The Bloom is Off The Rose.

[Scotty G.]

One has to wonder how long Michael will put up with this attitude.

As long as Go Daddy keeps writing the checko.

If she was actually being employed to race the car and her sponsor money wasn't needed to race it, she would have been canned by about 6:00 tonight after that act at IMS today. If there was ever a fireable offense for a driver, that was it. In the old days, another driver would have likely been in the car by Sunday morning.

I wish Michael didn't need her money and could run the team and hire the drivers like he wanted. Then he could tell her to go the hell away sometime about 5 minutes after the Indy 500 ends. Then she could get a head start on her sterling NASCAR career, where she needs to get back to learning how to finish 30th and 3 laps down every week.

Kanaan is the guy I feel most sorry for. He is pissing away years with this circus. The absolute worst decision that was made in the past 5 years in Indy Cars, was TK reupping with AGR. TK was loyal and look what that has gotten him. He should have been smart enough to see this coming. He should have gone and talked to Bobby Rahal, Scott Roembke and Buddy Rice. But he is stuck now with a team showing no signs of ever regaining its past form.


One last one on P. Sparkle Pony.... if her car was so crappy and so undriveable at Indy this year and "its not her fault" for the results because of said car; can we also summise that in past years when she has had fast speeds and good results, that also was more because of "the car". Because without her even realizing it (which isn't hard to believe with the intelligence level of this person), she just admitted today that she plays very little role in whether she runs good or runs bad. Because if its "not her fault" when the car is slow, then it also can't be because of her when the car is fast.

So not only did she throw her entire crew, engineering staff and team owner under a greyhound and made a complete ass of herself in front of the public, but also threw herself under the greyhound as well (by indirectly saying the only way she can go fast and look like a real driver is if the car is good and she has no clue and no care on how to make a average car better).

[Jag_Warrior]

One last one on P. Sparkle Pony.... if her car was so crappy and so undriveable at Indy this year and "its not her fault" for the results because of said car; can we also summise that in past years when she has had fast speeds and good results, that also was more because of "the car". Because without her even realizing it (which isn't hard to believe with the intelligence level of this person), she just admitted today that she plays very little role in whether she runs good or runs bad. Because if its "not her fault" when the car is slow, then it also can't be because of her when the car is fast.

So not only did she throw her entire crew, engineering staff and team owner under a greyhound and made a complete ass of herself in front of the public, but also threw herself under the greyhound as well (by indirectly saying the only way she can go fast and look like a real driver is if the car is good and she has no clue and no care on how to make a average car better).

Well, Scotty knocks one over the fence. Great logic and I have to agree with you. Yeah, if she doesn't know why it's going slow, then she also shouldn't have much to say when it goes fast.

What continues to amaze me is this is the same person who said she wasn't sure if she wanted to do NASCAR or Formula One a couple of years ago. Ya know, back when she thought she was prepared to jump straight into Sprint Cup with no ARCA or Nationwide prep. And judging by her roadcourse performances this year (and her whining about it afterward), they could bolt a turbo onto a V10 powered Ferrari and give her a 1 lap headstart, and she'd still be fighting to stay ahead of the HRT's and Virgins by the end of an F1 race.

[Easy Drifter]

The last thing a racer ever does is publicly blame the crew/engineer. In private yes if, and that is a big if, they fouled up.
It wouldn't totally surprise me if some of the crew quit before the race.
Some will almost certainly leave or demand they be moved to another driver after the race.
Most will stay, maybe all, for the race but if anything goes wrong they will not make any extra effort. As they are pros, unlike the driver, they will do their best as long as the car is running well and she is trying.
Most of us have known that she can't set up a car but I think this is the first time she has admitted it.
After the number of years she has raced pro she should have learned. Too much time promoting the 'Brand' and too little learning to be a racer.
If you can't relate to your team properly what the car is doing where, it is almost impossible to get it setup to the drivers liking. Computers help but the driver has to provide proper feedback.
I worked with both kinds but they all at least tried to learn how to provide feedback.

[beachbum]

The title of the thread may just say it all. The bloom is off the rose as Danica has finally proven to be just an average driver (at best), has been overshadowed by other women (both rookies), and revealed much about her true attitude. Most of this in the past has been overshadowed by careful handlers and slick PR. But the truth can only be hidden for so long.

You people need to read to read another racing forum where the Danica supporters have "come to her rescue". The excuses have been almost laughgable. Some examples:

The photo? All drivers have a photo with only their car, so that proves nothing. Maybe her crew was helping rebuild TK's car. No proof of course.

Blaming the car? Of course the car was crap as were the other AA cars.

Not being able to give feedback? The engineers should know how to set up a car.

The boos? Even though a couple posters were sitting in the stands, they were wrong, it never happened. One apologist even claimed one critic could not have been at the race because they live a long distance from Indy and posted a message a short time after the event. I guess that "supporter" never heard of laptops and cellular internet and proxy IP addresses. The fan could have posted from the stands and have an IP address of Timbuktu.

Those apologists just don't see how ridiculous their excuses sound. Instead of debating the critics on factual points, they just attack the critics with very twisted logic. Danica is not some raw rookie, she has been in Indy car for years, on very good teams (at least they were before she showed up). She should have learned something about feedback. Oddly enough, the TV coverage reported that the team went back to a setup used in 2008 to make her more comfortable. It was ok then, but junk now?

Those same supporters should read the comments of RHR and Marco, 2 drivers with a long history of whining. They both handled the struggles with grace. RHR admitted the car was scary loose, but his job was to hang on to it and get the most out of it. No blame, just fact. Marco said almost the same. Those supporters don't remember when Marco was pummeled a few years back when he parked cars because the handling scared him. Some of those Danica apologists were Marco's harshest critics.

There will always be those who support Danica regardless of how she does. I don't have a problem with that, but I do have problems with "fans" who twist facts, provide lame excuses, and attack other people who think her 15 minutes of fame have passed (often attacking viciously). I say let her go to NASCAR. The "novelty" factor of her brand won't protect her there for long and the image of IndyCar as a professional series won't be tarnished by a Princess.

[mileman]

Sheesh! This is such a non-story...

[anthonyvop]

Sheesh! This is such a non-story...

Are you serious?


The Face of the IRL gets booed and her crew is rumored to be mutinous?

It is the story of the weekend.

[Marbles]

I try to avoid DP threads like I try to avoid looking at accidents on the highway (it's the number one cause of other accidents, ya know!) but I think the girl is generally messed up this season and I almost feel sorry for her. It's as if she can't help herself, in more ways than one.

Slagging road courses, the very form of racing she cut her teeth on "it's just follow the leader," or in her case, "follow the back-marker in front of you." and now she's slagging her team.

Having said that, she's in the race and her teams ability to pass cars with pit strategy, and not her ability to pass cars on the track, still gives her a legitimate shot at it.

[beachbum]

Sheesh! This is such a non-story...

The main story is AA as a team is struggling badly. 2 crashes now for TK and none of the cars have been quick, even in race trim. But the Danica situation is a story in and of itself.

I just finished reading all of the post qualifying interviews. Almost all of the 24 qualified drivers were saying the same things. To go fast, the cars have to be very loose and the driver is just hanging on. Some, like Justin Wilson knew why the car pushed in turn 2 (tailwind) and then was loose in one. Others like Bell and Rahal just stated the cars were scary, but their job was to keep their foot down. As Townsend Bell put it "In the end, my foot was dumber than my brain, and I just kept my foot in it" (one of the best quotes of the week), or Rahal "you just have to grit your teeth and go for it, if you don't, you aren't doing your job". Not one blamed the team, or the setup, or anything else. They all stated it was just what you had to do and felt they did the best in the circumstances. It was we did this as a team. The only driver to use "I" was Mutoh, when he said "I just couldn't put four laps together".

All but Danica. Her comments stood out because they were so contrasting to every other driver. That makes it a story.

[markabilly]

The last thing a racer ever does is publicly blame the crew/engineer. In private yes if, and that is a big if, they fouled up.
It wouldn't totally surprise me if some of the crew quit before the race.
Some will almost certainly leave or demand they be moved to another driver after the race.
.

at most you might hear, is gee, we are still working out the kinks....we have had some problems due to new parts...

but all in all , it was not that critical of the team:

Patrick was shaking and holding back tears after the qualifying run. She said adjustments on the car throughout the week were poor.
"The car is just totally skating across the track, and there's no grip," she said. "My mechanics took tons of time to make sure it was fast and slick and no drag. It's there, it's just that the setup's not there. I feel bad for them because it's a good car.
"The GoDaddy car deserves to be higher up than this. It's better than this. It's just not set up right."

Seems the whole team is having issues if you look at the results.

she was actually a close third out of the four.

TK crashed

So hate her all you want (and I am not talking about easy here who has some basis for his thoughts unlike the rest of you), and sprew forth.....She is still the biggest draw there is for Indy, like it or not.

When she is gone, next to nobody in the general public will be tuning in on TV to watch Kannan, Will Power and Helio race...but not to worry, why there is at least a couple of hundred real fans who post on forums who will watch....the others will be tuning into nascar later in the day

[harvick#1]

sorry but Helio has got a good following. and when the general public finally grows up and knows what a fraud she is to the sport, they will start liking someone new.

just Remember CART/IRL survived before her, they will survive after her. once she fails miserably in Nascar, she will come crawling back and I really hope no one picks her up, she is a tumor to the sport and it will be great to see everyone get back to racing and TV can actually follow the race instead of worrying where Danica is running in 15th place.

plus, judging by the attendance in the IRL races, shes not helping out any, the oval tracks outside of Indy are lucky to get half a crowd if they are lucky.