Kyle Petty: Danica will never be a race car driver

DipStick

Keep Calm and Don't Care!
Hmmmmm.... I hope Kyle has to eat those words.

Don't think he will. Danica's not a good driver. She had a fluke win in IndyCar where she was a 10th place driver in top-tier equipment when they only had 20 cars. When they had more than 20 cars, she was a 15th place driver. She exits IndyCar and goes to Nationwide and the car she drove in Indy now has three wins on the season.

She goes to Nationwide in the best car and was a 25th place driver in a series with 43 cars where there's only 10-15 competitive cars. She exits Nationwide and the car she ran is miraculously in the points lead with a B-list driver. Now she's in Cup with a top 10 car and a team that won the championship just two seasons ago and she's a 30th place driver.
 

Ken King

A little rusty but not crusty
PREMO Member
Kyle won 8 of 828 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in his career, he ran 161 races before he won his first (race 162). What would he say about himself with a record like that?
 
Kyle won 8 of 828 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in his career, he ran 161 races before he won his first (race 162). What would he say about himself with a record like that?

He'd probably say something like this:
Petty, who began his NASCAR driving career in 1979, said he couldn't tell what makes the difference between a good driver and a great driver, because he never figured it out for himself.

"If I knew, I'd be a great driver," he said. "I was not a great driver, and I'll be the first to admit it. I was a journeyman driver. Just like in the NFL or any sport, there are journeyman players."
 

DipStick

Keep Calm and Don't Care!
Kyle won 8 of 828 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in his career, he ran 161 races before he won his first (race 162). What would he say about himself with a record like that?

And Danica will never even come close to Kyle Petty's subpar accomplishments.

Kyle just said what everybody inside the sport is thinking. She's there because she's a pretty woman who attracts sponsors. She's been in top tier equipment her entire racing career. In her entire career - everything she's ever raced in, she has ONE win in a race where half the cars didn't compete because the six cars in front of her ran out of fuel.
 

GopherM

Darwin was right
Don't think he will. Danica's not a good driver. She had a fluke win in IndyCar where she was a 10th place driver in top-tier equipment when they only had 20 cars. When they had more than 20 cars, she was a 15th place driver. She exits IndyCar and goes to Nationwide and the car she drove in Indy now has three wins on the season.

She goes to Nationwide in the best car and was a 25th place driver in a series with 43 cars where there's only 10-15 competitive cars. She exits Nationwide and the car she ran is miraculously in the points lead with a B-list driver. Now she's in Cup with a top 10 car and a team that won the championship just two seasons ago and she's a 30th place driver.

I agree that she is not that good of a driver, but you do know that those aren't the same cars, don't you. Indy had completely changed the entire car since she was racing them and the Sprint Cup cars are all different now. Even the teams are pretty fluid. If what you are saying was true the Brad K. would have to be in the top 5 or 10 this year and I don't see that happening.
 

GopherM

Darwin was right
And why would Kyle need to have been a champion to recognize winning material in a driver. You don't have to have any musical talent to know that someone can't sing, you don't have to be an accomplished artist to see the difference between the Mona Lisa and Andy Warhol trash. I'm not a pilot but I know when a Korean pilot can't fly a plane.

Having talent and being able to recognize it in others are two different things.
 

DipStick

Keep Calm and Don't Care!
I agree that she is not that good of a driver, but you do know that those aren't the same cars, don't you. Indy had completely changed the entire car since she was racing them and the Sprint Cup cars are all different now. Even the teams are pretty fluid. If what you are saying was true the Brad K. would have to be in the top 5 or 10 this year and I don't see that happening.

When she was racing IndyCar in 2007, her teammates won nine races and registered a 3.8 and 5.8 average finish while she was a 10th place driver. Hell, there were several races she had a good enough car to win and couldn't. I can think of two or three times where she wrecked on pit road and other times where she didn't have the courage to hold the throttle wide open to make a pass that could've put her in position to win.

Brad Keselowski has a good enough car to win races. He's too busy on his iPhone talking trash on Twitter and accusing everyone else of cheating and generally acting like a five year old girl.
 
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