The big (rainy) race

The race ended 34 laps early this year because of rain. Ah well, my girl Danica only came in 8^th again, and Sarah Fisher only got 18^th. Rookie Milka Duno was 31^st, crashing out. But wow! three beautiful, talented women in the race this year! Duno has FOUR masters degrees!

Says Danica: I don't think of myself as being a girl driver, or setting girl records. If you can cut it you'll cut it, and you'll last in this sport. That is the right attitude! If we're going to make it in traditionally male arenas, we must do so on our merits alone. A female driver can't have as her motivation to be the first girl to win. Her motivation must be to win!

I have a nasty feeling though that Danica gets better rides than Sarah because she's better looking (which is why I chose that picture of Sarah). Seriously, Danica drove for Rahal-Letterman, and now Andretti-Green, while Sarah drives for Dreyer and Reinbold. They can't field as good a car and team. Of course, that's probably true for men too. If you have two male drivers of equal skill, the one that photographs better is probably going to get better rides. So I guess if Sarah suffers from "looks-ism", it's not because of her sex.

If a woman wins the 500 in the next few years, I think it'll be Danica. Sarah though, is pretty consistent and continues to improve, so I think she'll get better rides eventually, so she could win it, say, ten years from now. Hopefully they'll both win someday, and people will recognize that it's not about being a woman, but about being a driver.

I love driving. I prefer to drive a stick, but I'm stuck with a dumb minivan right now. I'd love to spend a day at the track with any of these three.

— Σαρα