I don't really follow NASCAR, but occasionally I see some news on my homepage. Last month Richard Petty made some comments about Danica Patrick's inability drive and the only reason for her to be in NASCAR was that she was a woman. I thought he was a bit of a dick, and I didn't buy any of it.
But then I saw this:
How does this happen?
The problem with Ms. Patrick seems to be that while she is not a *bad* driver by any stretch (she is better than many, many male race drivers) she is not good enough (or consistent enough) to be in the top tier of NASCAR. Part of it may be the physicality of the machines - while I will mock the NASCRASH machines for many reasons, it is undeniable that even the so-called 'Car Of Tomorrow' is physically and mentally harder to hustle around a track than F1 or IRL cars. She did reasonably well in IRL, but she's been wildly inconsistent and trending down in closed-wheel American racing.
Please note that I am not saying that women cannot compete well at the top tiers of American closed-wheel racing, just that this particular one does not seem to be able to. As others have observed, she does usually qualify well only to have issues during the race itself. Whether that comes from not being able to get used to the 'rubbin'-is-racin'' near-combat racing style, a lack of
the required level of 'racer's killer instinct' that some suspect or something else entirely I don't know.
That said -
Ashley Force and her sister
Courtney Force are much better representatives for women in US racing, IMHO. Patrick has been given more than a few handwaves and had things overlooked in her career a number of times because of what she is - a big money draw; the Forces compete and competed fairly and won anyway.
Edit: Damn, somehow I also forgot
Angelle Sampey as another good example.
Edit 2: Also forgot to mention: There have been a number of male drivers who didn't belong in NASCAR's top tiers either, who actually have better winning records at this level than Patrick. They were usually summarily (and correctly) booted out after one, maybe two seasons. Discrimination, anyone?