She is a tiny thing too...... they say 99lbs, but i would say more like 90 dripping wet!..... go ahead VR , run with that!

 

FWIW Found a couple of articles discussing the impact of the 40 lb weight advantage

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup...us-driver-seat

http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-med...t-daytona.html

Short answer, at a high-banked track like Daytona, negligible benefit. Road course, some benefit.

 

You guys are hilarious. Did you actually read the articles? And the reference to Mark Martin? Good grief.

Self delusion is fun to watch.

 

they add 40 pounds of weights to Danica's car that would give her about a 20 pound weight advantage over say, Mark Martin or a 30 pound weight advantage over Tony Stewart - fairly negligible, after spoiler adjustment.

she was like 13th after ten races last year, then it all went south.

no doubt, she's pretty much screwed if she doesn't start getting some top 15 finishes, and a few top 10s.

not likely. we had a changing of the guard the past few years. there was a window, and to some extent, Danica briefly benefited... but now, the new crop of young kids have a few seasons under their belts. they're hungry, aggro, talented and they're kicking Danica's ***.

i hate to say it but this is very likely about as good as it's ever gonna get for Danica.

 

Nevermind.

Have fun.

-Mike

 

I'm not a Danica fan, but I agree with Dave and the articles. The weight effect is negligible.
However I do believe given her size and gender she may actually be at a disadvantage when it comes to strength. While she is fit and strong for her size wrestling that car around for that length of time must take a toll.

 

I don't see where she gets a 30 -40lb weight advantage, the cars are ballasted up to the minimum weight with the driver. Yes the team gets the advantage of placing that weight in her car in a preferred location.

 

The weight advantage talk with Danica goes back to Indycar days when the car was weighed without driver. 40-50 pound advantage with that small car was big. All this talk about her having advantage in NASCAR because of weight. Well you're just mad. Car weight is with driver'ish' in NASCAR

As for Danica vs. Sabine? Sorry I don't see Sabine having a chance on any track outside of the Ring.

 

The King hath spoken:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/richard...QDBHNlYwNzYw--

Richard Petty on Danica Patrick: 'She ain't gotten no better or no worse'
By Jeff Passan
February 21, 2016 9:28 PM


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Year 5 of Danica Patrick's great foray into NASCAR's Sprint Cup series kicked off at the Daytona 500 and ended same as her previous 118 races: without much of anything to show for it. Following a crash and 35th-place finish Sunday, Patrick now has more than twice as many wrecks (14) in her career as top-10 finishes (six). Not once has she seen a checkered flag from a top-5 position.
None of this is lost on Richard Petty, the greatest racer the sport has known, a seven-time Daytona 500 champion nicknamed The King with good reason. One of royalty's perks, of course, is the ability to reveal one's innermost thoughts without fear of repercussion. And once again Sunday, Petty – one of Patrick's most vocal critics in years past – leveled a harsh assessment of her seeming stagnation as nothing more than a middle-of-the-pack racer.

"She just settled in where she at," Petty told Yahoo Sports. "She ain't gotten no better or no worse."

When asked what she needed to do to win a race, Petty said: "No comment." Which might as well have been him saying: She can't. He has said as much in the past, fending off accusations that he's nothing more than a sexist 78-year-old troglodyte by pointing to her record on the track. And it's damning.


Over the last two seasons, when she has run full 36-race slates, Patrick has an average starting position of 22nd and finish of 23rd, according to Racing Reference. Her single greatest accomplishment came when she won the pole of the 2013 Daytona 500, a race in which she lost the lead by the end of the first lap and finished in eighth place. She wrecked here in 2014, finished 21st last year and on Sunday slid through traffic on Lap 184. It took the closest finish in 500 history to redeem a race in which Patrick, wunderkind polesitter Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Jr., the sport's most popular driver, didn't finish.

On Lap 157, Patrick was penalized when a crewmember jumped over the pit-road wall too early. The infraction – a call Patrick deemed close and questionable – set her back a lap and prompted the urgency on which she blamed the crash.

"It put us in a position to be aggressive at the wrong time of the race with cars you don't always want to be aggressive with at the back of the field," Patrick said. "It's just an unfortunate series of events that happened at the end, but I think before that we were having a fairly strong race. I feel like we definitely didn't have the fastest car, but we were able to make good decisions and put ourselves in the right line at the right time and make the most of our situation."

This is the story of Patrick's career: great car and middling racing, mediocre car and great racing, never shall the twain meet. Or at least they haven't, and NASCAR isn't a sport in which late bloomers often emerge. Patrick is now 33, onto a new sponsor after "a half-*** break-up" with her longtime benefactor, GoDaddy, which gave her a platform to build her brand while gaining relevance through the novelty of a female racecar driver.

Which isn't to call Patrick herself a novelty. She drove those 184 laps on Sunday at nearly 200 mph with inches separating her car from others hurtling at the same speed. She competed in IndyCar, won a race and finished third in the Indy 500. She has more fortitude than you, me and every jabroni whose inclination is to criticize her for the temerity of being born with an X chromosome and having her first name end in "ica" instead of being simply "Dan."

Here's the thing: Dan Patrick would be just another mid-tier driver, anonymous to the world, whereas Danica Patrick continues to bring in the sort of fan who stands across from her garage with dreadlocks, Jordan 4s and a vape pen from which he tugged hits every couple of minutes. He wore a No. 10 shirt with the colors of her new sponsor, as did dozens of others who cheered for her after she exited her car and walked from the garage to her trailer.

"It could've just as easily have been running up front and having an accident and saying, 'That's Daytona,' " Patrick said. "Ours just came a little early."

It came in the same fashion as her previous four 500s, as her whole Sprint Cup career, the results disproportionate to the attention paid. Greatness is the only salve for that, and Patrick wants it more than anything, not just because it would silence the Richard Pettys of the world but validate this whole experiment.

Instead, as she walked away from the track Sunday, a roar emanated from the crowd. Denny Hamlin's daring run from fourth for first on the final lap sent the 100,000-person-plus grandstand into a collective conniption. From her spot on the infield, Patrick peered through aviators to sneak a peek at what was causing the commotion. She saw the tops of the cars zoom by, turned around and continued toward the exit, toward the next city, toward a race that perhaps someday she'll finish with all those cars in her rearview.

 

I'm sure glad that is settled.

 

Everybody has an opinion it seems

 

The 40 lbs number comes from saying she weighs 100 lbs, 40 lbs below the threshold for maximum ballast weight.

 

you dont want to play? thats fine. hey, in the end.. i could care and actually agree...the weight is not a big deal.. but its something

I actually agree too. I dont think its a "big" deal, but like i said, if she ever was in a race and won by a nose, that would be the reason. ... I actually like here and think she is doing well for a little girl!!

actuallly, they dont ballast below 140lbs, so if she weighs 90 or 100lbs, there is your 40lbs. at least thats how i read the rules for nascar

nascar rule:

According to the NASCAR rulebook, drivers who weigh less than 180 pounds have to add 10 pounds to their car for every 10 pounds down to 140. Therefore, the maximum penalty would be 40 pounds.

Patrick arrived at Daytona International Speedway weighing 110 pounds, according to her representatives. So theoretically, her car could have been 30 pounds lighter than the car driven by 150-pound Jeff Gordon, who qualified second.

I totally agree there! as good as Sabine is, it would be good to see them both run on a neutral track in a sports car. danika wasnt that far off the pace in that one 24hour race i saw her run in a DP car. she definitely wheels the car well.

 

No it wouldn't. it would be because SHE WAS FASTER. Good lord...

And nice misogyny, Mark.

That said, this is funny:

 

Again, its not negligible when you talk about how long a race. 40lbs , 20lbs, still thats an extra 5-7 gallons of fuel load equivalent. dont telll me there are guys here that worry about running light fuel loads. (half tank vs full tank) in our races and claim it makes a difference. its not a huge deal, agreed. BUT, after 100laps, if it is only 2" different a lap.. (and i would think as a guess, its more like a foot), thats the difference of winning by a door length and losing by one.... how ever, there are those here that have quoted each 100lbs is worth a second at the track per lap (road course). ive done testing showing that for sure, no matter how hard i tried, 200lbs extra cost me 1 second......... do the math.. even at 20lbs, that would be 1/10th of a second.... at 100mph, you just lost by 16feet ......one lap..... multipled by 100laps, thats a 1/4 mile. THATs only 20lbs! I dont know what 200lbs or 20lbs , or even 40lbs would cost on a super speedway, (where it's not anything to do with the "800hp" Dave, its only about grip and wear on the tires) but you get the point. im not talking about 1/4 mile advantage after a race, im only talking a car length, and even that is something to think about.

I have no horse in the race here..I actually like Danica.....

Those are the ones ive seen too. to your point regarding the super-speedway......you dont think there are any lateral gs on a super speed way, even with high banking? its actually a question??..............then why do the cars go slower around them. i have little idea of the total effects, but there are going to be some. otherwise, there wouldnt have been the rule about the weight and adjustments. since she is not a factor , i dont think anyone cares... in fact, here size and strength might be a trade off.