ON THE MARK.

TAKE A BOW, DANICA.

I'll admit that I'm not a Gearhead, but I do respect any competitor who defies the odds and wins.   In other words, I love a good story.   Danica Patrick is a good story, and even better one now that she became the highest finishing female in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race.  I even watched MOST of the coverage of the Daytona 500 yesterday, something I rarely do.  I wanted to see Danica.   Did I care that Jimmy Johnson won the race?  Jimmy who?   His win was completely overshadowed by the lady who finished 8th, but was running third into the final lap.  I honestly thought she had a chance of WINNING.  I'm sure others did too.
Danica Patrick is a superstar and a wealthy one at that.  She had detractors,  as did many of her trail blazing female predecessors. Babe Didrikson-Zaharias,  Billie Jean King, Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney, Julie Krone and countless others who were told to "put an apron on and do women's work".   Danica Patrick was the first woman to win the pole position at Daytona.  She was the first woman to lead a lap at Daytona, and her 8th place finish is the highest of any woman.  Her sponsor, Go Daddy, is thrilled.  The auto racing community is buzzing.   Her name exploded on social media yesterday and it continues today.   Think about it.  She's already finished third at the Indianapolis 500, and is the only woman ever to win an Indy Car race.  Yesterday was only her 11th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup series after racing 59 times in the "Junior Circuit", the NASCAR Nationwide series.  And she's only 30 years old.   Her story just gets better.
      Unfortunately, the concussion story in the NHL is starting to get depressing.  After suffering through the loss of Sidney Crosby (who's still one hard hit away from you-know-what), the Pittsburgh Penguins have lost their other top gun, Evgeni Malkin, with a concussion.    In fact, several of the NHLs young stars are being concussed at an alarming rate.  Jeff Skinner, like Malkin is out indefinitely.  St. Louis rookie sensation Vladamir Tarsenko was concussed the other night.  Calder Trophy winner Gabriel Landeskog  missed 11 games with a concussion, and made his return Saturday against L.A.   That's good news because the Avs have four other players out with concussions, including stud defenseman Erik Johnson.  On the Rangers, Michael Sauer and Darroll Powe are out.  Ryan Carter of the Devils is another.   All with head injuries.  And it's not just the result of a good hard bodycheck (of which there are many).  Malkin's injury was a result of falling hard into the end boards.  The same type of injury ended the career of Hall of Famer Michel Goulet.  I'm worried.  Last year there were an alarming number of concussions.  This year, more of the same.  And it's taking out our best young players.   Something must be done.  But what?