As soon as the boos started to fall on Danica Patrick after she said that her poor Indy 500 qualifying run was not her fault — and that her No. 7 GoDaddy.com/Andretti Autosport car was not set up right — it was inevitable that the sport’s most popular driver would take her lumps from the media afterwards.
Two days later, Patrick is still getting heat for her comments on Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Today, Autoweek’s Dutch Mandel took her to task for failing to keep her displeasure with the car behind closed doors and also warned her that she must now “show the crew that she’s willing to work as hard as she’s ever worked to get a fast race car.”
Meanwhile, Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage sounded off on the matter on his blog at ESPNDallas.com. He too wasn’t happy with Patrick’s comments and also cited her teammate Tony Kanaan’s call for her to change her attitude. Here’s what Kanaan said on that after he made the show on Bump Day:
“I think my best advice to her, which I said that to her [Saturday] night, is you gotta learn from the tough times, and that the same guys that she finished fifth in the championship last year and won her first race, they’re still there. And those are the same people. And in racing, besides having the good setup and a good car, I believe that your attitude counts a lot.”
Smart words. While an argument can be made that Patrick’s difficulties on Saturday were part of a team-wide malaise at Andretti Autosport and that she was venting her frustrations over it, you simply can’t put the team on full blast in public — no matter if you’re a big star or a Saturday night dirt-tracker racing for parts money.
Luckily for Patrick, she can put a lot of this trouble to rest with a strong showing on Sunday afternoon. She’ll have a tough road ahead from the 23rd starting position, but if her team is able to get her car sorted out, she has the ability to do well once again at the Brickyard.
