When I was a kid, and open wheel racing was a much bigger deal than NASCAR, the news of Janet Guthrie qualifying for the 1977 Indy 500 made headlines around the world. And now, a little less than 31 years later, the road that began when Guthrie qualified for the first of three Indy 500s has ended in Japan, as Danica Patrick became the first woman to ever win an Indy Car race as she won the Japan Indy 500 while most of America were asleep in their beds.
And if Patrick looks a little smug in that photo, I say good for her. She earned it.
But before we talk about the history, we ought to acknowledge what a big deal this is for Patrick personally. This is the fourth season that Patrick has raced in IRL, and her second with the top team on the circuit, Andretti Green. After all this time, the one knock on Patrick was that despite all of the hype that accompanied her arrival in IRL in 2005, she had never won a race, with her previous top finish being second at the Detroit Indy Grand Prix last season.
Some had even taken to referring to her as the Anna Kournikova of auto racing. Now that monkey is off her back forever. Even better, she managed to win even after IRL instituted a rule requiring the minimum weight requirement of the car to include the weight of the driver -- a change that was made after a couple of years of complaining by other teams that Patrick had an advantage because she was so light.
