What a sissy! I assumed NASCAR woul be a little more butch.

Male driver complains that 100lb female competitor has an unfair advantage. Refuses to race with her unless something is done about it.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/racing/05/28/nascar.notebook.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

Waaa waaa waaa. Is this guy serious?

Maybe it goes back to the slippery slope argument. If you start letting women win the Indy 500, then you will have to start letting people marry box turtles.

Actually, he's a NASCAR racer who is bitching about Indy Racing League rules. That aside, the sport is more about driver skill than the equipment. Whining about a 100lb woman having an advantage is kinda weak.

Maybe car racing needs to go the way of horse racing and hire smaller jokeys. Imagine Shaquile O'Neal on the back of Funny Cide demanding other horses drag cement blocks behind them. Oh well, there are those who wouldn't play with Tiger in the beginning either.

she has a 1mph advantage. they should do a weigh in on the morning of the race and weigh down everyones car to match the fattest driver. then everyone is happy.

As a NASCAR fan, I can shed a little light on this. Robby Gordon, the idiot quoted in the piece, is a f****ng idiot. He used to be an open wheel driver and moved to stock cars. He used to drive the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 (the NASCAR race) on the same day as a publicity stunt. This year the Indy 500 was pushed back an hour to entice more west coast viewers. This made the frantic flight between races impossible. Therefore, Robby does not make the papers like he usually does for his macho iron man stunt.

Add to this the fact that Robby's NASCAR team, which he owns, sucks so bad they can't even qualify for some of the races. Guys off the street are qualifying better than him lately.

The sour grapes expressed by him are just that, as he is a bitter little man who can't hack that he has already reached whatever little pinnacle of motor sports he is ever gonna reach.

While NASCAR has paid lip service and "allowed" women to run in the past, they have made a lot of improvements. I think they are going in the right direction, especially with drivers like Sarah Fisher (former IRL) and Erin Crocker getting development contracts and running in the lower/regional series of the sport. Women run regularly in both the NASCAR Craftman Truck and Busch Series (AA and AAA level.) Remarks like Gordon's are just pathetic and I don't think speak for the general trend.

Danica Patrick has done a lot for the IRL this year. Everyone is talking about her, she is driving for a premier team (Bobby Rahal/David Letterman) and has a decent shot at finishing well, if not drinking some milk at the end.

Basically, an idiot said something stupid. If it had been one of our real, regular drivers, I would have been more upset about it.

BTW, a male driver's inability to believe a woman can race was taken to an insane degree three years ago when a male driver filed a protest against a female driver based on no evidence.

"The men gathered before a Saturday night race to pass a hat and collect enough money to file a protest against Deborah Renshaw's car. Then, to make sure she did not finish last, which would negate the protest, they put a mechanic in a spare car and had him quit after a half-dozen laps to guarantee she would finish ahead of at least one car. "

From the Fark thread about this:

Here she gives her reply, indicating what she thinks of Robby

On a side note, this is my first year in Charlotte, NC. They really take racing serious here.

I went downtown to work on Thursday and all the streets were closed. Stages everywhere, food booths, people milling around.

All this for "Race Week".

How is a 100lb person going to control a race car? It is physically exhausting.

hahaha. I saw her on CNN this morning. She's a cutie. I hope she wins.

Apparently she has made a career of "controlling" racecars. You don't get to the Indy 500 if you don't know what you are doing. Indy cars are too expensive to risk with mere rookies. Each of those racing teams has spent millions on cars, engines, equipment and support teams. Its not a sport done on the cheap, and I doubt that Letterman would back anyone who would give Leno ammunition for his monologue.

Blah blah


I grew up in Redneck country. I know more about NASCAR and Indy than I care to know. My point was I would think weigh 100lbs would be more of a handicap than a perk, so I don't see why they are bitching.

4th place. Not bad for a "novelty" act.

If weight is really a problem, they should remotely control the cars.

...and if they remotely control the cars, then they could start adding weapons!!!

It will be like R.C. Pro-Am but bigger.