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Re: “Danica Patrick hasn't received the same patience afforded to other NASCAR drivers entering the sport”
Put simply, Danica is a below average stock car driver on her best day, with above average funding. Unfortunately the latter has become more important as the sport has grown, to the point where drivers are chosen solely based on how much $ they can bring to the table. The old saying of Cup having 'the best 43 drivers (stock car) in the world' has never been less true than it is today (nevermind the fact that there's only 40 now).
Regarding her talents behind the wheel, she has an inability to communicate technically what she needs done to the car, leaving her CC to practically throw darts. This was also the case is IndyCar where her Andretti teammates were forced to set up her car for her as she was unable to do it herself. It's also why she moves onto a new one almost every year, leaving 2 Eurys, Gibson and Knost in her wake of mediocrity.
I remember at Phoenix in the fall of 2014 she was amazed to learn that adding/reducing wedge and 'turning the jack bolt' are the same thing. Then at the 2015 D500 she had to be told both in the Shootout and 500 that an Oil Temp of 290 is perfectly fine, and then got mad when her CC wouldn't take tape off the car (he didn't need to). Those are just 2 examples of very basic things that drivers learn in the 1st year in a stock car, yet she had gone several years oblivious to them.
Then there's her perpetual victim mentality coupled with almost always passing the blame onto others. How many other drivers have threatened to kick another in the balls just for racing them hard (as she did to Bowman)? Or wrecked themselves twice because they can't drive a loose racecar and then go up to the deemed offender (Hamlin) and shake them like a rag doll? How many males would get away with such antics with 0 retribution (either on track or off)?
This ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwyueQkHCts ) video when she missed pit-in, got a speeding penalty and missed her box at Dega is just another example of long dossier of what I'm talking about. Just like she wrecked Menard at Dega this year after she was about to miss her pit entrance and then proceeded to blame it on the team for not 'giving her priority' on the radio.
She whines all race long about drivers who she deems to be 'in her way' and references 'damn lappers' repeatedly, completely forgetting that she's usually one herself. At Kansas she actually had the gall to say how much the 78 'sucks' and how she 'hates racing with him', but the best part is that she said it as he was lapping her and dominating the race.
She claimed that Gibson was holding her back and requested that she get a new crew chief. Meanwhile, Gibson goes over to Kurt (along with her chassis(s) that she struggled in) and promptly wins two races and makes the Chase, while she continued to struggle with his CC and chassis(s). She did the same thing to Knost, and thus far her results are the same with her next soon-to-be-fired CC, finally getting her first top 15 of the year compliments of attrition at Dover. The same was true in Indycar, where she had a new lead engineer or strategist in practically every season she raced (despite having no idea of how to setup the cars herself).
Maybe, just maybe, Danica needs to put take a bigger responsibility behind the wheel, and up her work ethic. There were rumours that her NXS CC Eury JR was fired for questioning it years ago, and nothing has changed since then. I don’t know how much taking photos on the beach or in yoga poses helps you at the track, and the results are indicative of that. Driving a racecar isn’t just a weekend hobby like she’s done her entire life, her competition is always doing something to improve while she’s off having fun.
The common denominator to her struggles in her career isn't the equipment, the crew chief or her crew, it's the driver behind the wheel. Sooner or later she’s going to run out of people/things to blame, and the only person left will be in yoga prose with a dumbfounded look on their face.
