Does Danica Hide Her Eyes?

The haters and the skeptics were really on her case after her wreck at Daytona in the NSCS qualifying race, claiming she "hid her eyes" just prior to her contact with the wall.

-----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsDoRROPD_c

Even after her explanation of what was going on in her interview the following day

-----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWMCMZkXisc

Some still refuse to believer her. It astounds me how many clueless fools there are out there who consider themselves to be racing "Experts."

Take a look at this little article from last year. (Slow loader)

-----> http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110328/IRL/110329875

Of course some will never believe her, because they simply do not WANT to believe her.

I dont know who is claiming she was covering her eyes but they obviously dont know racing.
Our drivers at the local level let go of the steering wheel when they are gonna hit the wall. A lot more can go wrong than just a wrist injury as well. We had one driver one time not let go (we have biggger steering wheels) & when the tire grabbed the wall shot the steering wheel the other way. Well the driver ended up tearing his muscles in his arm & was out of racing the rest of the season. I imagine in Indy cars it would be more wrist & thumb injuries, but you can hurt yourself anywhere in your arms & even shoulder with how fast & violent the wheel will turn your grip.

BTW I loved the look she gave in the second video when asked if they could clear up if she was covering her eyes. I always assumed all racers & those that follow it knew about drivers letting go. I really dont or cant understand how there is even a debate about what she was doing?

i would never bust on anyone who was in a crash, she said she did that in the irl, so be it... let these people who judge her go through a crash and see how they react....
its a natural reflex if you drive those cars,

I dont know who is claiming she was covering her eyes but they obviously dont know racing.
Our drivers at the local level let go of the steering wheel when they are gonna hit the wall. A lot more can go wrong than just a wrist injury as well. We had one driver one time not let go (we have biggger steering wheels) & when the tire grabbed the wall shot the steering wheel the other way. Well the driver ended up tearing his muscles in his arm & was out of racing the rest of the season. I imagine in Indy cars it would be more wrist & thumb injuries, but you can hurt yourself anywhere in your arms & even shoulder with how fast & violent the wheel will turn your grip.

BTW I loved the look she gave in the second video when asked if they could clear up if she was covering her eyes. I always assumed all racers & those that follow it knew about drivers letting go. I really dont or cant understand how there is even a debate about what she was doing?

When i use to run the 358's,i learned the hard way and no one is that tough on impact,the wheel is going where it wants to and there isn't a dam thing you're going to do about it.Closing your eyes i think is a natural instinct for most,i can't recall what i did most the time,cuz that wall comes up pretty dam quick when chit happens .The wall Just gets bigger and it sure isn't forgiving!

I dont know who is claiming she was covering her eyes but they obviously dont know racing.
Our drivers at the local level let go of the steering wheel when they are gonna hit the wall. A lot more can go wrong than just a wrist injury as well. We had one driver one time not let go (we have biggger steering wheels) & when the tire grabbed the wall shot the steering wheel the other way. Well the driver ended up tearing his muscles in his arm & was out of racing the rest of the season. I imagine in Indy cars it would be more wrist & thumb injuries, but you can hurt yourself anywhere in your arms & even shoulder with how fast & violent the wheel will turn your grip.

BTW I loved the look she gave in the second video when asked if they could clear up if she was covering her eyes. I always assumed all racers & those that follow it knew about drivers letting go. I really dont or cant understand how there is even a debate about what she was doing?

When i use to run the 358's,i learned the hard way and no one is that tough on impact,the wheel is going where it wants to and there isn't a dam thing you're going to do about it.Closing your eyes i think is a natural instinct for most,i can't recall what i did most the time,cuz that wall comes up pretty dam quick when chit happens .The wall Just gets bigger and it sure isn't forgiving!

Yeah the guy came in on the hook, he didnt ask for medical attention when on the track. By the time he was out of his car his arm was about three times the size of his other one & his elbow was absolutely ugly. As far as your eyes. You are suppose to close them. Ernie Irvan almost lost his in one of the two wrecks that almost killed him. Your eyes if wide open can pop out of your head & definitely can damage them on a head on collusion. I remember Ernie couldnt see for a bit & for a long time had blurring vision. If you looked at his eyes all of where it is white was red. Pretty gross looking.
All in all Danica does what she is trained to do & the common TV watcher doesnt understand what is or becomes common sense to a racer. Also what some people dont realize is they say before a sudden impact you are suppose to let your body go limp instead of tensing up. Now that would have to take some mental training to do. To be able to tell yourself go limp when headed for a concrete wall.

I don't drive, but there was a time when I could be found on most any summer saturday night, hanging in the pits at my local track with one team or another. I've got a number of friends who drive.

I remember the subject of "Wheel Whip" as its called, came up one night in a discussion among some of us years ago. One of my best friends out there told me he had trained himself NOT to grasp the wheel in the "conventional" manner. He actually races using a sort of "cupped palm" grasp of the wheel to prevent that type of hand injury. He does not loop his thumb under the wheel.

"Wheel Whip" is really bad about dislocating thumbs. I've actually seen guys out there having to be assisted from their cars because the could not grasp the cage bars to lift themselves out due to broken and/or dislocated thumbs and fingers.

Some people will just be mutts and try and find something they don't like about her, nature of the beast.
As for me; I wasn't a big fan of her early on in IndyCar but I am starting to like her more and more, and I think part of it is her personality. She's got a fire there and it comes out under stupid questions and tough times, not quite as sarcastic as Smoke's answers, but definitely close!
As for the wheel-whip; I have always driven with the thumb outside of the wheel, whether it was in my personal car, or in my 28 years of emergency vehicle operations.
A squad from a nearby city had a head-on, and the firefighter that was driving snapped both wrists as he grabbed and gripped down on the wheel when it went into a concrete wall.