Talk:Danica Patrick/Archive 1

Biography assessment rating comment
WikiProject Biography Assessment

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 05:05, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Photo request
We need to add some pictures to her profile.
 * A picture certainly wouldn't hurt. She appears to be in racing for the long haul, and if we can get a properly licensed picture of her with her car, then that would definitely boost the quality of the article. --Idont Havaname 04:33, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * I've included the newest Sports Illustrated cover with her picture. Magazine covers may be used under Fair use. Johntex 16:26, 2 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * So can any publicity shot in which the subject is posing. Zpb52 00:24, Jun 3, 2005 (UTC)

We are agreed: she is awesomely hot. I changed "perceived beauty" to "perceived hotness", Idont Havaname reverted, and now I've tried "perceived attractiveness". I just felt "beauty" isn't exactly what Playboy was going for. People can perceive beauty in a glacier or a bouquet. Playboy was looking for "hotness" - or at least, "attractiveness".

Which reminds me now... The Onion nailed it here: Female Athletes Making Great Strides In Attractiveness

~ Reaverdrop 07:07, 27 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Is this even legitimate as a background discussion topic for an encyclopedia? Forgive me for "perceived" stuffiness, but this is friggin' Wikipedia, not Cosmopolitan magazine. --Chr.K. 08:01, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

A-perceived-men to that.--Buckboard 10:20, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

No offense, but stating that Playboy is going for hotness, not beauty, is opinion. It is not a fact -- personally I think Playboy has always gone for beauty, to enhance sales. The difference between hotness and beauty is purely subjective. I don't mean to hurt your feelings. -- Gamma —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.67.95.24 (talk) 00:25, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Some content
Some of the content on this page is ridiculous. How about we go to every driver thats ever competed at Indy's page and explain why they didn't win the pole. What makes this driver so special? She hasn't even won a race yet.
 * That sentence is relevant as it says she did the fastest lap of the month in practice, but still didn't get pole position. --ScottDavis 5 July 2005 12:02 (UTC)

"She says the highlight of her broadcasting career was appearing with Ronn Owens on KGO Radio, Wednesday, August 24, 2005."

-is this really notable? --RA64 01:40, 25 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I still want to remove this sentence. Can I just rip it out or would that be bad?--RA64 22:41, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

I also think there should be some section about controversy, like her comments about Sarah Fisher or the fact she hasn't won a race yet. --D-Day 13:04, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Just the fact of a woman breaking into this sport is of historic and sociological value - plus doing as well as she has - she hasn't won a race yet, but she has done really well, she has come close. ~ Reaverdrop 07:04, 27 October 2005 (UTC)
 * the thing is, she is not the woman that "broke" into the sport. As noted in the article, she is the 4th woman to start in the indy 500.  She is the second woman to win an IRL pole.  Yes, she has had some success in a sport dominated by men.  This is definately significant.  But she did not break down the barriers.--RA64 22:41, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Please read External links
We're starting to get a lot of links to pictures websites. We don't need that many links to unofficial websites; Wikipedia is not a web directory. Please read External links. --Idont Havaname 00:19, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I would like to quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:External_links#Maybe_OK_to_add "...In extreme cases, a link to a web directory of fansites can replace this link.". The site that I'm adding http://www.missdanicapatrick.com is not included in the Yahoo directory you replaced. I think a lot of Danica Patrick fans or users of Wikipedia would love to see sites of good quality. I think I have designed the site well enough and I am consistently adding more content.--Azter 04:57, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
 * It is still link spam. Please stop adding links to your own sites on here.  Your sites exist to generate income from ads.  --Yamla 13:31, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Slight Alteration(s)
Changed the picture description from "first woman to lead the field at the Indy 500" to "first woman to lead an Indianapolis 500," as confusion could be caused by the first term. "Leading the field down" the mainstretch is a term that has been used on many occasions for the pole sitter at Indianapolis. She led, but race laps rather than pace laps, as might be slightly suggested. --Chr.K. 07:55, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Unsubstantiated quotes
The quotes that she dreamed of racing in Champ Car and F1 but not the IRL are unsubstantiated. Therefore, I replaced them stating that she dreamed of racing in the Indianapolis 500. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 205.242.218.130 (talk &bull; contribs) 11:45, March 3, 2006 (UTC)
 * if so, equally unsubstaintiated is the assumption that she dreamed of racing in the Indy500. Therefore, I have removed the whole line completely.  For the record, this user IP has made several edits related to IndyCar/Champcar in the past that have been reverted.   --RA64 06:04, 4 March 2006 (UTC)
 * For an article that reltes some fairly specific facts, it is too bad that we have only one in-line reference. I've added a tag to the article to show that we need to back up our assertions here.  It shouldn't be hard to do since there have been numerous news reports on Patrick. Johntex\talk 14:38, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Set up automatic footnotes, adding one reference, but there is still more work to be done. -Big Smooth 00:35, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

Physics absurdity
The claim that Danica's lower body weight may be a disadvantage because it would require more aerodynamic downforce to reach the same level of stability is absurd on many levels. Without going into the whole physics side of this, if her weight were truly a disadvantage, her team could always add ballast to compensate, there are no rules regulating the maximum weight of the car (because no one in their right mind would run anything more than the bare minimum plus a tiny little for margin of safety).

Agreed - adding ballast is preferable in any case, because the weight can be distributed more evenly to balance the Centre of Gravity, instead of all being central in the cockpit area.--MartinUK 20:41, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Nigel Mansell and body weight
Nigel Mansell, the 1992 F1 Champion and 1993 Indycar Champion, made comments about his body weight disadvantage, compared to Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. Senna and Prost were much smaller than Mansell, and probably gained a few tenths of a second over him, on each lap. This might shed some light Robby Gordon's comments. 15Kg of weight in a racing car can make quite a difference to the lap times.

I think she has done a good job, btw ;-)

Pathetic article - needs a complete re-write
This article needs to be entirely re-written - as it stands, it is a pathetically-written, inaccurate, and incomplete article. (Not surprising, as it was written by Danica Patrick fans...etc...

(Bumped 3 pages of unrelated ranting from this user. Statements like "she is widely considered as undeserving of the seat" do not belong to Wikipedia, even in Talk pages - unless a reliable source can be quoted saying that. Please keep it neutral, keep it short and keep it factual. --Fbastos 07:40, 9 October 2006 (UTC))

...etc...Even more sad when 3 replies indicate a degree of uncertainty, and reference having searched 'the miles of Danica info', which presumably included this Wiki article. This article is here for a reason - let's set the record straight.

TOP2.Percent 16:20, 20 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Go ahead and fix it. What's stopping you?? --rogerd 04:34, 21 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree that this bio, along with many on Wikipedia, particularly among race car drivers, which is what I focus on, is mediocre and could be improved. Still, I think many of your criticisms are ridiculous.  I originally wrote most of the early career section, although it has been modified since.  Before I added that, there was nothing about her career before the IRL.  I specifically mentioned things like how she never won a race in atlantics, and her signing with rahal-letterman because I thought these were important points.  I said she focused 'primarily on road racing' because I believe she raced on ovals in karts.  By biggest achievement, i meant biggest achievement up to that point in her career.  By never won a race, I was talking in context of her two years in atlantics.    Frankly, I have only been following her career since her atlantics days and there's a lot I don't know about her.  If you wanted to add more about how she got to go to Europe, why she came back, the circumstances behind her second place at FF Festival, and her opportunities in NASCAR Busch, ALMS, etc.  that would be great, because I just didn't know enough so I couldn't add this.  For the record, I am quite critical of her career.  However, I don't think the purpose of Wikipedia is to bash people, and I don't mind if bios are written with a... slightly "friendly bias," if you know what I mean.  I have written respectful articles on other drivers that have taken a lot of heat for being ridebuyers and what not. --RA64 17:04, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Danica is married to DENZEL WASHINGTON? What the heck? I call that crap... She got injured doing "POWER YOGA"? --71.86.227.238 18:43, September 20, 2006


 * There has been some recent vandalism, which I have just reverted (twice), including the Denzel Washington edit. The power yoga thing is apparently factual, so I can't comment on that....  Alan 19:50, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

Removed ranting about controversies
Removed unnecessary ranting about weight advantage/disadvantage. Just describe the the controversy, but don't try to justify one side or the other (that is not neutral).

Same applies to additional ranting from people that think that Danica Patrick is either the greatest or the worst driver in the world. Personal opinions have no place here: just tell the facts (not the rumors or speculations or guesses or whatnots), and try to keep the article neutral.

Regards --Fbastos 19:45, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Fair-use of image
Image:Danica Patrick.jpg is currently undergoing a fair-use dispute. Rather than remove the image pending the outcome (which would not let users know it had existed on the page), I added a tag to that effect. If there is an existing template for such purpose please replace my custom DIV, as I could not find such a template. —MJBurrage • TALK  • 20:37, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a template (Template:Ifdc) for images suggested for deletion, that is added to the image, rather than removing the image prior to concensus being reached. I added an equivalent message to the image when I restored it. (If users do not see the image, they will not even know it is under dispute. —MJBurrage • TALK  • 23:19, 5 February 2007 (UTC)


 * For the time being, I have placed a "safe" picture of Danica at Indy 2006. It is however, last year's car. Once we get a "safe" picture of this year's car, we can replace it. Doctorindy 13:09, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Infobox
Is there any infoboxes for IRL drivers - that would certainly help in order to give this article a Good-article rating. I've checked articles of other drivers (Kannan, Castroneves, etc.) and doesn't like there is one existing for them.--JForget 02:43, 11 April 2007 (UTC)

Temper Tantrum?
There are allegations, and maybe a YouTube.com video that is no longer available, that Danica Patrick threw a temper tantrum at the Michigan International Speedway in July, 2006. This alledged tantrum occurred due to her running out of gas just before finishing a race.

Does anybody have any info about this alledged tantrum that could be added to the article, and moreover (if it exists) a link to a video of the alledged tantrum.

71.168.146.121 23:06, 20 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm sure it would be worth mentioning if she was the only race car driver ever in the history of motorsports to throw a tantrum. Oh, wait... Lambertman 23:08, 20 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Hasn't anybody been able find the Danica Tantrum video yet? It is extrordinary that the video is either completely off the internet or extremely difficult to locate.


 * Any WikiPedian who goes above and beyond the call of duty and links the Danica Tantrum video, will earn kudos, the plaudits of the masses, a Laurel and Hardy handshake.


 * 71.168.140.21 06:01, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

Timing of Sports Illustrated Photo?
The text says that Danica was the first I500 Driver on the Cover of SI since 1987. The caption of the cover says 1985. The wiki page for the picture says she was the first since AJ Foyt in 1981. Which is correct?70.150.135.144 19:59, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Use of first name
Per MoS:BIO:
 * "...it is better to refer to the person by their surname and not their first name, even if the subject is not controversial. The use of the first name gives the impression that the writer knows the subject personally, which, even if true, is not relevant."

--rogerd 15:17, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Honestly....that's very...I don't know the right word for it...so oh well. Either way, reading "Patrick", "She", "Patrick", every sentence like you did is boring in my opinion....the fact that "Patrick" is a male first name might even confused certain people. If you didn't notice, it said it's nto required..you should have talked about it on here before going through the whole article and changing it.  Bsroiaadn Talk 22:34, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * This is a wikipedia style standard that should apply to all biography articles. Your could even say Ms. Patrick, like the New York Times does, but to use the first name makes it read like Seventeen Magazine or maybe People Magazine.  --rogerd 23:33, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Jamba Juice
The line:
 * "Patrick's cousin, Mary, is an executive for the Jamba Juice company."

Seems irrelevant and is uncited, qualifying as info creep. As far as I can find, Jamba Juice does not sponsor Patrick, or vice-versa. Thus, I have removed this text from the article. Please discuss before reintroducing the material and keep in mind WP:3RR (which I will also need to bear in mind). Zue Jay (talk)  02:32, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

High School
Hi, everyone. I was wondering if anyone knew if Danica went to Hononegah High School, since she grew up in Roscoe, which feeds into the school. I live in the area, and I've tried asking teachers, but i haven't got any answers...can anyone help me out? i'm planning on making an article for hononegah high school.

thanks.

-House Boy 22:05, 22 July 2007 (UTC)