DANICA PATRICK

GUEST EDITORIAL

Your sports reporter's hatchet job on race-driver Danica Patrick has the makings of a political attack ad on steroids, and needs to be answered. One would expect that such an attack would have at least some truth to it, but it doesn't.

Let's examine the facts: He says Danica "has never won," and "can't win," yet she actually is the first woman to win an Indy-car race, the 2008 Indy 300. She placed third in the 2009 Indy 500, the highest finish for a woman in the event's history! She finished fourth at Indy in 2005, and sixth in 2010. Her points record in Indy racing in the years 2005 through 2010 is 12th, ninth, seventh, sixth, fifth, and tenth, respectively; in the premier racing series in the U.S., driving 800 horsepower, 1500 pound open-wheel race cars on large oval tracks and road-race courses. Her finishes have thus been in the top third of the approximately 25 drivers competing in these races - a performance that hardly "stinks." Indeed, the vast majority of race drivers can only dream of ever having a race record as good as hers!

As for your sports reporter, I wonder if he suffers from feelings of inadequacy when confronted by the success of women in sports? I suspect that if he was able to complete one lap of the Indianapolis track in any race car, he would have to return to the pits to change his underwear. Enough said!