Danica starts from pole, Buddy behind her and Vitor in third. AGR guys seem to be having a bit of trouble with their qualifiers.

 

She can't possibly be on the pole.
The only reason she has a ride is because she's a girl. No way she can actually get a pole start.

They must be cheating over there in the IRL.

 

Kansas is a RL track... last year it was a Buddy-Vitor 1-2.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Catch 22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">She can't possibly be on the pole.</TD></TR></TABLE>

huhu.... she "grabbed the pole"

 

Scott, have you been attending your haters anonymous meetings? You can only get better if you really try hard to get the counseling that you need.

 

I think she is fantastic, and this isn't her first pole. To ignore the weight advantage though is being naive.

 

When you go to a track where everyone can drive flat out with the wings at the minimum angle, it'll come down to a matter of HP and weight.

 

Take that Bootie Barker!!!

Don't know if anyone caught his Anti-Danica, IRL drivers suck, and thanks to F1 for making NASCRAP a bigger 800 lb Gorilla, redneck rant last weekend. It was a pathetic closed-minded typical arogant America and NASCAR kicks the worlds *** type statement.

I hope she has a good race.

 

I'm going to hate because I am not naive enough to think that Danica can save the IRL, or believe she is the most talented. She will be in Nascrap in a few years you watch. Then they can fix the races to have a Dale, and Danica 1-2. Probably 80% Americans think she runs in Nascrap anyways since most people don't know theres a Cart and IRL.

I don't think she will win the race at kentucky but a top 5 assuming she doesn't crash. Seeing its sponsored by Argent maybe they are fixing it like Nascrap does.

 

I could be wrong, but I think this may be the first time a woman has started a "major" pro series race from the pole in North America. Maybe the world.

I know Marinus had some world challenge poles last year, but thats not really a "major" pro series. By major I mean live TV coverage for every race, big sponsors and big prize money.

And the weight advantage??? Sure, she has that (but so does DaMattas 135lb ***), but with that comes the challenges of someone who weighs 100lbs and is female (meaning she lacks the upper body strength of her male counterparts...) wresting a high horsepower high downforce car around for hours.
I think that more than cancels the weight advantage. Trust me, after having watched Renee fight with Heath McMillans CSP CRX (no power steering, LOTS of caster, 9 inch wheels, 225 Hoosiers, and no brake booster) I know its a major task for Danica to handle that indycar for extended periods of time.
Renee is in excellent shape (shes got "girl guns" bicepts) but she ended up having to start an upper body workout program just to handle the steering in Heath's autocross car. As men, we tend to take stuff like this for granted.

 

"Danica got P1 because she's running 50 lbs lighter than everybody else"... as fat-***, cry-baby Robbie Gordon would have us believe.

I agree with Scott - 22. Her slight weight advantage doesn't mean squat in a car that can make 3,000 + lbs of downforce. On oval re-starts or on road courses, it will be a slight advantage.

You go Danica! If I ran 400lb under minimum weight I couldn't grab P1 in an IRL car. .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by speedracer33 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I think she is fantastic, and this isn't her first pole. To ignore the weight advantage though is being naive.</TD></TR></TABLE>

bobby´s pole was her first pole

 

I think that Sarah Fisher sat on pole once in IRL competition...

As far as I am concerned Danica has more raw talent than Sarah, and she has the aggression that I never saw in Sarah Fisher. Without having a better way to compare it...Danica seems like one of the few quick chicks that actually "has a pair".

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Catch 22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I could be wrong, but I think this may be the first time a woman has started a "major" pro series race from the pole in North America. Maybe the world.

I know Marinus had some world challenge poles last year, but thats not really a "major" pro series. By major I mean live TV coverage for every race, big sponsors and big prize money.

And the weight advantage??? Sure, she has that (but so does DaMattas 135lb ***), but with that comes the challenges of someone who weighs 100lbs and is female (meaning she lacks the upper body strength of her male counterparts...) wresting a high horsepower high downforce car around for hours.
I think that more than cancels the weight advantage. Trust me, after having watched Renee fight with Heath McMillans CSP CRX (no power steering, LOTS of caster, 9 inch wheels, 225 Hoosiers, and no brake booster) I know its a major task for Danica to handle that indycar for extended periods of time.
Renee is in excellent shape (shes got "girl guns" bicepts) but she ended up having to start an upper body workout program just to handle the steering in Heath's autocross car. As men, we tend to take stuff like this for granted.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Personally, I feel that Danica should be proud of the weight advantage. Professional racers are supposed to be athletes, and any advantage you can find should be considered an asset.

However, that being said, winning a pole on an IRL superspeedway is simply a matter of having the fastest car, and having a Honda AND a slight weight advantage no doubt played into her favor. Just look at how she struggled at a driver's track like Richmond last week. Good driver, just not great.

 

"IF" she's taking advantage of the weight difference then so what. She's taking advantage of the rules. If you are smart you can make gains from the rules that other people can't. Look at M-B years ago at Indy and the pushrod engine. The next year the "loop hole" was gone as will probably the weight requirement without driver. If you don't like the rules race some where else.

 

Sarah Fisher sat on the pole at Kansas a few years ago.

Also, not sure if it counts as "major" (I dont count it) but Shauna Robinson sat on the pole at Atlanta I htink in the Busch Series.

Jon K
http://www.seat-time.com

 

Car and driver should be weighted, otherwise tom cruise and sylvester stalone at 5'2 each will really be the next IRL drivers

I'm sorry but this all smells like horse ****.

Or horse **** stained money to be more precise.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stormy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm sorry but this all smells like horse ****.

Or horse **** stained money to be more precise.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I can't buy that anyone can fix a high profile race and get away with it. Too many people would know, and race car drivers are amongst the most competitive people in the world.

I simply can't picture the drivers meeting that includes "OK guys, we want Danica on the pole for this one."
No friggin WAY!!!

Can I buy that Rahal/Letterman is spending more money and more effort on Danica's ride? Sure, that seems damned likely actually. But getting the other teams to let her have the pole is a ludicrous proposition.
Again, no friggin way.

 

The part that bothers me is that we can't talk about her weight advantage BECAUSE she is a girl. If it was any other driver, this weight conversation could be taking place between drivers, reporters, team owners, and even us without anybody blinking an eye. From my perspective, my talking about her weight advantage is because I see her as a racer, and am treating her the same way I would any guy who weighs 100lbs (for the record, I'm 140lbs so kiss my ***). The people who *won't* talk about her weight are the ones who are being sexist.

What do those cars weigh? 1500lbs? That means that her weight only adds 6.7% to the weight of the car, where a normal 160lb driver adds 10.7%. I don't expect the writers at USA Today to understand how much that means, but I certainly expect my fellow racers to! Her brakes have to do less work, she gets better gas mileage, and she should be able to come off of the corners harder. I'm not hating, I'm being realistic.

A driver with 99% of the talent of the others, and 100lbs in their favor, can win races. Yes, I'm at about 37% of their talent, and I realize that, but it doesn't diminish my point. I wonder what would happen if Kannan, Wheldon, Francitti, or any of the others had a 100lb advantage....

 

Yes Matt, but please understand that her same weight advantage is a disadvantage when it comes to "manhandling" a car like that around ANY course for a couple of hours. You may only weigh 40lbs more than she does, but I'm betting that you easily have twice her upper body mass and strength.

You MUST talk about her as a female in terms of stuff like this. If we agree that Indycar and F1 drivers have to be some of the best athletes on the planet (and I think most of us do), then we must acknowledge that as a 100lb female she has some disadvantages that someone like a Tony Kanaan simply never has to worry about.

I weigh 210lbs, played ALOT of football in my day, and pretty much have a huge upper body and I can tell you guys that 3 hours a day in a skip barber car beat the living **** out of me. My forearms and shoulders were sore for days after that trip. I have plenty of admiration for a 100lb female that can handle a car like the one she is driving. She MUST be in near perfect physical condition.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by racerjon1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sarah Fisher sat on the pole at Kansas a few years ago. </TD></TR></TABLE>
Kentucky Speedway actually and that "first female won pole" was not lost on the local press and track marketing dept.. About 30 miles away from us and open for three or four years now and I have only been there for two autocrosses. They run IRL, Craftsman Trucks, Busch, and ARCA there but I have not yet found the interest to attend.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stormy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Car and driver should be weighted, otherwise tom cruise and sylvester stalone at 5'2 each will really be the next IRL drivers

I'm sorry but this all smells like horse ****.

Or horse **** stained money to be more precise.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh, I agree. That's how SCCA does it. But right now it's not that way in IRL so it's tough for the others. I'm sure it will be changed next year.

The fact is, there are always some rules that benefit one car over another. It's just that we don't get to see them in plain day like this size issue. Folks don't be blind to the fact that this isn't the first time the rules favor one driver/team over another.

Plus we all really shouldn't be talking because she'd wip all our butts on any track and make us all feel "smaller" than she.

to Danica

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by speedracer33 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'm 140lbs so kiss my ***</TD></TR></TABLE>

Bookler, I love it when you talk dirty.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Catch 22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I can't buy that anyone can fix a high profile race and get away with it. Too many people would know, and race car drivers are amongst the most competitive people in the world.

I simply can't picture the drivers meeting that includes "OK guys, we want Danica on the pole for this one."
No friggin WAY!!!

Can I buy that Rahal/Letterman is spending more money and more effort on Danica's ride? Sure, that seems damned likely actually. But getting the other teams to let her have the pole is a ludicrous proposition.
Again, no friggin way.</TD></TR></TABLE>

They don't have to fix anything but the tech requirements for her car only a couple of people have to be down with the game plan to over look even major things.

It's always kind of bugged me that ferrari was so far ahead no one had a chance and boom like miracle they break the number of championships (remeber the major deal the home run recordes made for baseball) then boom all of a sudden they can't even see the podium. It all smells to much like the perfect marketing plan.

Her ascending to the podium is going to bring rediculous amounts of coverage = money and when there's money involved america flew to the moon

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stormy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">They don't have to fix anything but the tech requirements for her car only a couple of people have to be down with the game plan to over look even major things.

It's always kind of bugged me that ferrari was so far ahead no one had a chance and boom like miracle they break the number of championships (remeber the major deal the home run recordes made for baseball) then boom all of a sudden they can't even see the podium. It all smells to much like the perfect marketing plan.

Her ascending to the podium is going to bring rediculous amounts of coverage = money and when there's money involved america flew to the moon</TD></TR></TABLE>

Your tin foil hat is on too tight, you might want to check that.