Danica Patrick Finishes-Off The Champ Car Series – Literally

Playboy

Apr 21, 2008

Danica Patrick Does It When The Timing Is Right

There exists a fairly small but persistent group of people in the American open wheel racing community that have spent a decade of their lives hating the rival IndyCar Series owner Tony George. In the online forums for discussing Champ Car these open wheel racing aficionados can spend more time talking about their extreme dislike of everything IndyCar than discussing the series they loved. And even though Tony George was at the top of their list if despicable people, IndyCar driver Danica Patrick was their poster child.

In the archives of these forums there are countless references to how and why she can’t win a race. There are endless threads discussing how she is given an advantage because she weighs less than the others and the series does not require all cars to be the same weight, including the driver (that rule was changed just recently).  There are Champ Car fans who say she is not really good enough to be in the IndyCar Series and would not be if she were not so hot looking.

There are even posts in the forum about how, if she ever does win a race, Tony George will have “fixed” it to drum up the popularity.

But all that “talk” started to end late last year when Champ Car stopped being a legitimate series and all its fans who dominated the forums turned their vitriol on the business ineptitude of their own Champ Car Series owners. Then, finally, last February the Champ Car owners took the Champ Car Series off life support and handed the keys to, Mr. Terrible, Tony George. But there was one piece of unfinished business for Champ Car. By contract, and because of scheduling problems with the IndyCar series, Champ Car had to run one last race in Long Beach, California this weekend while the IndyCar Series was racing in Japan. Long Beach was a going away party for the Champ Car faithful, and with 10 minutes to go in the race, after which the final Champ Car engine would go quiet forever, ESPN decided it was time to interview first-time IndyCar Series winner Danica Patrick for the entire last 10 minutes of the last Champ Car race.  Lets put this into context:

Imagine you are a Hillary Clinton supporter and Hillary decides to concede the victory to Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary. Hillary schedules a big news conference and all her supporters are there as she gives a long, emotional concession speech. But when she gets to the last 10 minutes of her speech, tears in her eyes saying good-bye for the final time to all her supporters, the TV stations cut away and go to Barack Obama announcing he just won the lottery!

No one expresses the feelings of Champ Car better than NCCartFan:

So I’m watching the last ten minutes of the ChampCar World Series Long Beach Gran Prix. Not just a CCWS race, not just a CCWS season, the end of the series. The end forever. And what does ESPN decide to do? Give us Danica Patrick’s head and voice over the ENTIRE last ten minutes!!!!!!! Unbelievable!!!! It’s no wonder Reid didn’t know if the white flag came out!! He and Goody were too busy kissing her highness’s underweight tush! I have never been so mad at
anything I’ve ever seen in Open Wheel racing.

So Danica Patrick might be on CNN, the BBC, The Late Show, Regis, Good Morning America , Sports Illustrated’s Cover, and every major television networks’ national news show, but in the American motorsports community, amongst those that follow this type of racing the closest, Danica Patrick’s first win will always be remembered most for being Champ Car’s coup de grâce.