Mike Stevens Motor sports writer joins the blog contributor crew April 15th 2011

People put too high of expectations on drivers, such as with Danica Patrick.


She became the first woman in history to lead laps at the Indianapolis 500 back in 2005 for

Rahal-Letterman Racing. Then in 2007, she transferred to the Andretti-Green Racing Team

(Now Andretti Autosport) where she's been ever since. In 2008, she won the Indy Japan 300@ Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. That race was a fluke though due to fuel mileage. All in all,
a win is still a win. After that win, she started to get offers left and right driving for whoever

in whatever series came up. But she focused on Indycar racing for Andretti Autosport.

Everyone started putting her up on a pedestal thinking that she was going to start winning

left and right, but that hasn't been the case. Now the media is making her out to be a

whining woman who got lucky winning a race.

In 2010, Dale Earnhardt Jr. decided to give Danica a try and put her in one of his JR Motorsports

Nationwide cars for a limited schedule so that she would still be able to race Indycars full time.
The first race she entered @ Daytona was in the ARCA race in which she finished 6th place.

The very next week, she entered the Nationwide race @ Daytona only to end up getting caught

up in a 12-car wreck that ended her day prematurely.

Honestly, I just think it takes time for her to get used to the different race cars going from a lightweight
Indycar back to a heavy-weight Stock car. She was quoted earlier this year in California saying that "It's
easy to go back and forth from one type of car to the other. It's like riding a bike, you never forget."

She did have her best finish of the career in Las Vegas earlier this year in the Nationwide car finishing a
strong 4th place, the best ever for a woman in stock cars.


Danica has brought a ton of fans to Indycar racing mainly because she's an attractive woman racing
in a male dominated sport. She's great for her sponsors as well, IE the godaddy.com commercials she's been
doing with Jillian Michaels as of late.

Don't just bag on her because she whines sometimes. All drivers whine now and then. Look at Robby Gordon,
he whined about Danica being too light in the race car which makes her go faster then the other drivers @
Indianapolis. If he'd just shut his mouthand race and prove that even though he's much heavier then her,

he can still beat her at her own game.

If you get the chance, check out her video of the confrontation she had with Milka Duno last year in the Indycars.

It almost was a great cat fight!!. Just type in Danica Milka confrontation on Youtube.

Thanks for reading my column.

Mike Stevens