Patrick garnered a lot of press attention in her decision to move over to stock cars, and she garnered a lot of attention in the ARCA race coverage. At one point, I could have sworn it said the ARCA Danica Racing Series. Of course, I could be mistaken.

Patrick proved to be a quick study, staying in the lead draft and stayed out of trouble for the first half of the race. Around lap 50, she got loose, and out of the groove. She was quickly shuffled to the back. Three laps later, Nelson Piquet Jr, the former Formula One driver who was also making his stock car debut, made contact with Patrick, sending her spinning through the infield grass.

Patrick made an amazing save — at one point completely letting go of the wheel (she may have been praying) — and kept the car off the wall. (Conspiracy theorists might speculate that her car was radio controlled.)

She made two pit stops to stay on the lead lap and used a late caution to catch the lead draft. She battled back to a very respectable sixth place finish.

Patrick stayed calm and cool in the race car and was very patient, something she’s not really known for in Indy Car.

As we all know, one race does not a stock car career make, but she did exactly what she had to in her first outting. Good for her.

On Monday, the decision will be made as to whether or not she starts the Nationwide Series opener at Daytona.

Lee White, president of Toyota Racing Development said:

I’ve known Robby as a driver, team owner and fierce competitor since 1990. … We’ve raced together in Off-Road, IMSA, SCCA and Indy Car and have shared many memorable challenges and victories. It will be exciting to see how the association between Robby, his team, Toyota and TRD will develop in 2009.

The move is RGM’s fourth in the last four years. In 2006, the team fielded Chevys, in 2007, they switched to Ford. In 2008, he moved over to Gillett Evernham Motorsports engines, and switched to Dodges.

His switch to Dodge last season led to a few problems for the team. Before the Daytona 500, RGM tried to practice his Dodge with an unapproved nose. He blamed Dodge saying:

This was an innocent mistake made by someone not even on my team. They accidentally supplied us the new Dodge noses that NASCAR hasn’t yet approved because of what amounted to a clerical error. It was discovered during technical inspection and corrected before the race. It was not even close to being an intent to create some competitive advantage, and the mistake was not even made by my team.

He was penalized 100 points, and fined $100,000.

The team also was working on a merger with GEM, when talks soured and GEM sued RGM for breach of contract. The suit was later dropped.

Patrick went to Duno’s pitbox to complain about Duno, which Duno didn’t appreciate. She told Patrick repeatedly to “go away.”

When Patrick didn’t leave, Duno threw a towel at her. Patrick responded with a litany of profanity.

The incident was caught on video.

Patrick is starting to carve out a reputation as a hot headed driver, as she’s confronted Dan Weldon and attempted to confront Ryan Briscoe on separate occasions.

After watching the video, I’m wondering why this is news. This sort of thing happens weekly, I’m sure. But because it’s two women, all of the sudden it is news. Now, if they came to blows, that would have been worth covering. But, they didn’t. A towel was thrown. Oooo. And, suddenly “videos are surfacing.” It’s in several media outlets. Come on, give me a break. This should not be news that we’re talking about days later.

But, as I bash the fact that this garnered press coverage, I am here covering it in my blog. So, maybe that makes me a hypocrite.

But, regardless, the media should stop covering women in racing just because they’re women in racing!

I have no problem with women in any form of racing. But, if they’re going to be there, they should be treated exactly the same way that male drivers are. 

Until the media learns to treat them the same as male drivers, (some) fans never will.