Menstuff® has compiled the following information on Women in NASCAR.
The first two races of the 2012 season at Daytona (18 of 36 Camping World Trucks and 25 of 43 Naitonwide racers) finish under the caution flag. That's the way I love to see a NASCAR round-d-round race end with a major pileup up front with the leaders. It's the new form of the good ole Demolition Derby.
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- 2016 Sprint Cup Series Schedule
- 2012
Sprint Cup Series Schedule
- 2012 Nationwide Series Schedule
- Three female racers left their mark on history July 23rd, 2011 competing together in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series - Jennifer Jo Cobb, Michelle Theriault and Johanna "Jo" Long
- New game, new rules add to Daytona weekend excitement
- From NASCAR To The Short Tracks: Females Defy The Stereotype
Race Schedule
Related Issue:
Women
Racers Directory,
Women
in Racing,
Women
Racers,
More
Women in Racing,
Race
Schedules,
Notable
Women,
ALMS,
Iditarod,
Indy
Lights,
IRL,
Soap
Box Derby
2012 NASCAR Spring Cup
Stats (As of 6/22/12)
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2012 NASCAR Nationwide Race
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2012 NASCAR Camping World
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2011
Danica started 16th at Chicagoland and finished in the top 10. Racing only 5 of 14 races to date, she ranks 25th of 96 Nationwide racers in 2011.
2011 NASCAR Nationwide Race
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The first two races of the 2012 season at Daytona (18 of 36 Camping World Trucks and 25 of 43 Naitonwide racers) finish under the caution flag. That's the way I love to see a NASCAR round-d-round race end with a major pileup up front with the leaders. It's the new form of the good ole Demolition Derby.
New game, new rules add to Daytona weekend excitement
Three female racers left their mark on history July 23rd
competing together in NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series.
New game, new rules add to Daytona weekend excitement
It has never been easy to handicap a restrictor-plate, superspeedway race, but it just keeps getting more difficult.
The regular wild cards of blown engines, single-car accidents and mistakes on pit road that go into altering the finish of a stock-car race have the added unknowns of the Big One, the capriciousness of the draft, and now two-car tandems that are apparently becoming standard on the newly repaved superspeedways of Daytona International Speedway and Talladega SuperSpeedway.
Last year in Alabama, we witnessed two-car breakaways that were at least partially attributed to the added grip of the pavement and we are going to see the same thing this week. In the short period of time that we've seen cars on the track so far in Speedweeks, two-car tandems are dominating the running order. Two-car drafts run much faster than the multi-car lineups we've seen in the past and that has the potential to radically alter the finishing order of this year's Daytona 500 just like it did this past weekend with the Budweiser Shootout.
These tandems have been clocked going as fast as 206 mph, necessitating rule changes by NASCAR designed to slow them. Artificially slowing the field might create large drafting packs since it levels the playing field, but the intent of the aero changes is to allow the cars to still have enough acceleration to break apart from one another -- and that is probably going to leave the two-car tandems intact. If that happens, you will be watching a high-speed game of leapfrog and the last man standing will be the winner.
NASCAR.COM got ahead of the game, however. Literally.
One of its games this year will use a strength-based
scoring system. NASCAR Fantasy Live (fantasygames.nascar.com/live/
)
will employ a scoring system that not only rewards a
driver's finishing position, but also will award points for
how well he ran during the race. This will eliminate some of
the annoying turnabouts of traditional scoring, such as when
a dominant driver crashes with a handful of laps remaining
or when races devolve into gas-mileage contests and it's
going to change the way you set your lineup.
Even more exciting, this game will feature live timing and scoring, so once you sign up and set your roster, you will be able to track your team in real time during the running of the race each week. We're excited about it, and are certain you will be, too.
The best news is, strength is how I basically have handicapped racing all along. The Power Average chart that you reference each week looks at various strength-based categories and assigns a finishing order to them. For example a driver who has led the most laps receives a hypothetical first-place finish, the driver who leads the second-most laps receives a hypothetical second-place finish, and so on. This rewards drivers who competed at the front of the pack for the majority of a race. That chart will become your best reference tool on a given week.
The Favorites
Picking a favorite on the superspeedways always has been a bit of a crapshoot. During the past three years, less than a handful of drivers have swept the top 10 at Daytona each year and since 2007, only two drivers have swept the top 10 at Daytona and Talladega combined. Jeff Gordon performed that feat in 2007 and Kevin Harvick was perfect last year, but they also have had their fair share of hardship. After earning his four consecutive op-10s on plate tracks, Gordon finished outside the top 25 in four of his next five Daytona attempts. Before his perfect sweep last year, Harvick finished worse than 20th in three of the four plate races in 2009.
One of the factors we normally consider on plate tracks is laps spent at the head of the pack because the assumption has been that the fewer cars there are ahead of you, the fewer drivers there are to make mistakes. This week, our three favorites will come from those drivers with the most laps spent among the top 10 during the past three years at Daytona. Kyle Busch has experienced a lot of bad luck during the past two seasons at Daytona, but that doesn't mean he hasn't continued to run well. During the past three years, he has spent 71 percent of the possible laps (including the Gatorade 150 qualifiers) racing inside the top 10 before accidents in the 2009 Daytona 500 and 2010 Coke Zero 400 sent him to the showers with 40-something finishes. When he's kept his nose clean, he finished in the top five in four of five races from 2006 through '08, which includes a victory.
Jeff Gordon also has been star-crossed in recent years. With six victories on this track, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that he can contend on the plate tracks, but he has a tendency to try and make something happen with inopportune passing attempts. The two-car draft will eliminate that factor to some degree and regardless, he has managed to spend a lot of time at the head of the pack. His 717 top-10 laps is nearly two-thirds of those contested during the past three years, and that amount of time in the front of the field is going to earn you points under NASCAR.COM's new system. He's one of only two drivers who knows where he will start on Sunday before the Duel qualifiers are run and his outside front-row position is going to allow him to get a jump on the field with the right drafting partner and pad that statistic.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. inherited his father's ability to draft and for several years he was unstoppable on the plate tracks. His reputation and mystique has taken a beating in the past few years, but it's notable that he still has spent a lot of time in the top 10. His total of 712 laps is only slightly less than Gordon's. He won the pole Sunday, but a wreck in Wednesday's practice will send him to the rear of the field in a backup.
Dark horses abound at Daytona and it appears that will continue to be the case this week. While Hendrick Motorsports dominated the front row in time trials, the third- and fourth-fastest qualifiers are just as interesting. Rookie Trevor Bayne, in the famed Wood Brothers' No. 21, and Paul Menard aren't guaranteed to keep their starting positions for race day since the lineup will be set by their finishing position in their respective Duel, but they already have shown they have fast cars. Bayne could very well be one of the fastest rookies NASCAR has seen in the past few years and he has a traditional stock-car background with wins on local short tracks and in the K&N East and USAR series. Menard has found new life with Richard Childress Racing, which dominated the plate tracks last year with wins by Harvick and Clint Bowyer.
Bill Elliott is another driver who needs to be watched closely. While he might not spend as much time with the lead pack as the favorites, the old dog has a trick or two up his sleeve and is just as likely to finish in the top 15 as any other driver in the field. Car owner James Finch has recent victories and top-10s on the plate tracks with veterans like Mike Bliss and rookies like Brad Keselowski and that means that the team is the total package. Elliott won't race every weekend, so now is the time to take advantage of his experience.
Underdogs
Steve Wallace has a guaranteed start in the Daytona 500 courtesy of the owners' points from the No. 77 Penske Racing team from 2010 and he's going to get tossed into the deep end of the pool to make his Cup debut. One way or another, it's going to be exciting. While his speed in this past Sunday's time trials was well down the order, the draft is the great equalizer and he will try and find a comfortable place to ride. He knows that he is inexperienced in NASCAR's elite division, so he will most likely take on the role of pusher in a two-car draft. If he stays patient for the first three-fourths of the race, that could give him some track time with the leaders. Unfortunately, Wallace has a propensity to be crash-prone in the Nationwide Series, but we're willing to gamble an incident won't happen until the final frenetic laps.
Two other well-known drivers could be considered Underdogs this week because of their temperament and external pressures. Juan Montoya can be mercurial in the cockpit of these full-fendered stockers and when his temper gets the best of him on unrestricted, intermediate speedways, he is liable to initiate contact that all-too-often wrinkles his own fenders. In the draft, however, he holds a steady wheel and usually stays out of trouble. Last year, his greatest success was at Talladega where he earned a pair of third-place finishes, but he also crossed the line 10th in the Daytona 500.
Rookies aren't supposed to run strong on the plate tracks
because veterans don't like drafting with them, but David
Ragan earned a top-10 in his first attempt on this type of
track in the 2007 Daytona 500 and from the 2008 spring
Talladega races through that same event last season, he
rattled off five results of sixth or better and a worst
finish of 17th in nine consecutive plate races.
From NASCAR To The Short Tracks:
Females Defy The Stereotype
Back in the 1950s, it was women in the kitchen and guys being the bread winners of the family. That all changed with the woman rights movement.
Despite that, there is still a stereotype out there that only men are interested in cars and racing. To that stereotype Alison Macleod, USAC Midget racer, says, “There are talented female drivers that break the stereotype, but there are also Asians that can drive, male ballet dancers, girls that can't cook or clean, and guys that are chefs/cleaners... in all reality its just a stereotype and should be seen as that.”
The Sprint Cup Series is male dominated. Only men started its 36 races last year. In the past, females such as Janet Guthrie and Shawna Robinson have tried their hand at auto racing's top level. However, it didn’t worked out due to lack of financial backing and a strong team. With the start of the 2010 season, a lot of talk about female drivers has emerged, specifically surrounding Indy Racing League star Danica Patrick.
In December 2009, Patrick announced that she was going to try her hand at NASCAR by running 12-16 Nationwide Series races for JR Motorsports. For the first time, a female driver would be getting a good ride with a good team. Many argue that she’s only getting that chance due to her popularity, and the fact that she brings Go Daddy on board with her.
With the talk surrounding Patrick and how she’s going to fare in NASCAR, I spoke with Ford Racing USAC Midget driver Alison Macleod, Mosport Speedway Late Model driver Amanda Connolly and Barrie Speedway Charger driver Crystal Doucette on their thoughts about Patrick and females in racing in general.
Alison MacLeod
Alison MacLeod started racing at the age of seven in go-karts and was hooked after winning her first trophy. She moved up to shifter karts at the age of 12 and was signed by Ford Racing at the age of 14 to run USAC midgets.
Macleod doesn’t mind Patrick making the switch to NASCAR as long as she’s doing it for the challenge and not because it pays more. Macleod goes on to add that she doesn’t think that NASCAR or JR Motorsports added her for exposure, though now that the deal has come together, she believes they will take full advantage of the opportunity. But with that opportunity comes a negative outlook. Macleod goes on to say that Patrick posing in a bathing suit or doing commercials for Go Daddy pushes the sponsors to want not just the talent but also looks. I asked her what she thought of the NASCAR coverage, and how the media talks about Danica Patrick. She thought, for example, the ARCA coverage wasn’t fair.
“I didn't like that there were other girls in the race, specifically Alli Owens, who ran better than Patrick did all race long,” Macleod said. “I have no problem with attention when it is deserved. She ran well but not well enough to get THAT much attention in my opinion.”
I then went on to discuss what Macleod thought of the stereotype of females’ and racing. She admitted that it would always be a male-dominated sport, even though some people will defy the stereotype.
“It’s a stereotype. Much like any other stereotype, it’s based of off some truth as of what is seen,” Macleod explained. “There are more guys than girls [in auto racing], but just because it’s a stereotype does not mean that some people go against it. It is a male-dominated sport, I don’t see that changing, and I think if it did, it would lose much of the fan base.”
In her racing experience, Macleod says she has only had one bad experience with the stereotype and adds that she’s just like one of the guys when they’re all hanging out together. She says there is only animosity from her perspective towards girls who are girly and don’t seem like they belong.
For those looking to get into racing, she advices them to start at a young age, have fun with, and the rest will come naturally.
For the 2010 season, Macleod is looking for funding to run in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series or ARCA.
Amanda Connolly
Amanda Connolly started racing in 1999 after renting a Thunder Car for two races in the 1998 season from Bob Phinnemore. She began her journey with two of her best friends and has since learned a lot and proven that she can drive a racecar.
Connolly also doesn’t mind Patrick making the switch. Connolly thinks it’s great that Patrick is giving it a shot but does add that from NASCAR’s perspective, there is a marketing ploy to it.
“I think a lot of things NASCAR does are marketing ploys,” Connolly said. “Danica is a marketing machine, and NASCAR recognizes that. She has done wonders for the IRL, and if she is successful in NASCAR, we can expect the same kind of fan reaction.”
With regards to posing in a bathing suit and doing the Go Daddy commercials, Connolly said she doesn’t have any issues with Patrick posing in a bathing suit, as long as she’s doing it tastefully.
When I asked Connolly about the stereotype, she told me she doesn’t believe that there is a stereotype anymore as there are now females racing at all levels of motorsports. Though she did admit that when racing in a field of 24 guys, the spotlight is always on her.
“People will see every mistake and focus on that,” she explained. “They forget about the great move you made to take the lead, but focus on the way you might have spun yourself out one night.
“I embrace negative comments, I am an aggressive driver, and I have been for most of my career. I have never been insulted by anyone saying that I am a bad driver, nor have I ever been inflated by anyone saying I'm a good driver. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and everyone has their favorites.”
For those looking to get into racing, Connolly advices them to get experience on a crew for a year or two beforehand, watch what you’re getting into financially, and don’t be afraid to ask questions as most drivers are willing to answer them for you.
For the 2010 season, Connolly will not be running anywhere full-time, but she will be spending most of the year at Mosport Speedway and will be helping Kelly Balson run the entire Lucas Oil Sportsman Tour.
Crystal Doucette
Crystal Doucette got interested in racing through her father, Dave Doucette. During her childhood, her dad was involved in derby cars and train races. In 2002, her dad started racing at Barrie Speedway. As soon as she saw him out on the track, the speed and thrill of racing, she wanted to drive a car. When she turned 15, she, along with her dad and crew, put together a 1993 Mustang for racing. Since then, she’s been involved in racing. In 2008, she finished third in the Charger points.
When asked about Patrick’s move to NASCAR, Doucette told me there was a positive side and a negative side. It’s nice to see a female move up in the racing world, but most people see Patrick more as a sex symbol then a racecar driver. With that being said, Doucette added that she thinks there’s a good chance not for NASCAR, but JR Motorsports to increase their exposure.
As with the other ladies, I asked Doucette what she thought of the stereotype, and she told me that she clearly hates it.
“Clearly the stereotype is false,” Doucette said. “If you take the females that race just at Barrie Speedway or Sunset Speedway, they all do very well. For example, myself, 2008 season, placed third in points for the Charger Series and received the Hard Charger Award (no matter what position this driver starts they always make it to the front).
“Females should be treated like any male racer would. It’s always good to see female drivers in any type of race cars, dirt cars, four cylinders, thunder cars, late models. Females are slowly making an impact in the big world of racing, and hopefully, there will be no difference between male and female racers.”
In her time racing at Barrie Speedway, she has only had one male who had a problem with her racing. She said he ran her dirtier than anyone else on the track. Though, overall, she has been respected by the other drivers.
For those getting into racing, she advices the ladies to go out and earn respect and don’t think that acting like a princess will get it done.
“You need to gain your respect out there on the track,” Doucette advises. “You can’t come into racing thinking everyone is going to go easy on you because your a girl. Don’t act like a princess around the track. You're coming into a male-dominate sport, and you want to be treated the same as them.”
Doucette will not be racing again until the 2012 season due to college; however, she’ll still be at the race track helping her dad and boyfriend Jeff Walt.
So whether it’s in NASCAR, USAC Midgets or your
local short track, there are females defying the stereotype
every weekend, proving that racing isn’t just a game
for males anymore.
Source: bleacherreport.com/articles/361488-from-nascar-to-the-short-tracks-females-defy-the-stereotype
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