Danica Rising...

[eyer]

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/assets_c/2009/12/danica-thumb-432x288.jpg

Today, rookie Danica Patrick became the first female to set fast time for a Sprint Cup race, NASCAR's premeir automobile racing series.

Patrick's pole-winning speed this afternoon of 196.434 mph is the fastest Daytona 500 qualifying speed in 23 years. Patrick bested 44 other drivers, all men, to capture the best starting position in a race on NASCAR's top level since Janet Guthrie's twin 9th-place starting positions at Talladega and Bristol in 1977 - 36 years ago!

This is Patrick's first full-time foray into Sprint Cup racing; she placed 10th in the final standings of NASCAR's Nationwide Series last year (the Nationwide series is the minor league to Sprint Cup's major league), although when she starts from pole position in next Sunday's Daytona 500, she will be competing in her 10th Sprint Cup race.

Patrick races for fellow driver Tony Stewart's Stewart-Haas Racing; Ryan Newman is the 3rd Stewart-Haas team driver and he qualified 4th fastest today. Team boss and 3-time Sprint Cup champion Stewart qualified 5th fastest today.

Jeff Gordon qualified 2nd fastest today, .2 of a mph slower than Patrick. Per Sprint Cup rules, the 2 fastest qualifiers are automatically locked-into their respective positions for the start of next Sunday's race, while the remainder of the 43 drivers will have to earn their starting positions by first competing in 2 Duel races held this Thursday.

Danica Patrick became the first and only female to win an Indy car race when she captured the checkered flag at the Indy Japan 300 in 2008. Her 3rd place finish in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 is the highest finish ever by a female in The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, a race that's been ran since 1911.

No female has ever won a NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

The Daytona 500 airs on Fox next Sunday.

http://www.nascar.com/content/dam/nascar/articles/2013/02/17/main/danica-main.jpg/jcr:content/renditions/danica-main.jpg.main.png

 

[Ticking]

http://up.xhamster.com/000/028/177/339_1000.jpg

I was wondering why you have been a forum member for years, but still do not have an avatar picture.

 

[eyer]

http://up.xhamster.com/000/028/177/339_1000.jpg

I was wondering why you have been a forum member for years, but still do not have an avatar picture.

.
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I suspect a bozo named Tony stole it...

...I notified the authorities, and they assure me they've put their best man on the case:





















https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ8p5sgynVBcfw_YBbMeeBecSThWB2jVzLtq-3Da99jOyuM6uPS

 

[jomar]

She seemed to have a good sense of humor about NASCAR sex jokes when she started dating Stenhouse. Now, new material.

 

[eyer]

Danica Patrick and 'the image of God'...

We're more popular than Jesus now...

- John Lennon

I always smirk, at least, when I read one who derides God by mocking another with what happened to that image of God deal sort-of-thing. Usually, it's a non-believer rapping a self-acclaimed believer because of one perceived shortcoming or another. I smirk, at least, because I've never had any difficulty imagining the true difference between the Original and a image...

...think of you - the original; now think of someone taking a picture of you - your image. How large of an actual difference is there between you and a picture of you? Is that vast difference even possible to fully define?

Even greater, then - infinitely greater, naturally - are the actual difference(s) between God and, who the Bible states are images of him, us.

Some reports I've read in this past week about how Danica Patrick is affecting the consciousnesses of so many by her performance of being the first female to win the pole for the Daytona 500 have inspired in me thoughts of how Ms. Patrick is conveying her image of God-ness to these masses - especially in the hearts of young girls.

I've seen first-hand this feminine exceptionalism positively effect the sport of big-time, oval track auto racing before: back in the 70s when Janet Guthrie started a string of 11 Indianapolis 500 starts and then ventured into stock car racing; and then, 20 years later, when a young lady named Sarah Fisher picked-up the feminine Indy car baton. Danica herself took that Indy car hand-off and raced to a height in Indy car racing no woman has ever scaled before: Victory Lane.

But Patrick's overall performance in Indy car racing has always been blemished by one consideration or another: her win in the Japan Indy 300 in 2008 was captured by not outracing her competitors, but by staying out on the track when her competitors all pitted for needed fuel; that is a winning action ordered by her crew chief, not one made by the driver's right foot. And even though Danica has notched the best-ever Indianapolis 500 finish for a female - 3rd - that outstanding accomplishment (think of the few people who can claim that) is also marred by the accusation that her sponsor money - largely secured because of the novelty of her sex in the sport - has much, much more to do with it than her actual talent (there's an axiom in auto racing: How fast do you want to go? How much money do you have?).

Nevertheless, as Guthrie and Fisher and Patrick climbed to Indy car heights no woman had ever seen before, the inspiration invoked in the female sex overall was somewhat Beatlesque in proportion...

...in her first year of full-time NASCAR racing last year, Danica Patrick was voted by the fans to be the most popular Nationwide series driver, a feat which is incredible to believe if you're familiar with a sport whose God is named Earnhardt, whose Son still walks the track. Indeed, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., has been named Sprint Cup's most popular driver for something like the last 11 years straight!

But the reports out of Daytona since Danica made more world history last Sunday by winning that 500's pole portend to this observer that Danica Patrick may be the driver to unseat the holy Earnhardt reign as NASCAR's most popular driver. She laid more foundation for my prediction by delivering another feminine-first this very afternoon: in leading 5 laps of the Daytona 500 today, Patrick is the first woman to ever lead a NASCAR Sprint Cup race; her 8th place finish is the highest finish a female has ever earned in Sprint Cup racing.

Patrick again has excellent monetary resources backing her, and she once again has a top flight team putting great race cars at her disposal. But all the hype which is generating now is only because of one fact: Danica is performing. And females, especially the younger ones, are finding what I sense is "the image of God" in a human being who I don't know evens believes in God...

...here: take a look at this great story by Terry Blount and see if you sense something special happening in real time, too:

This is why Danica Patrick matters

Danica Patrick a role model like no other

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- You want to know why Danica Patrick matters?

Listen to these stories:


http://espn.go.com/racing/blog/_/na...nascar-why-danica-patrick-matters-daytona-500

What's the something special that someone said to be made in the image of God shares with God himself?

The Beatles simply made music...

...Danica Patrick is delivering HOPE to those who are now seeing their selves in her image.

You go, girl!