Tag Archives: Danica Patrick

Intriguing cover photo of Danica Patrick for ESPN the Magazine

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Initially, I really had no desire to read another story about Danica Patrick. Then I saw the cover for the latest edition of ESPN the Magazine, which focuses on women in sports.

As you can see, Patrick isn’t in a bikini or something Go Daddy-ish. Rather, it is a portrait, one of thousands of her.

Yet this one clearly is different. Her eyes are darting over her left shoulder. Her arms are folded and her expression says….?

Yes, exactly what does it say? I’m not exactly sure, but there seems to be a sense of exasperation of being trapped in yet another photo shoot. The price of celebrity, right? Then again, maybe not.

I asked editor Chad Millman why that photo was selected for the cover. He replied in an email:

We chose it because, as is usually the case, we liked it the most. No real hidden message. To me it felt like we caught her mid-thought in a candid moment, that’s rare with athletes when they are posing, but it’s the kind of honesty you want to capture. It makes you wonder, what is she thinking?

The Maxim crowd may be disappointed she isn’t portrayed wearing something more revealing, but the cover enticed me to read the article by Janet Reitman, which also is posted on ESPNW. The site also has a three-minute video interview.

I actually learned quite a bit about Patrick. Interesting woman.

From the story:

From the moment she started racing professionally, Danica says, she’s been aware of the need to “create a situation for myself so I can have the same lifestyle after I quit racing as I’ve had during my career,” which can be done only through investments and nonstop hawking of the brand. While she embraces the responsibility, it isn’t hard to see why she sometimes gets defensive.

“Do I use being a girl to my advantage? I use everything I can to my advantage,” she says. “Maybe back in the day you didn’t need to be the greatest looking [athlete] to be on TV and you didn’t need to speak the best, but in this day and age, I think you need to be the package. You need to look the part for your sponsors, you need to be able to speak the part for the media and to big CEOs of big-name companies, and you have to do all of it. And I feel like that is one of my strengths. Do I get more attention than a lot of people who at times do better than me?”

That would be yes, Danica suggests. “But it doesn’t come without its costs, that’s for sure. It doesn’t come without its criticisms. It doesn’t come without the overanalyzing of absolutely every word I say. I mean, I have to be careful what I say, how I say it, what I tweet. You have to be careful with everything you do. You can’t have opinions; you can’t alienate anyone.”

At this point, Haley looks at her client and gives her a “please shut up now” smile.

 

 

 

Indy 500 won’t have Danica Patrick storyline this year; ABC still will televise

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I never was a big auto racing fan, but I always used to watch the Indianapolis 500. I even knew the names of most of the drivers: A.J. Foyt, Bobby and Al Unser, Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Johnny Rutherford, and one of the great names of all time, Gordon Johncock.

Fast forward, and now about the only thing I know about this year’s Indy 500 is that Danica Patrick won’t be in the field. That says plenty about the state of Indy car racing these days.

ABC will air the race Sunday at 11 a.m. Naturally, Patrick’s name came up during a teleconference this week.

Analyst Eddie Cheever said of Patrick’s absence:

You can tell there’s a difference in the paddock.  Danica brought a lot of interest from people that were not really involved in racing.  I think she did some amazing things at her time that she spent in IndyCars.

When you’re at the racetrack and you’re watching the Go Daddy car go around the track, it’s doing pretty well right now.  So I think from the purely emotional part of being involved in following a car, that team picked up where it left off, and it’s doing very well.

I personally, my daughter follows Danica Patrick, no matter what she’s doing, whether she’s racing here or somewhere else.  But there are a lot of very talented drivers in IndyCar, many of which are females that are doing very well, and I think the series will just pick up and keep on going forward.

Actually, Patrick won’t be a complete no-show Sunday, according to producer Rich Feinberg:

In terms of the Danica story, not being there, we will address it.  It’s not something we’re going to avoid.  If you watch real, real closely to the prerace, you will see a brief cameo appearance in this year’s telecast by Danica, which she was happy to do for us and we think we’ll have some fun with our viewers.

As for race coverage, Feinberg noted as many as 12 cars will be wired with HD camera systems. He said:

If we achieve our goal of 12 cars, that would be 48 onboard cameras, which is a first in terms of volume for us. Additionally some interesting things about those in-car camera systems.  For the first time all the cars that have systems will offer our viewers driver shots which we’ve not been able to do in many, many years.

We’re also introducing what we call dual path technology, which allows viewers to see both the driver’s perspective and the driver driving simultaneously at the same time.  That technology has never been used in IndyCar racing and we’re excited to debut it at this year’s Indianapolis 500.  Additionally we plan on using within the telecast Ultra Hi motion cameras that shoot at a frame rate of one thousand frames per second.  This should offer some compelling views for our fans and viewers in ultraslow motion of key moments in the race and on the track.  We’ve never used those before as well. A lot of exciting new technology.