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Girl Power

Danica Patrick.
Remember that name. Remember I was the one who told you to remember that name. I predict that by next week, she'll be everybody's darling. Car racing's equivalent of Tiger Woods.

Patrick, rookie female driver, starts fourth at the 89th running of the Indy 500 on Sunday. Three other women have raced at Indy Motor Speedway in the legendary Memorial Day event, dubbed the "greatest spectacle in racing," but none has revved the engines of sportswriters and fans the way Patrick has. Chatter in the media expects her not only to compete well...some suggest she has a damn good chance of winning.

Even more exciting to some—she's driving a car owned by late-night jokester David Letterman. Hopefully we won't be seeing a segment on his show, "Stupid Indy Driver Tricks," anytime soon.

She's hardly the picture of an IRL grease monkey. Pink-polished fingernails, long flowing hair, determined hazel eyes, petite, barely out of her teenage years. The magazine FHM recently did a photo spread of her, scantily clad in a red-and-black teddy and bustier, strategically straddling a 1957 Chevy.

I'm so excited that women are breaking into a sport (if one wants to call driving fast in a circle a sport) dominated by macho men steeped in testosterone and neck-deep in power tools. But, for once, I'd like Patrick to be a woman who's a genuine winner, respected and celebrated as a skilled athlete rather than as a comedian's punch line or a well-endowed pinup model. Everyone had high hopes for tennis player Anna Kournikova. But she's better known for what she's wearing (or not wearing) and who she's dating than for her court prowess. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride? Always a player, never a match winner? Always a racer, never a champion?

We'll see.
I'm pulling for her, crossing my fingers that—at the checkered flag—she's the real deal.

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