The boys and girls of NASCAR are bickering once again. That’s not exactly anything new. The ‘good old boys’ on the race circuit have always been rather outspoken… to say the least.
How many times have we heard a driver say after a tough race, ‘well, what comes around goes around’ which is just another way of saying, ‘he got me this time but look out next time around’. That’s the way these guys live.
But now we have a new element added to the mix. Somehow or another someone let a girl out there on to the track behind the wheel of one of those 600 horsepower cars. Now there’s a new twist to the old race! Not only a girl… but a very pretty girl at that.
Her name is Danica Patrick and she made NASCAR history by becoming the first female to drive in a NASCAR event. Some folks thought this to be a great thing… while others were not so pleased.
One such traditionalist is NASCAR icon Richard Petty who practically invented the sport of stock car racing… or at least it seems that way. Petty has been around forever and racked up more wins than almost anyone else in the history of the sport. But he is not too impressed with Ms. Patrick out on the race course.
Recently when asked in an interview if he thought that Danica Patrick would win a Sprint Cup race this season, Petty replied, “Only is everybody else stayed home.” That’s not exactly how professional drivers are supposed to refer to their colleagues out on the track, but Richard Petty has never been exactly guarded in his statements about other drivers.
Going around an oval track at speeds approaching 200 miles per hour while traveling within inches from the car next to you requires a kind of trust not required in many other sports. If someone makes a foolish move at such high speeds the driver’s very lives may be at risk. Having confidence in your fellow competitors is essential to any NASCAR driver.
Oddsmakers in Las Vegas are not seeing things in exactly the same light as Mr. Petty. Handicappers are giving Danica a pretty good chance to win something this year… and not outrageous odds to win the Daytona 500 this year.
Remember that in her rookie season, Danica Patrick placed 8th in the Daytona 500. That put her out ahead of over 30 drivers who started the race. This year her odds to win at Daytona opened at 40-to-1.
