Home » Archives » March 2008 » Racing Into The Weekend Eye Candy
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03/07/2008: "Racing Into The Weekend Eye Candy"
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I made a statement a while back about how it appeared that, in her photoshoot in the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, Indycar driver Danica Patrick might be "rounding out" her suit a little more than before. It would appear that no topic here at the MarlinBlog generates more interest - or more email - than my taste in women, and I got it with both barrels for that statement.
Now in fairness, all I said was that she seemed to be getting a big butt - and not that it was an unattractive one. But, just to demonstrate that I have no hard feelings towards either our visitors nor Ms. Patrick's butt, we're happy to have Danica as our Weekend Eye Candy. This particular shot is from the "behind the scenes" selection of pictures - you can tell because they didn't airbrush out her tattoo. Butt or no butt - she can peel off that driver's suit for me any time she'd like.
Beyond the aforementioned controversy and her obvious qualification for the job, there's another good reason Danica graces the site today. It was recently announced that after a decade and a half of fighting, the two American open wheel racing series - ChampCar and the Indy Racing League - finally agreed to merge back into a single series. This destructive competition began in the mid-90's when Indianapolis Speedway president Tony George decided he wanted more power in the old CART series, which was at that time dominated by team owners. His breakaway IRL has slow, boring cars and backmarker drivers - but it also had Indy. That, in the end, was the defining piece of the puzzle, and ultimately gave George the leverage he needed. By the time the war ended, ChampCar - the successor to CART - was a shell of itself, and the IRL far less popular than CART had been before it. The ChampCar teams will transition over to IRL - and unfortunately leave behind the much more powerful, much more interesting Dallara race cars - and several CC races, including the Long Beach Grand Prix, will become IRL events. No one involved in these fights ever wins, of course, but in this case there was a clear victor - NASCAR. While the open wheel racers were battling it out off the track, the sponsors, tracks, and even many of the drivers discovered stock car racing. NASCAR's popularity skyrocketed while the Indy Car interest plummeted. This merger will help stop the bleeding, but it may be too late to save the patient.
Stay tuned ...
UPDATE: Demonstrating the level of concern we have for the rare visitor who takes the time to comment on our rants, here's the answer to the "what's Danica's tattoo?" question - it's an American flag flanked with a field of stars. Not sure the meaning, but I know she's had it at least since she was racing in the lower formulas in Europe - probably 7 or 8 years back.
