Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
“The checkered flag dropped today in Japan, and with it came the paternalistic stranglehold on professional motorsports as Danica Patrick wins the Indy Japan 300 — besting her previous highest finish of second place at the Detroit Grand Prix. The win, 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval occurring after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later, makes Patrick the first woman to ever win an IndyCar race. Finally, people will be forced to look at Danica Patrick as something other than a piece of meat. Well, she did do that Sports Illustrated photo shoot, so you can probably still look at her like a piece of meat — just now you’ll also have to realize she’s a piece of meat that’s faster than you, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan and your brother Sal. [via ESPN] Picture Credit: Sports Illustrated ”
Quoted from here:
Atta girl Danica! Hank
Nice
I didn’t even know Japan had a race. Cool
It’s good to see that a woman is pulling into first in the racing world.
Who said women couldn’t drive?! =D
i saw this on the news this morning while i was having coffee!!! yay Danica!! I hope she
does well in Indy this coming May!
Why did the others pit with so little laps left? did she pit a couple labs after them earlier in the race?
In my oppinion, it was only a matter of time before she won. She definitely has the required skill!
This is the first I have heard of her finally winning but personally im glad that she was able to pull out a victory. I dont follow racing all that close but it is still good to see a mixup in the winners circle.. congrats to Danica and maybe we will be able to see her win again.
Yeah I haven’t seen much of her outside of the U.S. but way to go Danica! Let’s see what this does to the racing audience.
I remember reading an article that was explaining that the rules were about to be changed regarding weight stipulations of a vehicle and driver. Because Danica is so much lighter than her male competitors, other racers were complaining that she had an unfair advantage. I wonder if this win will make for an even bigger push towards changing the way weight is measured in these races.
Haha good for you, Danica! More power to a woman in that type of sport! Jim makes a good point about the effects this could have on the usual audience of these races. I will venture to say that, in addition to the race itself being male-dominated, the audience is the same. With a leading woman in the picture, nonetheless, this could possibly change that statistic a bit. I think we all remember her from the questionable Super Bowl add, but know we can remember her for much more than that!
It took her 50 starts to get her first win, but it is an impressive feat regardless.
Haha…at least she has finally won something to justify all her endorsements.
Good for her! I don’t think this will have any remote impact on the audience of the sport. Racing is for gear heads, nascar is for rednecks. If she becomes a tiger woods (I guess michael schumacher of the IRL) of the auto racing industry, then maybe. If not, well then it will have no effect…
To me I don’t even care, IRL is week anyway. F1 is the only way to go.
Jim
It’s about time. I remember watching her first Indy 500, she was so close to winning that one. Hopefully she’ll win many more!
well…is it bad that I didn’t even know Danica Patrick raced anything, but then again I don’t watch many races.
I do, however, have the sports illustrated swimsuit issue. It’s pretty nice and Danica Patrick is holding a motorcycle helmet. I guess I just never put two and two together or I was too busy looking at her to notice what she was holding.
I think this will be good for the industry. While some fear change, she has been able to bring in sponsers from all over and media attension as well. Plus needless to say, but the sport was predominately male so with her win maybe we’ll see more girls signing up at the cart tracks across the mid-west. Who knows.
This is probably something good to invest in, because right now basketball and football are media kings and impossible to get your foot in the door. Whereas with NASCAR/Indy anyone with a little money can invest in a team or be a part of the action.
It’s awesome that girls can be recogonized the sports world now. I feel that any girl that goes onto sports illustrated is just looked at as a trophy, but this shows that a lot of guys should respect her because she could probably beat them in any race.
I’m glad she finally won…she has shown that she has amazing talent and she has really worked hard at what she does…it was a well deserved victory in my opinion.
This is great Danica won; finally a woman who KNOWS how to drive!
Im impressed shes still going very strong, ya dustie a woman that knows how to drive, shes needs to teach the rest of them….haha just kidding girls, alot of you probably could out drive me.
I think it is cool that see won!!