The re-emergence of Danica Mania.

Let the Danica-mania ensue!  Or not.  


Twitter-sphere was alive and well since, of course, it is race day.  Great comments all around from bloggers and fans.  


Important news items:
1.  Milka was true to form; she managed to race full speed into a smoke cloud, crash, and finish last.  
2.  Nelson Piquet Jr. will now know the wrath of Nascar nation; he got into Danica.  
3.  Danica finishes 6th.  
4.  DW is swooning over Danica.  


So, what does all this mean?  One thing that surprised me was the feistiness that Danica displayed while racing.  I was also surprised by her car control.  Do not glean from these comments that I thought poorly of her driving ability previously.  You're wrong.  Danica has displayed talent before, but never this aggressive style.  She did seem to lack a little discipline, but that will be learned.  


Steph (@99forever) from planet-IRL.com tweeted this, "Okay, kids.. the end of that was actually pretty good. And you gotta hand it to Danica. She looked good at the end. But what does that mean?"  She has a point and a good one at that.  There are a couple ways to interpret this.  First, indycar skeptics can claim that she hasn't made a display like this in indycars.  Point taken.  The other point is more relevant, though.  Danica achieved a top-10 finish in her first ARCA start.  That, readers, is good work.  The best thing I see is that she won't be the latest laughing-stock in the string of crossovers.  Sure, she hasn't run a Busch, err, Nationwide Series race yet, but this result should shut up the Nascar skeptics for the first few races.  Now, if we could get the over-zealous commentators to mention more IICS statistics.  


The commentators annoyed the crap out of me.  If you didn't know better, you'd think Danica had never driven a car before the way they talked.  WRONG!  That would be yet another reason I was glad to see that save of hers; DW freaked out because she controlled her car like an indycar driver.  Hmm, that's probably because she is one.  Who knew?  


Recall the Piquet Jr. reference?  I have a theory on this one.  One indycar fan, Brandon (@bmnehls) had this to say, "Poor Piquet is going to be hated forever now..." He's got it right, you know.  Danica is driving for JR, the beloved of Nascar Nation.  Combine that with her popularity and plenty of fans will get on the Danica bandwagon.  I pity the driver who wrecks her and arouses the wrath of Nascar Nation.  Hey look, that former F1 driver, Piquet Jr, wrecked her.  That should inspire a bit of fear.  If not, just remember that Nascar Nation is much bigger than IndyCar Nation, tends to be much less illogical in its arguments and is just as unforgiving.  I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole.  Note to Piquet: Quit now before you piss off anyone else.  Just do it.   


That's all I've got for now.  It hasn't been a surprising day for IndyCar Nation.  The way I see it, we got some good publicity today.  Thanks, Danica.  


Oh wait, one last question:  how long do we have to wait for an IndyCar race?  

Affects of social media on fan perception of drivers

As I was pondering what to write about, I started listing off the possibilities in my head.  My train of thought went like this:
1)  favorite drivers
2)  what about them
     a) skills
     b) how they conduct themselves
3)  why do I care about how they conduct themselves
4)  effects of social media on fan's perception of drivers
5)  wow, that could be a blog entry possibly worth reading
6)  my list looks like a rough outline for a paper.

I feel that it's safe to make the assumption that most fans have a favorite or few favorite drivers they cheer for.  (If this is not the case, I EXPECT a crap-ton of comments telling me that so I won't make a faulty generalization about that again.)  My favorite happens to be Graham Rahal.  I can't tell you how that started, although I think it had something to do with him being young and showing some promise.  What can I say, I was a 17 year-old girl.  :)  However, I didn't really toss all my "fan-eggs," to coin a new term, into his basket until the Indy 500 last year.  Since then, I've been hooked.  I've watched his progress and, thanks to the internet, gobbled up every bit of info about him that I can.  Before anyone informs me that I am slightly obsessive, I'd like to pose this question:  isn't that what being a fan is about?  Think about it.

When I pause to think about why I'm a fan of Graham, I come up with a few reasons.

1. He has the skill.  As evidenced by his improvement on ovals and overall consistency, he is honing his craft.  
2. He makes you want to cheer for him because he's not Marco.  He's not a whiny brat who relies on daddy to give him a ride.  Also, he takes responsibility for his actions.  
3. Watch this, especially 3-4 minute mark.  When I saw this, my respect was gained.  

As I look over this list, the definitive things are 2 and 3.  A thought occurred to me:  since when has all this other crap become important?  I mean, why am I even considering something other than skill?  Why do I care how a driver conducts himself/herself?  Dear possibly non-existent readers, I believe social media has brought about this change.  Before youtube, facebook, twitter, or fan forums existed, fans had to either rely on word of mouth, driver interviews, or meet a driver in order to know what they were like.  Social media has altered our perceptions of drivers.  Without all of this media at my fingertips, I wouldn't have reason 3 on my list.  Also, reason 2 would be far more limited.

Due to social media, fandom is changing just as our perception of drivers is changing.   Greedily, fans search for whatever they can find out about their drivers.  Why?  For me, it's so I can gain a better understanding of who they are as people.  I want to know that the guys and gals who drive those cars are real; I want to know that they're just like me.  In the age of social media, we do know these things.  These drivers aren't just drivers; they're real people too!  When they're perceived as people, they are judged as people as well.

Since we have access to drivers' lives due to social media, it opens the door for criticism or praise of how they conduct themselves.  This concept is clearly seen in fan forums.  On the Indycar Nation forum, Marco Andretti is NOT a favorite.  If you search for Marco, I guarantee you will find more negative posts about him than positive ones.  Searching more carefully, you'll find that some negative posts come from people who used to be his fans but are now put off by his attitude (I fit in this category).  Now tell me that social media hasn't changed driver perceptions...

Note:  I hope this opens up some discussion.  Probably won't since nobody comments this, but I can dream, right?