Women have been winning in other forms of motorsports for years. Shirley Muldowney was winning Top Fuel world chhampionships in drag racing back in the 1970s, competing at speeds faster than than Patrick goes today.

...car racing is to be derided in Salon circles as the sport of beer-swilling redneck hicks like the loathed "NASCAR dad" demographic-- but when Danica Patrick wins something, oh now car racing has a great deal of nobility to it all of a sudden.

Kind of like how golf was a laughable waste of time which we made fun of until Michelle Wie came-along with her mediocre performance and managed to avoid coming-in dead last in a few major tournaments, thus transforming golf into a Very Important Sport.

Kind of like how Broadsheet feminists hate large corporations until a female CEO comes along. They hate the military until a female general comes along. They hate religion until a female bishop comes along. The logic around here doesn't go beyond looking at the crotch, does it?

you made a point I had never noticed before. The all-devouring self-centeredness of the female.

As you say, everything sucks until a woman is involved. Another shade of that elusive but universal man-hatred among women I always try to tease out.

D. Patrick has had the backing of one of the leading teams ever since she entered the sport.

If any male driver with that level of support had gone as long as Patrick without winning, he would have lost his ride.

But since Danica looks so good in a bikini, she was kept on for all the media exposure (no pun intended) she generated for her team and the sport.

The mere fact that her win got on the top of the home pages of all the major media outlets (and into Broadsheet) proves this. (Quick; can anybody name who won the previous Indycar race?)

So the investment her team (and the Indycar series) has put into Miss Patrick has finally -- at long last -- paid off.

It was a pretty good race, actually. I have to admit, I kind of had slotted her off into Kournikova land, but I am delighted to be proven wrong.

What I really liked, watching the clip, was her husband. Nice to she she has a himbo that isn't all beefcakey, but rather a thin dweeby intellectual looking/sounding guy, not your stereotypical NASCAR meat-head at all. What we need now of course is an article in a men's magazine discussing his wardrobe (& eyewear) choices.

...just put Danica Patrick ingo Google Images.

There's something really distasteful about her in a bikini in men's mags. I think it's that her skill has nothing to do with her looks, and yet somehow, she managed to take her clothes off for money in promotion of herself and her sport. She chose to do it, very likely she has no qualms about it, being the extremely competitive woman that she is, in the quest for self-promotion.

It's that the photos are so tasteless, esp this one:

http://www.offshorebettor.com/images/danica/danica109.jpg (NSFW!)

It makes her look undignified. The vinyl bikini with the buttcrack... not good.

Awesome.

She is clearly an empowered woman in control of her sexuality.

It is not auto racing in general that is derided in the pages of progressive magazines or on progressive Web sites. It is the politics and attitudes of "NASCAR dads" that are the issue. The term is a shorthand applied to men of a certain demographic. Look it up at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nascar_dad

You could just as well take issue with the term "soccer mom" because Americans hate soccer. You could, but you would be missing the point of the term just as badly as you do here.

Furthermore, Indy car racing is distinct from stock car racing (NASCAR is the acronym for the North American Stock Car Racing Association), Formula One, drag racing, sprint car racing, and probably some others I am forgetting, despite my youth in Texas, where all these forms of racing take place.

The point here is that Danica Patrick's victory is noteworthy because of the relationship of the Indy car series to the Indianapolis 500, a race that transcends its sport. You may not care about auto racing, but you tend to be aware of the running of the race and who the winner is. Similarly, even those who are not baseball fans tend to be aware of the World Series when it is being played.

Kind of like how Broadsheet feminists hate large corporations until a female CEO comes along. They hate the military until a female general comes along. They hate religion until a female bishop comes along.

Wait, you mean how feminists call sexist entities sexist... until they're not sexist anymore?

No! Stop! That's crazy!

Wait, you mean how feminists call sexist entities sexist... until they're not sexist anymore?

Nope. Talkin' 'bout how feminists applaud women for engaging in behavior that they normally deride when it comes from men.

Like I said: The logic never goes beyond looking at the crotch. Feel free to twist that around until it feels palatable to you.

Linney: Kind of like how Broadsheet feminists hate large corporations until a female CEO comes along. They hate the military until a female general comes along. They hate religion until a female bishop comes along.

LeCastor: Wait, you mean how feminists call sexist entities sexist... until they're not sexist anymore?

Linney: Nope. Talkin' 'bout how feminists applaud women for engaging in behavior that they normally deride when it comes from men.

Ah, ok, so it's not about calling entities sexist, it's about "hating" corporations, the military, and the church.

I'm not a spokesperson for the monolithic feminist establishment, but I daresay that I am an admitted and proud corporate whore. Just ask tom payne.

As for the military and religion, I'm still not so into them, even though some of them have women. That said, I'm happy to know that women who want to (for reasons unintelligible to me) go into those pursuits can do so without being discriminated against simply on the basis of gender.

I think you're confusing some feminists' individual preferences for themselves (don't want to be a soldier or clergy) with the greater goals for society that we hope to achieve (open doors for women in general to hitherto male-dominated professions, also known as equal opportunity).