February 12, 2010
By Rebecca Gladden
If you're a member of the TV team that broadcasts ARCA and NASCAR races,
I'm calling you out.
Your obsession with Danica Patrick has to stop.
Now.
The television coverage of last Saturday's ARCA race, with its fanatical focus on all-things-Danica to the virtual exclusion of the rest of the field, was a disgrace and an embarrassment.
So far, your coverage of Speedweeks shows little sign of stopping that trend. And I shudder to think what her debut in Saturday's Nationwide race will look like to viewers at home.
Is there widespread interest in Danica Patrick, both inside and outside NASCAR? Clearly, the answer is yes.
But, do ARCA and NASCAR fans want to be hit over the head by your unyielding fixation on her? "Do they want to watch an entire practice session or race never having their favorite driver shown or even mentioned?"
Do fans want to feel like the collective NASCAR bus has been hijacked by a mad Danica maniac, careening wildly down the Primrose Patrick Path whether the passengers want to go there or not?
Absolutely not.
Since the ARCA race, my email box (and, I hope, yours) has been flooded with complaints about Danica Mania - and questions about how to stop it.
It was frankly hard to believe some of the insipid things that were said and shown in the ARCA race broadcast on Saturday. One commentator marveled at the fact that Danica had the wherewithal (I am not making this up) to tighten her belts when they were loose. When Danica got shuffled out of the draft line (no contact), there was actually a replay showing how it happened.
Most of the pre- and post-race coverage was about her, completely overshadowing the praiseworthy accomplishment of veteran driver Bobby Gerhart, who set a record by winning his sixth ARCA race at Daytona.
And then there was poor Alli Owens, a talented 21-year-old female racer in her own right, who ran ahead of Danica in the third position for most of the race, although her finish did not reflect her strong performance.
Posting on her Facebook page this week under the heading "Danica Mania!!!," Owens wrote:
"Since my whole race week was filled with 'Danica' questions, I feel like I really need to get it all off my chest and move forward. As soon as I heard that she was thinking about crossing over to stock cars, I was pretty unsure of my feelings towards it. I mean let's face it - there are more female drivers who struggle to find half decent opportunities vs. Danica's fortunate partnership with GoDaddy.com. I didn't want the underdog stories of women racers to be overlooked by a commercialized figure. …
"I noticed I had an anger being built up toward Danica and was totally frustrated about her being there. I felt like I was racing in the DANICA 200 instead of the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200. We have struggled for 3 years to run a full season in ARCA and finally are with a good team and was a threat all week long and never once got good recognition for it. For a struggling driver it truly hurt my feelings. It wasn't until after the race and talking to Danica that I realized I liked her as a person and it was the media that I was unhappy with. The whole DANICA MANIA was influencing my opinion on her. For that I truly apologize, but as for the media and everyone else, please realize that she is the same as the rest of us out there under a helmet and strapped into a car. I think her off track brand and image is speaking louder than her on track performance…"
Alli also suffered the humiliation of being referred to by one race commentator as "what's her name" - an especially stark contrast to the obsessive references to Danica. On her Facebook page, Alli wrote that the broadcaster "helped make my skin a little thicker and now pushed me harder to make sure that he and everyone else will NOT forget my name!"
The point of this diatribe is not to criticize Danica herself or her fans.
My purpose is to implore the TV team to dial back the Danica hype.
Don't you see that you're hurting not only the sport and the fans, but Danica herself?
If the feedback from my readers is any indication, there is already a backlash brewing against Danica, though television's tight tunnel-vision on her is not entirely her fault.
In the long run, both the viewers and the competitors would be much better served by a better balanced broadcast.
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