Even if you are not a fan of auto racing, you have likely heard the name Danica Patrick. She began racing in the Indy Car series in 2005, and then became the first woman to ever win an Indy Car race in 2008, winning a race in Motegi, Japan. In 2010, Patrick began racing stock cars in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series on a part-time schedule. This weekend, she finished 4th in the Nationwide race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the highest finish for a woman in NASCAR history. Despite these accomplishments, much of what I read about this weekend’s race involved people finding ways to diminish her accomplishment. I find this very disappointing.

I have written about Danica in this column previously, and I have enjoyed watching her race over the last five or six years. I am amazed at how often I encounter people rooting against her and finding reasons to criticize her. I have to assume the reasons for this are sexism, jealousy, or some combination of the two. NASCAR is a boys club, like most professional sports. Men, who comprise the majority of race fans, are generally not interested in rooting for a woman to succeed in a sport dominated by men. On top of the fact that Patrick is a woman, she is also very attractive and is not afraid to use that attractiveness to collect a whole lot of sponsorship dollars. Your average man is even less inclined to take a beautiful woman seriously, while the women who watch racing are likely to feel threatened by one. The thing that needs to be remembered here is that Patrick is no Anna Kournikova, a tennis player who became famous for her looks despite being a very mediocre player. Danica has real talent, and she has shown that at every level of racing in which she has competed. She struggled a lot last year, but it was her first time ever racing stock cars. Yes, if you compared the amount of attention she got to her results, it was way out of proportion. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is the most popular driver in NASCAR, and regularly receives coverage that seems far greater than his performance would deserve, but I rarely hear complaints about that.

Patrick’s Indy Car win was certainly due to fuel mileage, and her fourth-place run in Vegas was affected by it as well. Anyone who says that this somehow invalidates her performance Saturday is flat wrong, and likely did not watch the race. She had a strong car all day. She is clearly far more comfortable with the heavy stock car than she was last year, and showed it while running side-by-side with some of the sport’s stars. She had a top-10 car, even without the late attrition due to cars running out of fuel. Was it a top-5 car? Maybe not. But fuel strategy regularly impacts races, and I rarely hear anyone saying that those drivers did not earn their finishes. You need to be in a position to take advantage of something like that. You need to have a car to put you in that position, and you need to have a driver who can bring it home. The previous high finish for a woman in NASCAR was a 5th-place run by Sarah Christian back in 1949, a mere 62 years ago. I don’t know about you, but to me, when you break a record that has stood for 62 years, you have really accomplished something.

Danica Patrick does not need me to defend her. She will continue to be successful, both in Indy Cars and NASCAR. Will she be a champion? Maybe not. She is far more than a curiosity or an untalented pretty face, though. She is a racer.

Good sports, continued:

2) Continuing the theme of women competing in sports dominated by men, a high school baseball game in California on Saturday became the setting for the first-ever matchup between two female starting pitchers in a high school game. Marti Sementelli and her teammates from Birmingham High beat Ghazaleh Sailors and San Marcos High, 5-1. Sementelli threw a complete game, allowing five hits and one run.

3) Lindsey Vonn, an American skier, won a title for the third consecutive day Sunday when she won a Super G event in Tarvisio, Italy.

Bad sports:

1) Brandon Davies, a star basketball player for BYU, was suspended for the rest of the season this week after allegedly breaking the school’s honor code by engaging in premarital sex. I can not defend Davies, as I imagine he signed something saying he would follow the code, and I am sure he knew the consequences. That said, I despise the rule and find it laughable that something like this still exists in 2011.

2) Tennis champion Serena Williams suffered from a pulmonary embolism last week, with a hematoma following shortly after. She is expected to recover fully, but will likely miss significant time from the tour.

3) Wes Leonard, a high school basketball player in Michigan, scored with thirty seconds left to give his team a huge win over a rival team, completing an undefeated regular season for Fennville High School. Then the unthinkable happened. During the celebration, Leonard collapsed and died from an enlarged heart. He was 16 years old.

4) Tina Stewart, a guard for MTSU’s basketball team, was stabbed and killed by her roommate on Wednesday. Shanterrica Madden is being held without bail.

Bad sports, good sports appears every Monday.

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02

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