Monday Morning Crew Chief
Written by Jonathan Ingram · June 4, 2007
‘My Girl vs. Your Guy’ at Milwaukee
Danica Patrick will have truly arrived when “my girl vs. your guy” becomes a regular part of the racing lexicon. In the first such major incident in Patrick’s IndyCar career, she faced off with Dan Wheldon at Milwaukee. Not for the first time in her life, the diminutive Patrick came up short, despite a major mistake by Wheldon.
As the author of her unofficial biography, I regard Patrick as a talented professional who got to her present job the same way her peers did: on skill, determination and a willingness to accomodate the promotional side of the sport. And, I’m long since on the record in predicting she will win the Indy 500 before her career is over.
But in this case, Wheldon made the right move at the right time. He cut short Patrick’s bid to overtake on the inside at Turn 1. When the rear wheel contacts the overtaking car’s front wheel, well, that demonstrates Patrick was not exactly alongside.
In a frenetic, but otherwise feature-less race, the incident resulted in Patrick dropping to eighth with damaged steering, but provided the kind of excitement that Kyle Petty, ironically, says has been missing in NASCAR this year.
In the exchange of unpleasantries that followed, Patrick threatened to brake check Wheldon over her radio and, well, um, “rip his front wing off.” For his part, after finishing third Wheldon said, “She’s messing with the wrong person if she wants to get fesity. I’m a lot tougher than she is on the track.”
That was Wheldon’s mistake. Possessing a typically spikey single-seater personality, Wheldon may be tougher to pass than most people — although Patrick blew him away on the final re-start of the 2005 Indy 500 just 11 laps from the finish. Wheldon won that duel when the fuel strategy of Rahal Letterman Racing went awry in the closing laps.
Evidently, the Milwaukee race was Round 3 between these two. “She nearly put me in the wall in Indianapolis,” said Wheldon, who said he has no problems with any other drivers.
The incident at Indy this year, one of those that occurs between two drivers in the heat of a 500-mile race without much comment afterward, indicates that Patrick is as tough as any other driver on the track. She may be tougher given that she has always loved beating guys on the track (such as Sam Hornish and Brian Vickers in her karting days). And she is, as Wheldon points out, overdue in an IndyCar.
As has been the case time and again, Patrick has demonstrated the discipline that is necessary to win races, too, starting with Indy in 2005 when she shook off two rookie mistakes to put herself in position to win.
On high speed ovals, Patrick has consistently been far less likely to hit the wall than many of her peers, such as fellow rookies Tomas Enge and Ryan Briscoe in 2005 and at present Andretti Green Racing teammate Marco Andretti, who wrecked Wheldon at Indy this year. At present, if you bet on whether former teammate Buddy Rice, the winner at Indy in 2004, or Patrick finishes a race with the car intact, the smart money would be on Patrick.
Under the tutelage of Kim Green, Patrick is indexing herself up to winning on an oval. In the short term, like countless IndyCar and NASCAR drivers before her, she is learning how to run at the front, hence the incident at Milwaukee. A more seasoned driver might likely have decided to pause and set up her next adversary for a sure pass later.
So Patrick made a mistake. But it continues to be a mistake to underestimate her skill, high-speed discipline or, above all, toughness. If nothing else, her aggressive driving helped put IndyCar on top of the racing world on a day when NASCAR’s Nextel Cup was rained out.
Jonathan Ingram can be reached at jingram666@cs.com
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I still think nothing hear to report - it’s a racing incident. I don’t think Danica did her self any favors with her whining but confronting Dan after the race? Drivers do it all the time - again no big story here. Everyone just move along.
Uh, don’t really know where this high praise is comming from. I think you over estimate her. The only way she is going to win is if she has the fastest car on the track. Even then it will be close. She will never be a regular winner. She will be a buddy rice who gets lucky once and never does anything else. She is in the best situation she could be in and is still coming up short. Face it. She just isn’t that good. I don’t know what the flaw is. This game is all about car setup and nursing a bad handling car to the next pit for adjustments with out loosing too many spots. Good drivers do that well and give the techs good info to help make the right changes. She is on a great team and needs to be able to provide more to them now instead of her old excuse of not getting enough from her old teams. She will never be better than Kannan, Helio, Dan, or Sam. They have proven their ability year after year to be in front. She has not, and it is not something you grow into or figure out with time. She is a back marker in a really good car.