BF
Nitro Member
Actually, it's a big deal, or should be, to anyone that cares about open wheel racing in the states. First the merger and now all the publicity that this brings, it almost reminds me of the "home run derby" major league baseball put on after their last strike to lure fans back. As far as hype, nobody ever said she was the second coming of Mario or AJ. Take any rookie who qualifies second in their forth race, leads laps and finishes forth on the lead lap. Then a couple of races later goes to INDY and had a car that could have sat on the pole if not for handling issues. Qualifies forth, leads 19 laps as a rookie and has a real chance at winning what may still be the biggest race in the world. Add to it that, that driver is a female...yeah, she's going to get some attention. She is also the IRL's most popular driver. In the shape that open wheel has been in the last several I don't blame them a bit for using her as much as possible to reach an audience. It was only good business. Lets see how much we see of her now that's she won a race? Those who disliked her before will probably like her even less. One comment on the coverage last night though, even though Shirley was mentioned, they posted a list of female achievments in sports towards the end of the show. You would think Shirley would have showed up on it right there with Janet Guthrie.
