I really don't like to brag. It makes me feel arrogant and that's not a way I want to be. But this is an exception to that. I also try to not blog about open wheel racing as much as possible because I don't think most of the readers of this don't care (although expect a lot during the month of May). Well this is an exception to that as well. So here goes.

I told you Danica Patrick would win an Indy Car race! I've had so many friends tell me she's not talented, she's just a major marketing ploy, she's the Anna Kournikova of open wheel racing. Wrong, wrong, and wrong! In case you don't know she won the Firestone Indy Car 300 last night. She's the first woman to win a race in one of the three major racing circuits (NASCAR Sprint Cup, Indy Racing League, and Formula One).

I first saw Danica race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2005 when she qualified for the Indianapolis 500. For the Indy 500 qualification requires four laps and the total time from those laps is your qualification time. One the first lap she slid all over the place in turn 1, where I was sitting. This meant two things to me: Her lap was going to slower than it should have been and she was being as aggressive as possible and running for the poll. The fact she even saved the car was amazing as we had see other drivers earlier in the day do the same thing and meet the concrete.

I know that alot of people that are race fans will claim she won the race on fuel millage. Well that argument is severely flawed. First of all she still had to run a race and stay in the top few spots throughout the race so that when other cars needed to pit she could take advantage. She also used the proper strategy to get her tank topped off and then conserve fuel until the end. If you want to use the fuel millage argument then here's the biggest flaw. In the 2005 Indy 500 she was leading with less than ten to go and had to back off because she may have ran out of gas. Therefore Dan Wheldon won after passing her towards the end. By the way, the pass was after Danica had beaten Wheldon (one of the biggest talents in the sport) on two restarts in a row.

I'm very happy she won so that people can get off her back and she can race without pressure. I think this will actually lead to more wins in the future. Regardless of your opinion on Danica's talent you have to agree that this win and being competitive in every race will only help the sport. Which is exactly what this newly unified sport need.