to the Grand Prix races in Detroit and Long Beach, California. I am excited because it is a great breakthrough for other women who have chose or will choose to pursue this sport in the future.

X.Dell, Yep the endorsements are going to follow and I got a feeling everyone is going to know who she is very soon.

Malcolm, I think Danica's win will be good for racing in general, but for up and coming female racers in particular. It reminds of the movie "Heart Like a Wheel", the story about the life story of Shirley Muldowney the first female top fuel racer. I know it's not the same kind of racing, but the win promotes girl power.

Yeah, I did get hit by the spam monster, in one of the romance languages no less.