Richard Petty stands by Danica comments, says he's not sexist

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/10462793/richard-petty-stands-danica-patrick-comments-says-not-sexist

Danica says journalism is great in video

 

The man who spawned Kyle Petty suggests that a driver in the series may not be there entirely on merit.

 

Good point. But Kyle has eight career wins. Granted the first of those didn't come until well into his career, but he won.

Somebody brought up the fact that she's doing as well as Scott Speed, another open-wheel transplant. I thought that was a horrible argument considering Speed was doing as well if not better than she was but he lost his ride. The argument there is it is extremely difficult to go from open wheel to stock.

She's nowhere near the driver Dario is, and he couldn't do it (granted he never was in near the machines she was given).

 

This is all BS generated by the same media who is in bed with NASCAR. If Petty had said the same thing about Speed, Dave Blaney, or JJ Yeley, nobody would have batted an eye.

 

Yep - took him seven years. He had 8 wins in 829 starts. Danica has 46 starts so far.

Petty wouldn't have said it about them.

 

That's because no one would have asked him about any other 27th place drive beside Danica.

 

What do you think about Scott Speed, Richard?

"If she'd have been a male, nobody would ever know if she'd showed up at a racetrack. ... This is a female deal that's driving her. There's nothing wrong with that, because that's good PR for me. More fans come out, people are more interested in it. She has helped to draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport."

 

Exactly what is the point? He is correct. If she was a guy, or if she looked like Sarah Fisher, nobody give her a second thought. That's not an attack on her character. It's just a fact that she is an average at best driver. If Junior's last name was Smith, he'd get about a 1/10th of the attention he does. I don't blame either one of them. I'd be cashing in like a big dog, too. The only difference is I'd have already gone to the house by now and have my feet up on my private dock at this very moment.

All this amounts to is someone asked a person his opinion, and when it didn't toe the party marketing line, at the PC crowd gets its panties in a wad.

 

Mostly what it comes down to is people lining up to take shots at her because she's a woman. She's not a great driver by any stretch of the imagination. That puts her in line with about 85% of the drivers in NASCAR.

People used to talk about how she only had an IndyCar ride because she was a woman when she was running about 8th in the series, was the top-ranked American driver, and was beating her far more respected teammates.

Does she get more attention than her driving warrants? Of course. Does she take more shit than she deserves? Oh, hell yes.

And if I had a team, I'd hire her over Richard's kid in a heartbeat.

 

I generally agree with you for the most part, except for the comparisons to Kyle getting a ride. Racing isn't like some NFL team drafting the owner's son to be the starting QB. Racing teams are independent, and especially historically, are family operated. Did Kyle get his ride because of his dad, of course he did, but it was family money that was being spent to put him in a car. Richard got his first ride because of his dad, so did Adam Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Junior, Kerry Earnhardt, Paul Menard, Davey Allison, Clifford Allison, Dale Jarrett, Austin Dillon, Casey Mears, Al Unser Jr., AJ Foyt IV, all of John Force's kids, Tony Schumacher, Kurt Johnson, on and on and on.

 

People tend to forget Kyle Petty was actually a pretty good racer when he had the Mello Yello ride back in the early 1990s. Certainly not to the level of his dad at his prime or to the level Adam would likely have been at, but far ahead of where Danica is.
In regards to Danica, I still maintain (and I know plenty of others who do as well) that if Sarah Fisher had driven the same level of equipment Danica had, Fisher would have won multiple races. Danica started with Rahal when teammate Buddy Rice was coming off his Indy win and finished third in points the year before. The team overall was noticeably less competitive once she joined. She joined Andretti's team in 2007. That team also experienced a deep decline, only to pick up the pace once again after Danica left. It could be a coincidence the team won the IndyCar title the year after Danica left, but I doubt it.