Chuck Steak wrote:

If I owned a team and was looking at Kanaan V Patrick, and my primary
motivation was to get a "winning driver", I see why you think Kanaan would
be the natural choice, but personally I still might choose Patrick.

And there are 3 reasons; The obvious one, that Patrick will reliably draw
more sponsor money for a longer term, which might more than make up for
any current talent deficit when it comes to winning. The second reason is
that Kanaan is on the decline, Danica is still getting better. And third,
Danica is clearly the best female driver in the world's top circuit racing
series today, to me that suggests she is a possible 'freak talent' and I
think freak talents can often win when others just settle for second.

Maybe a female driver of freakish talent still can't cut it with the men
anyway. But I think people write off Danica's potential too quickly, she
definitely has 'something' that most other mere mortal female drivers
don't and is worth persevering with at this stage, much like Logano is, to
see if the potential can be fulfilled.

Now she has settled down to a new contract, personally I wouldn't be
putting money on Kanaan finishing higher or winning more races than her
next year.

--
Chad