NASCAR driver won't race Danica Patrick cause she weighs less!

Thought I'd post here cause all the Repuke politicos love to appear at these events. Typical Repuke - gotta whine. This was written before the race.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/racing/more/05/29/bc.car.irl.indy500noteb.ap/

One day after NASCAR's Robby Gordon said he would not race against the petite Patrick because he believes she has a weight advantage at a mere 100 pounds, IRL officials said they were not considering changing their rules to level the playing field.

"It's no issue at all, as it pertains to the Indianapolis 500 and oval-track racing," league spokesman John Griffin said.

The IRL does not consider the weight of the driver in its race specifications. While cars must weigh a minimum of 1,525 pounds before the fuel and driver are added, drivers are not weighed.

Patrick checks in almost 50 pounds less than pole winner Tony Kanaan. She qualified fourth for Sunday's race and consistently turned some of the fastest laps of the month. Less weight could give Patrick two advantages -- quicker speeds and less fuel consumption, which could be a key in a 500-mile race.

Win a race sometime, Robby, then maybe, MAYBE, someone will actually give two shits for your opinion.

He's lucky to FINISH a race...

Tall people have an unfair advantage in basketball.

I mean, talk about people who weigh about half what you'd expect... Maybe Robby Gordon just needs to do some dieting.

He's not talking about NASCAR. They have weight rules that include the driver. The IRL doesn't.

He's not fat, btw. I saw him on FX without a shirt and he looks kinda nice. Probably carrying 15 lbs. of chest hair. :evilgrin:

To bring them up to that weight. I don't see how you can weigh over that and still fit in the car comfortably (Of course I'm going by hubby's stats who is 6'2" and 185).

grossly overweight drivers...probably wouldn't fit into the car! ;o)

I guess they could use the rules of horse racing, and have the drivers comform to weight specs just like the jockeys do, but that sounds pretty unrealistic to me! I'd also bet it would really piss of a lot of the existing drivers. There are big wright differences between them, and I doubt any would want to be kicked out of racing or go on a strict diet!

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:LsIUkOeIsH0J:www.robbygordon.com/artman/publish/article_422.shtml+robby+gordon+danica+patrick+&hl=en&client=firefox-a

Whether it’s Dan Patrick or Danica Patrick we’re talking about, it’s a weight issue, not a gender issue. Every year I run Indy I drop as much weight as possible so I don’t have to carry extra weight in my car. Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon weigh a lot less than a person my size, and they will tell you they have an advantage also on some other drivers.

What started as my opinion that the IRL should look at doing things as NASCAR does in this department became “Robby Gordon thinks Danica Patrick is only fast at Indianapolis because she is half my size.”

That is not what I said.

I think Danica Patrick is fast at Indy because she is a good driver driving for the defending Indianapolis 500 winning team. If she wins it will be great for the IRL and for motorsports as a whole. But when the day comes that I get to compete at Indy again, I hope that the IRL will take the driver’s weight into consideration – if not, I’m going on a diet, but I don’t think I can loose the 100 pounds I would be looking for.

In years past, unusual and extreme measures were taken to achive a weight advantage. Cheating is what I am refering to. Frame rails filled with water, sand or shot that is released over the course of a race and scaled body panels are a couple of famous tactics.

The weight of the driver is a factor. When driver weight is not included in weight rules, then a light driver can create an advantage. Of course, you must eliminate all other variables, such as general skill, mechanical failure of a couple thousand different parts and fasteners, tire choice, suspension set-up, engine tune, decisions as to airfoil height & shape and what happens to those and other body parts in the course of the race, driver & crew decisions, track hazards, accidents, luck etc.

Driver weight is just one thing. But, if a driver wants to whine about that as a ploy to gain an offset or some shit, then that's just another day in racing. Racers whine more than Republicans.

Indy has always been the odd one out when it comes to weight rules. Nearly all other competitive sanctioned racing events weigh machine and driver together.

The idiots that run Indy simply enjoy controversy. They like to call it tradition.

It's not just about weight, it's about being able to manipulate the distribution of weight.

Its also the engine,the pit crew,and driver skills.It might give her a slight edge in one area but other drivers have an edge in others.If she sucked it wouldnt make a diff.

Somehow I think his linkage is "all balled up ..... and what not." ......
dumb ass is just grinding his gears.

Watch all his sponsors drop him like a pair of dirty underwear.

I get the joke, but my celeb recognition skills are sadly underdeveloped.

Gordon is a big Sissy. Afraid of a little woman. Hee!

Is "having more talent" an unfair advantage?

How about teams that have more $$$ to spend???

There are a HOST of factors that come into auto racing. You can't point to one thing and say "that's why they win" or place fourth or whatever.

Puh-lease!!!

He just doesn't want to be beat by a girl. You go Danica!!

What an asshole whiner Robby Gordon is.

No wonder he always wins ;)

that include the driver and the car. IRL only includes the car.

...might be as good or better than they are at driving a race car.

He's from California. Former Indy driver. Also a Baja driver. Trying to compete in NASCAR with a one-car operation against the superteams. Definitely not a redneck.

I've traveled to about every state and trust me, rednecks are in all of them.

Don't know about this guy specifically however. He sounds a jerk, that's for sure.

He's definitely not a redneck.

OUT OF CONTEXT ! ! ! What does that remind you of?

Gordon was highlighting a problem with the "RULES" and used Danica and other MALE drivers' to illustrate a point.

Has anyone even seen the entire interview?

..the south, they are everywhere!!! I love all types of auto racing on both asphalt and dirt; good women drivers will make the sport more interesting.

It's wrong to try to paint every NASCAR driver as a redneck. Robby Gordon is not a redneck and he's not a woman-hater. I saw Robby Gordon give Shawna Robinson a hug before a race. You know most of other teams show no respect.

God forbid, you don't suppose this SI reporter is trying to create a controversy? Of course not, our media wouldn't do that. </sarcasm>

Also, where did I state Robby Gordon is a woman hater?

Thanks. :)

Confederate flag and all... and some of the biggest rednecks I've ever seen were in England.

A.J. Foyt says Robby Gordon would be a great racer if he'd just go to the doctor and have an operation to get his tongue cut out.

At least Jeff just sucks on general principle; he's never actually pulled a stunt like this!

How will these bozos react if and when Patrick actually wins something? This much attention has not been paid to a fourth-place also-ran since... no, Ross Perot was third... never mind.

at that level (Indy) weight IS an issue when you're looking for 10th and 100th of seconds. Even in the actual race it affects fuel consumption and tire wear etc. Danica would have probably HAD the POLE if not for a bobble or two during her qualifying run... and I was pulling for her then and in the race where her 4th (because of the problems they overcame during the race) was phenomenal.

I applaud Danica for making history and Bobby Rahal for his progressive thinking in choosing drivers'. Having taught performance driving, I've said for years that a woman has better mental make up for racing based on a lack of ego driven performance issues that men have. I sincerely hope she continues down this path and sets the sport on its ear.

I'm also not defending Robbie Gordon who (due to family wealth) has had one opportunity after another to succeed at various top levels in racing, (and he has won a lot in off road competitions like the Baja 500 and 1000) but even though Gordon is his own worst enemy on many occasions he does have the balls to say things that other top pros will not due to their fear of the powers that be... yes these sanctioning bodies are a lot like BushCo and, as usual the press or whomever are sort of misrepresenting this as "Macho man against female success" when in the interview he mentions Danica and other light weight male drivers in an effort to bring attention to the issue.

The issue is "the rules" that fail to level the playing field. At the pro and semi-pro level the top cars are so close that they need to weigh the entire package; car with driver to be truly fair. These are, after all machines operated by people and not 2 animals working together.

Being big for formula cars I was constantly starving myself (which creates both physical and mental problems) to stay in the 175 to 180 range and I was still giving up an average of 20 to 30 pounds to competitors. Crews work tirelessly to find way to lighten cars only to give it back.

Of course, my belief now is that the entire racing industry promotes industries (petroleum and the combustion engine) that are killing the planet and that's not even the tip of the iceberg when you consider what corporate money does through the sport...

(typo)

get the facts people

I see that the writer tried to create a controversy where there was none. Add NASCAR to any fucking thread here and people go apeshit.

Obviously we both have first hand experience with this and took Gordon's comments (or actually saw the entire interview) as they were intended and understand the point...

Robbie's always been sort of a loose cannon but not always in the wrong way.

Since I hung 'em up (very tough always) I've been a comfortable 195 to 205.

are creating the controversy with Gordon's comments. Maybe it's bitched about in IRL, but Gordon probably put foot in mouth when he turned it in to a controversy when Danica Patrick came along. The first really competitive female at this level.

I'd love to know the range of weight of the guys.

Gordon IMHO should've kept this within the IRL and not taken it public. It does sound like whining.

for coxswains that didn't meet a minimum cox weight? If the driver has to weigh a minimum of, say, 150 lbs., then add 50 lbs. to her car.