[hurryinhoosier62]

It's called a 25% increase in viewership and a 17% increase in ticket sales. Get used to it, gentlemen. Danica is here to stay with numbers like that. NASCAR is all about marketing these days.

[The Champ]

from the link:

After all, would she want to be remembered as the woman driver who had to have rules changed to make things easier for her?

She's had things made easier her entire career, why she she start worrying about it now?

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by hurryinhoosier62

It's called a 25% increase in viewership and a 17% increase in ticket sales. Get used to it, gentlemen. Danica is here to stay with numbers like that. NASCAR is all about marketing these days.

I seriously doubt that Danica's popularity has increased the numbers to that extent.

It may be that her unpopularity is helping increase the numbers - people watching to confirm that she hasn't enough talent to compete at this level.

The economy is improving - a NASCAR race is a vacation for most people. Need to be able to fly/drive to another part of the country, car rental, stay in a hotel for multiple days, eat out and check out other things in the area.

For my wife and I, a NASCAR race is about a $2,000 trip or more.

[Blued and Painted]

I think she's running in the back beacuse she's scared of one of those Rusty Wallace type crashes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHGibsrdmo

[hurryinhoosier62]

That crash would have jarred anyone. I still think that Petty's crash at Daytona in '89 was worse.

[Region Warrior]

Champ.
If economy is improving how come the stands are half full?

[ho428]

Originally Posted by The Champ

For my wife and I, a NASCAR race is about a $2,000 trip or more.

I'm sure Brian France appreciates those like you, but from the looks of the stands the numbers are still down, and it's not all the economy.

Personally, I wouldn't spend $20, to go to a NASCAR race, $20 probably wouldn't cover parking, but to each their own.

[Rob B]

Originally Posted by Region Warrior

Champ.
If economy is improving how come the stands are half full?

Ky Speedway now has sections of seats that are multiple colors instead of whatever solid color the track normally would use. This gives a false sense of the stands looking like there are more bodies in the seats than there really is!

[MikeNoun]

Yes, I mentioned this earlier, that NASCAR has been using multi-colored seats to make it appear the stands are more full than they really are, and they also use the tactic of covering entire sections of grandstands with huge sponsor tarps. Not an exclusive NASCAR tactic by any means, they've been doing this with all major sports, trying to create the illusion that attendance is good.

The Oakland Raiders and a few other teams (Jacksonville Jaguars) are now using the giant tarp method because they can't sell out the stadiums anymore.

Closing off whole sections serves two purposes; NASCAR gets paid more from the advertiser for having a 60-foot tarp advertising their product, and it makes the grandstands look packed, because everyone is grouped into other grandstands.

But when they go to the blimp or helicopter cam, it's amazing how sparse the crowd actually is compared to what it looked like at ground level with the cars flying by. The Bristol race was embarrassing, because they had hoped for pre-Obama Depression attendance numbers after they revamped the track to the "old days" setup.

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by ho428

Personally, I wouldn't spend $20, to go to a NASCAR race, $20 probably wouldn't cover parking, but to each their own.

If you've never been to a race in person, you don't know what you're missing...

Parking is free, unlike the stick and ball sports that charge as much or more for tickets...

[The Champ]

Originally Posted by Blued and Painted

I think she's running in the back beacuse she's scared of one of those Rusty Wallace type crashes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOHGibsrdmo

That same year - our first NASCAR race (as Rusty Wallace fans when he was driving the Pontiac GP) - Daytona 500 crash down coming out of 2 and ending up near turn 3...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g5rJN3eSaY

We were in the turn 1 tower.

[MikeNoun]

Yeah baby! Gotta love the hype!

(05/17/13) NBC SPORTS - Danica’s in the NASCAR Hall of Fame – sort of

Time will tell if Danica Patrick‘s career in stock car racing will be worthy enough to make her a NASCAR Hall of Fame driver. But the popular Sprint Cup rookie has already made her way into the Charlotte, N.C. museum as part of an exhibit that honors her for being the first woman to win a Cup pole.

According to USA Today’s Nate Ryan, Patrick, who earned the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500 and nearly converted it into a win, was asked for some mementos from the occasion by Winston Kelley, the NASCAR HoF’s executive director. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver responded by donating the trophy for her pole position and some hats from the celebration at Daytona International Speedway’s Victory Lane.

Per Ryan’s story, Patrick’s exhibit is positioned inside the main entrance to the building, which will surely see an uptick in traffic over the next week or so as fans converge for tomorrow’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It’s part of a bigger effort by the Hall to emphasize more recent accomplishments within the sport.

[The Champ]

According to USA Today’s Nate Ryan, Patrick, who earned the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500 and nearly converted it into a win

Since when is 8th place "nearly a win"?

She was never really in contention to win because she wouldn't "go".

Jr. got fed up waiting for "Panica" to "go" and went around by himself and finished 2nd.

If he would have dumped her earlier, he might have had a chance at the win - and Panica would have probably finished 15th or worse.

[David Holmberg]

Champ, and if the race went another lap she would have finished about 18-20th.

There was very little passing at Daytona this year until the last lap.

NASCAR is and has been (for a while) a sponsor driven sport. If you bring enough money to the table they will promote Sammy the Slug.

[richmas5]

It's unreal a whole posting hating on a woman,bottom line is we all know she doesn't belong in racing with talented real NASCAR or formula one racers,

[MikeNoun]

Hating on a woman? Seriously? It's called criticism of a professional driver. Only a person that dissects every word anyone speaks, looking for racism, chauvinism, or exclusion of ANY group of people, would say anyone in this thread is "hating on a woman".

I said earlier in this thread that she's a decent driver, and she'll probably win a race this year, most likely due to fuel mileage or a lucky break, but she IS good on road courses, that's where she may shine.

You should follow IndyCar. Danica drove the bright green GoDaddy car, and she sucked. Her replacement is young Canadian James Hinchcliffe, who won the opening race of the year, then had two races where the car broke (no fault of his), then won the last race. So in 4 races, he's doubled Danica's entire 10-year career totals. Andretti Autosport is thrilled. They finally have a good driver at the wheel of their GoDaddy car.

She's a decent driver, but not a winning driver. She lacks the competitive edge to be successful.

[richmas5]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Hating on a woman? Seriously? It's called criticism of a professional driver. Only a person that dissects every word anyone speaks, looking for racism, chauvinism, or exclusion of ANY group of people, would say anyone in this thread is "hating on a woman".

I said earlier in this thread that she's a decent driver, and she'll probably win a race this year, most likely due to fuel mileage or a lucky break, but she IS good on road courses, that's where she may shine.

You should follow IndyCar. Danica drove the bright green GoDaddy car, and she sucked. Her replacement is young Canadian James Hinchcliffe, who won the opening race of the year, then had two races where the car broke (no fault of his), then won the last race. So in 4 races, he's doubled Danica's entire 10-year career totals. Andretti Autosport is thrilled. They finally have a good driver at the wheel of their GoDaddy car.

She's a decent driver, but not a winning driver. She lacks the competitive edge to be successful.

Not a winning driver or not a good driver doesn't that all mean the same thing ,when you have a subject about a person with pretty much negativity,I would say that's hating I guess their is nothing else to talk about,now go say something smart

[richard sargent]

The very fact she is given millions and millions of dollars and fawned upon like she is a goddess of racing is what is really sexist!

Ask yourself this if she weighed 195 lbs. and was ugly as a mud fence would she have had given literally thousands of opportunities at the highest level?

Think about it, if Jackie Robinson was given the a starting position on a major league team in the 40's paid the highest salary, played terrible defense, couldn't run, batted 205 and every time he got a base hit. The press went wild!

What kind of uproar would it have caused?????????

The highest level of competition is always been about competition, not your race, where you born, if you were a nice guy or a complete ass, what team you were on or even if you were a drunk or freak like Dennis Rodman you still have to earn it.

But Danica gets a free pass and has earned nothing because she gorgeous, that's it.

They talk about everyone picking on her and hatred toward her and they call it prejudice.

It's the opposite they have created their own prejudice for promotional greed!

[richmas5]

Originally Posted by richard sargent

The very fact she is given millions and millions of dollars and fawned upon like she is a goddess of racing is what is really sexist!

Ask yourself this if she weighed 195 lbs. and was ugly as a mud fence would she have had given literally thousands of opportunities at the highest level?

Think about it, if Jackie Robinson was given the a starting position on a major league in the 40's paid the highest salary, played terrible defense, couldn't run, batted 205 and every time he got a base hit. The press went wild!

What kind of uproar would it have caused?????????

The highest level of competition is always been about competition, not your race, where you born, if you were a nice guy or a complete ass, what team you were on or even if you were a drunk or freak like Dennis Rodman you have to earn it.

But Danica gets a free pass and has earned nothing because she gorgeous, that's it.

They talk about everyone picking on her and hatred toward her and they call it prejudice.

It's the opposite they have created their own prejudice for promotional greed!

A
Well said exactly,she is in a male dominated sport,yes she is not competitive enough to be where she is but because she is eye candy that's all that matters if she was ugly no one would sponsor her and she would have been out of racing awhile ago

[MikeNoun]

That's my point!!!! No one is "hating on a woman" in this thread. People are "hating on a DRIVER".

Only someone LOOKING for racism, sexism, or inequality, in everything you speak, type, or think, would say people in this thread were "hating on a woman". Those are the people that hide behind sexism or racism when they've lost an argument, or are presented with facts.