Are you shocked, shocked that she is overrhyped? Is she the only "sports media construction" forced down the throats of the masses?
Hello Freddy Adu, Landon Donovan, Michelle Wie, Anna Kournekova...Kimbo Slice...
Nah, very little shocks me anymore. And she's certainly not the only one. She just stands out to me because I've watched a form of motorsport that I've loved and followed for 30+ years go down the tubes recently, because a trust fund moron tried to build something on hype instead of substance. What's the old saying? "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." Tony George might have finally proved that wrong. Funny you should mention Anna K, since one of Danica's nicknames was
Danicova Patrickan't.
If she's had an impact on raising awareness for racing, and selling any Motorola phones or whatever her sponsor is now, then it's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:thumbsup:
The Indy 500 received its lowest TV rating this year in the history of the race. Awareness of American Open Wheel Racing has never been lower. Once the most watched race in America can't even equal the ratings of an average NASCAR race now. The Daytona 500 gets roughly 300% higher ratings than Indy these days. The IRL regular season races have basically been relegated to a niche network that most people have never even heard of. Nationally, about as many people watch each race on TV as what
attended CART's Mexico City race several years ago: about 200,000. Danica has lined her own pockets very nicely - and good on her for that. But she's no more than an average race car driver, so she adds no substance among the "real" fans of racing. The IRL and Indy have lost the majority of fans that were watching in 1994. And right now the IRL is hanging onto life by a ragged thread. The Hulman-George family just recently fired Tony "Sonny Boy" George because the league hasn't turned a profit since the day the doors opened - and no one is stepping up to sponsor it now that no one is really paying attention to it anymore.
Winning is irrelevant today, in all pro sports, fwiw...
Racing is pretty much the only sport that I still follow - and I'm pretty passionate about it (yeah, I know:
"nah, really?!" ). I can't really comment on other sports. But the biggest stars in the NFL and NBA tend to be the ones who perform at some level above average, or so I thought. So I don't know that I would go that far. Two of the rising stars in the NHRA are Ashley Force and Antron Brown: a woman and a Black guy. But both win. Antron was leading the championship in Top Fuel Dragster the last time I looked. And Ashley was near the top in Top Fuel Funny Car. They're not skating along on their race or gender... or self-created PR hype and myth, like Danica is. And one of the biggest stars in Formula One is Lewis Hamilton. He's Black. But he's won championships in
every formula he's ever raced in. And now he's the reigning FIA World Driving Champion. He earns probably 3 or 4 times what Danica does (including endorsements) and I'd say he's worth every dollar (or pound), because he produces results for the team, F1 on whole
and his sponsors. Even a NASCAR guy, like Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (the most popular driver, I think)... he hasn't won much lately. But he's won Busch Series Championships, the Daytona 500 and multiple Nextel Cup races.
With Danica, I'm not just talking about since she's been in the IRL (which runs cars about on the same level as what the F1 junior series, GP2, runs), I'm talking about in her
entire life to this point: Danica has won exactly one (
1) automobile race outright. In addition to that sole oval IRL win, she won the Pro division of a celebrity race driving a 180hp front wheel drive Celica (big whoop!), but she was beaten overall by an
amateur driver.
The reason Danica winds me up is more because of her fans saying ridiculous things about her going to Formula One and things like that. People get into F1 after winning championships... not single IRL races - and on an oval at that. F1 doesn't run too many ovals - like, none. Yeah, can ya tell...
Danicamania turns my screws. I'm am
soooo hoping that she carries her swelled head and narrow ass to NASCAR next year. I'm not a huge NASCAR fan, but I will watch ever qualifyng session, just to watch her interview on why she wasn't fast enough to get in th erace. Please go, Danica!!! :wave2:
