Birthday Resolutions

Sarah Fisher

Danica Patrick

Milka Duno

Na-na-na-na-na-na ... today is my birthday. Na-na-na-na-na-na ... happy birthday to me.

Thanks to everyone for the Facebook and Twitter (@pressdog) wishes of a supersonic birthday full of schwerve. I'm moved to say a couple of things on my 46th birthday, in no particular order of importance.

1) Congratulations to Danica Patrick for her P6 ARCA finish. This public shout out to Danistar is a birthday-level milestone because there was a time when I would have hoped for all ARCA race that she would have slammed her car violently into the wall, plus I would have had a million reasons why her P6 was not really that great.

I am not proud of that, but there it is. So if I came off sounding anti-Danica at any point in the last few days, here or on Twitter, I apologize. That is not the case. That might have been the case once, but it is not now. I respect Danica and even admire her in some ways.

I will say it is a little difficult to wish Danica well what with Darrell Waltrip having Danicagasms in the ARCA announcer booth every 30-40 seconds. That is unfortunate for all the fans of drivers other than Danica. BUT, it is unfair and wrong to hold that against Ms. Patrick. I repent. I apologize. I congratulate her.

Best wishes in NASCAR, where Danica will certainly be full-time at this time next year. She seemed to have a lot of fun driving the fendermobile, and the cash will be E-NORMOUS, so I can't imagine she won't jump full time next year. If it's more fun and it pays better, she should go to N-word. I would. Especially when staying in the IRL meant finishing P4 at best, as it has been for non Big 2 drivers for the last few years.

Winning an Cup race would be exponentially more huge in terms of celebrity and cash than winning an IndyCar race for Danica, given all the factors at work.

2) Wishing another competitor well and congratulating him or her on performance does not, an any way, diminish, lessen, make light of or betray your devotion to your favorite driver. The old pressdog used to think giving Danica any praise, recognition or even a grudging nod was a betrayal of my favorite driver, Sarah Fisher. Well, that's piffle, frankly. And again I apologize.

I don't think my superfandom for Sarah is much in doubt, what with the life-sized cardboard cutout standing to my right as I type, sundry signed Sarah Fisher items strewn about the underground lair and my FOUR Sarah Fisher items of apparel. In fact, it may creep a few people out. 

As a 46-year-old adult I am ready to admit that much of my passed rancor for Danica was jealousy.  I wanted Sarah to have everything Danica had. Which brings us to 3:

3) Nobody "deserves" anything in racing, except respect for giving it his or her best shot. This idea that racing has ever been or ever will be a meritocracy makes me laugh out loud. Ranters in stock cars are all saying the same thing ranters (including me) said when Danica came to the IRL, that being: "others deserve the shot." And "she's only getting attention because she is hot." Hahahahahahaha. That's a good one. Like "deserve" factors into many decisions in racing, or in life for that matter.

Look, people get what they get. It's kind of like racing's "it is what it is." I would say ALL driver decisions have at least something beyond just merit behind them. There's personality. Looks. Ability to work with the media. Ability to schmooze or even extract cash from sponsors. Fan appeal. It's ALL in there at some level.

Even in life, the job doesn't always go to the most "deserving." Again, many other subjective things are factored in there.

Since we're humans and not computers, that's the way it always has been and always will be, so I'm done with "deserves." Did Sarah "deserve" her shot with Walker back in 1999? There were probably many more-qualified drivers out there when she was called up. Her gender -- along with other factors -- played a roll. That's the truth. And, since I am being honest, part of attracts me to Sarah is gender-based: she's a great role  model for my daughters.

Has Danica been a wonderful human being to Sarah since she came into the league? From what I know ... no. Danica Patrick is a business woman. She's a fierce competitor. Like she says "this isn't miniature golf." She plays rough sometimes. I'm sure Sarah has thrown Dannica a hip check or two as well. Sarah has managed to cowboy up and move on, start her own team and get her schwerve on. Business can be brutal. Time to be an adult. 

But you cannot doubt Danica has at least mid-pack driving talent. If you do, you're just living in denial.

4) I am not gonna be a hater. In sports you cheer for some people and against some people. If all you do is cheer against people and wish them ill, then you're a hater. I'm not going to be one of those. I'm going to be positive. I swear. I can criticize and I can be snarky and I can accuse people of being circus clowns. Fine. But I will not hope someone takes the wall or embarrasses themselves. And I will take no glee in it if they do. I'm goin to cheer for my teams and drivers, and not resent others success.

Does Milka Duno "deserve" to be out there racing? Depends on who you ask. Is she out there? Yeah. Did she do what she had to do, whatever that was, to get out there? Yeah. So be it. I'm not going to hate on her for it.

So there's the new leaf I'm turning over publicly today. You can celebrate my birthday by saying no to haterism and by supporting my favorite race teams. Here's how.

Comments

[redd]

I turned on the ARCA race out of curiousity and truthfully didn't expect much from Daniker. I was surprised to realize that I was--choke--sorta proud of her performance. To climb in a car that alien to her, against people with many more years experience and under all that media pressure, then to perform that well? I was happy for her.

I do think she'll end up full time in Nascar, but I think she'll stay another year in the IIRS. She does want to win Indy, remember. But I also think she's going to bring some fans over to the the IIRS and I think that's good.

Happy Birthday. Surprised there's no offical beer though...

[Leigh O'Gorman]

Damn sir... you are in a good mood today!! Happy birthday
:)

[Rick Hunt]

Happy birthday and I commend you on the rejection of haterism. It's okay to hope everyone does well, and your favorites just do a little better. This is particularly true for the women in racing. I'm always cheering a little extra for them to succeed. I don't want my daughters to ever think that they can't do something because they're female. The more successful women in non-traditional professions, the better it is for everyone.

[Chad Paff]

Happy B-day P-Dog. Have you "lit this candle" yet?

Erin Crocker finished 2nd in her first restictor plate start in ARCA and had 5 top 10 finishes in 6 starts.

So, Danicker "winning" 6th place yesterday, should be put in perspective. Not nearly as "impressive" as some of the cheerleaders and defenders would like you to believe. ITS ARCA, remember. ARCA. Stock Cars version of low level minor league baseball.

And the incessent DW slobbering, was tiring if yet predictable. DW is NASCAR's #1 paid shill and propping Danicker up ("WOW, her eyes are so focused") probably helps him cash another check next week.

She is a mediocre talent, with a mediocre resume who has always driven top notch cars. That's not being a "hater". That's just being realistic.

[pressdog]

I hear all the Danica spasms and pay no heed. She was P6. I give her credit for that. No more or less. Certainly didn't suck. No need to speculate if Danica packs the gear to succeed in Nationbusch and Cup 'cause we're fixing to find out. Your comments that DW is N-word's lap boy SHOCK ME. You think? One of the many reasons I don't watch N-word is the near relentless shilling and that everything seems to be decided based on what makes us the most cash. DW and the booth boys most certainly ruined the ARCA race for me with their incessant Danicagasms. I greatly prefer Versus's approach to their coverage. I honestly disagree on the mediocre talent thing. P5 in points and P3 at Indy doesn't seem mediocre to me. I agree she has always had the best hardware. I'd enjoy seeing her make due with some backmarker stuff, but that's just not in the cards.

[The Speedgeek]

I think I'm right there on the same page as you guys about yesterday's ARCA race. Dani had one of the best 5 or 10 cars in the field (fact: most of the cars in ARCA are ex-Cup cars, maintained and prepped by far sub-Cup teams; Danica's was a de-facto Cup effort, with topline horsepower and aerodynamics), Dani has extensive high-speed experience, which a good portion of the ARCA field certainly does not (hence why there were several accidents that featured drivers plowing nearly full speed into stationary wrecked cars), and Dani certainly got lucky several times yesterday (including during her spin; she could just have easily dug in a wheel and gone for a ride). Her situation yesterday was kind of like a novice 18 year old being let into a 9 year old's little league game. She spent some time getting used to things, but once she figured out how to use her "tools" (take that, Robbie Buhl!), she made the best of her advantage. All of that said, she did a pretty nice job to maximize what she had yesterday. Good on her.

Also, like you, I'm pretty disgusted with NASCAR and stock car coverage. DW sounded like he conducted yesterday's ARCA race with his pants around his ankles, going off multiple times about Danica's "focus" (which looked to me like she was terrified to look in her mirror or divert her attention away from the yellow line, but that's just my take), while your girl Alli Owens ran incognito in third place for 10-20 laps until somebody noticed her. That was ridiculous. Also, the lack of calling out by the booth guys on the aforementioned high speed wrecking drivers was pretty bad. Sorry, but if you can't be trusted not to, you know, lift off the gas when a yellow comes out or make an attempt to miss stationary cars, maybe you oughtn't be driving at Daytona?

I don't think Dani's done and dusted as far as going to NASCAR full-time by 2012. She's going to get a lot of leeway this year in Nationwide by DW, Marty Reid, Rusty Wallace and whoever else is doing those races (as you pointed out, Chris, it's in their best interest for her to succeed), but she'll have to be delivering in those cars next year if she's going to be taken seriously in Cup. If she can come up with the goods, good for her. I'm skeptical, but that doesn't mean she won't do it.

Oh, and happy birthday, P-Dog. Hope you enjoyed yourself today.

[pressdog]

Thanks Geek. I you and I seem to have virtually the same opinion on most things. I appreciate your well reasoned and presented comments on the dog blog. Reading is always enhanced. I think she's very done and dusted for N-word by 2012 for sure, if not 2011. If Nascar offered Andretti a pile of cash to release her, they'd say ... OK. She probably has out clauses in her deal anyway. N-word doesn't much care how she does in the race, IMO, because the TV eyeballs and merchandise appeal is worth HUGE cash in a time when they need to get viewers back, if she's anywhere in the field. The only threat to this is if it stops being FUN for Danica. I could see her going Nationbusch full time in 2011 and running the 500.

[Inspector]

Happy Birthday, Bill. Good piece, too.

[Rob]

First, a belated happy birthday to Mr. Pdog. I hope you had a great day, and your beer mug overflowed with cold frosty deliciousness.

As far as Daniker and ARCA, I watched, I laughed, I cried...well, Ok. I watched but neither laughed or cried. In fact, I nearly puked with DW and his constant praise of all things Danistar. I'm not, as you say, a hater, she just doesn't do anything for me. My respect for Mr. Waltrip could have gone up a notch if he had given, say, Alli Owens the same level of proppage for running 3rd he gave Danica (the entire race!), but we know how that turned out.

[The Speedgeek]

Thanks, 'Dog. Enhanced rading is your specialty. That's why I come here.

Only one follow up comment to your comment, RE: NASCAR stopping being fun. Might it stop being fun for Danica when she doesn't have a car that's clearly better than 95% of the other cars on the track, or when she's having to hustle an ill-handling car around a Richmond or Texas in traffic, instead of holding the foot to the floor and passing folks at will, like she did on Saturday? The novelty factor is certainly there for her as well right now, but I think the shine might start coming off the apple when she starts to struggle to run top-25, and that's just in the Nationwide cars later this year. I really feel like the best insight that she got on Saturday was what it's like for Dario, Dixon, Briscoe and Helio on your avearage mile-and-a-half, where they can drive where they please, pass who they please, and run right back up to the front even after encountering trouble. She's not going to have that dominating of a car every week in Nationwide, let alone Cup if she makes it up there, so will she be happy to do the Hornish thing, i.e. doing a lot of running around in the 20s and 30s, with a very occasional foray into the top-15? Granted, she'll be doing this while cashing huge checks for t-shirt and beer coozie sales, but don't most racers want to win? Maybe she's different, and is already thinking in terms of which island she wants to buy in Dubai, but I just think that if she hits tough times in Nationwide (which I think she will, but just my opinion), she's gonna get wistful for the twice-yearly podiums in IndyCar. That's why I think she'll stick around.

BTW, you and I need to hang. Going to K-City this year?

[pressdog]

Good points, but what are Danica's odds of winning in IndyCar given she's not with the only two teams with a shot to win? Might you night want to cash huge checks when you are not winning, as opposed to smaller checks when you are not winning? I will be at KC, Iowa, Chicagoland and Indy Qualifying this year. We'll have a beverage or eight.

[Cerberus]

Good post pdog, what I don't understand is why a lot of individuals find in the now 5 years long media swirling around Danica a reason to hate her. Why the heck should it be her fault? That's something absolutely out of any kind of control, for her as for any sport celebrity. Even a 1 year old baby could understand this. So it's clear that these individuals don't want to. Any reasons?

The media stuffs is one thing, Danica as a driver, Danica as a person, is another. They are two things that HAVE TO be completely dissociated. Why the need to say something like "this or that announcer, this or that journalist makes me hate her".....what heck of an abstract reasoning is it? Is it logical?