Yes.
I think it is partially a knee jerk reaction on my part, that I don’t WANT Petty to be the guy the quote makes him out to be. He always seemed better than that. I admit, it could just be good PR. There’s no way to know.
I can get behind you on that sentiment. He has done a lot of philanthropy over the years, and has built up some good public credit.
I don’t understand this reaction. I’ve never seen a NASCAR race in my life, nor do I intend to, but from the evidence presented, I don’t see him guilty of anything but being dismissive of a driver’s ability, while at the same time appreciating what the driver brings to the table apart from ability. What’s the problem? If McEnroe were to speak dismissively of Kournikova’s chances of winning a grand slam but appreciate the fact that she brought eyeballs to the sport, would he also be ‘that guy’?
Sadly a quick internet search shows that both Almirola and Ambrose are ahead of Patrick in points ( I think I’m looking at 2013 numbers). 913, 872, and 646 respectively.
However I think it’s also interesting to note that Patrick on average finished 4 places ahead of her starting position (from 30.1 to 26.1), while Almirola and Ambrose both finished on average worse than where they started.
Regardless of the stat, of the 78 names listed here it seems like Patrick finishes in the top half of just about any stat you look at. There are a LOT of other people that are below her in every category.
“Top half” of 78 drivers is a bit of a problem, though. There are only 43 cars running in any given race, so 78 drivers means that a lot of them only competed for part of the season. Some cars are only run in special races (Michael Waltrip only raced on the restrictor plate tracks, for example), others may have had cars running in most every race, but switched drivers in and out during the season.
The number of drivers that raced in every race is probably only in the thirties somewhere, so if Danica is in the top half of the 78 drivers that participated at all, that means she’s near the bottom of the full-time drivers.
According to Jayski, 28 drivers took part in all 36 races in 2013.
It’s not the same. Women and men compete head-to-head in NASCAR. There isn’t a separate division for women like tennis (or practically every other sport).
For Petty to say that ‘she can only win if no one else shows up’ seems to either be dismissing her because she is useless as a driver, or that she is a woman. There have been many a man who has competed for years and yet not won a NASCAR race. I never heard the same comment about them, but, in honesty, no one probably asked. They ask about Patrick BECAUSE she is a woman, because she generates interest.
But with comments like this:
Obviously people think Petty is sexist. In the category of ‘people I know about but never met’, I always respected Petty and thought he was a man of integrity. For Petty to imply that Patrick is no good BECAUSE she’s a woman would make me lose that respect. But if she really IS a useless driver, then I have no problem with what he said!
I don’t want Patrick to be the Jamaican bobsled team of NASCAR. If anyone is competing in the top-tier of their sport, they should be there because of talent, not because they are fan favorites. That’s patronizing, to both the competitor and the fans.