Why Does Milka Duno Continue To "Compete"?!?

She has her rich daddy's money he is a big dog at Citco, and one of the richest men in Venezuela where she is from. She brings sponsorship and $$$ with her... Heck I think I could drive better. I'd rather see Rahal in the car but. Milka has the $$$$$, and thats whats needed in racing these days. I was at the race also, she is a total joke if you ask me.

Go Team Penske.

First off, Milka is NOT a bad driver. She does have talent and would clean up if put in a race with most of us.

Having said that, her talent is akin to AA baseball. Her sole reason for being a part of the IRL is because she brings sponsorship dollars and, unfortunately, that gets people rides. Graham Rahal and Paul Tracy would run circles around her, but since they don't have the $$$$ behind them, they don't have the rides.

Just my $.02 .. ..

first of all milka duno is bad at indy racing and yeah she should not compete in the races but she is always geting so mad and blaming things on other drivers. no one needs milka because she is very dangerous and you know she has been having fights with people, but the only thing she is trying to do is get other drivers in trouble because she wants to win easier i mean when she is racing or praticing she has no idea what she is doing out there on the track.

I honestly don't know how Dale Coyne can afford to have her on the team. I guess CITGO is forking over a bit of money but she's wrecking cars, not finishing, not qualifying well, etc. Obviously, it isn't completely the team's fault because Coyne Racing actually had an alright year last season with Justin Wilson. Imagine how much better the team's 2010 season would be if they managed to sign Rahal as their driver.

This has got to do with politics between Citgo and her country I think Brazil.This is all I know.. Even though I have spoken to Milka and she seems to be a very kind person.

Because of her looks and her rich daddy, same with Danica; while she is better than Milka, lets face it if she was a man or even a less attractive woman she would be out of a ride.

Because she's allowed to. She's not competive and never has been. She had been, somewhat, in other series but, she attacts sponsors and a woman driver is still somehwat of a novelty. It's strictly about $.

Photos taken on track and in the garage area at the first four races this year clearly show Milka was being given an older version of the road course front nose (the one without the vertical stabilizer flaps) compared to her teammate Alex Lloyd. Milka also told Venezuelan racing reporter Jose Teixeira that Coyne finally gave her a new version nose on Saturday at Long Beach and that there was a balance difference between the new and old version which needed to be addressed. Coincidence or not, Milka was running her fastest laps on Sunday at Long Beach after the new version nose was installed and the car was tweaked. Considering that in Sunday's morning warm up, Milka picked up about 9 seconds from her fastest lap in Friday's P2 and nearly 3 seconds from Saturday's practice, a more stable front nose and a car better set up to take advantage of it very likely contributed, at least partially, to that. Milka's 10 race laps also were similar to the Sunday warm up, still 7-9 seconds faster than her best in Friday P2. FWIW, photos also show that Alex Lloyd ran the old nose in Friday P1 at Long Beach and the new nose in Friday P2. He improved nearly 2 seconds between those sessions. More coincidence?

We know from what Sarah Fisher said upon receiving her new chassis last year that the older cars/parts still in service were slower than newer ones. We also know that Dale Coyne announced in January that he was paying for the Boys Scouts of America "sponsorship" himself and was looking for other corporate involvement (Citgo?) to help pay the #19's bill. If Coyne is giving Milka older, slower parts in an attempt to stretch the budget, that could account for some of her slowness. Bluntly, it may make her look worse than even she deserves to look. Getting rid of Milka could get rid of Citgo, which in turn, could eliminate a good portion of funding for Alex Lloyd's car. Firing Milka could kill the entire DCR program right now.

BTW, should we assume that a documentable older nose is the only slower part that Coyne was giving to Milka, or is it just the tip of that iceberg, much of which can't be as easily proven with race weekend photos? Finding out how many older, slower parts need to combine for a driver to look like an embarrassment is probably as worthless as asking an owl how many licks it takes to get to the inside of a Tootsie Pop. Finally, considering that the league's most marketable driver (Danica Patrick) has only one more career IndyCar victory than it's slowest driver (Milka Duno), should it really be surprising that money, good looks and popularity do more than on track results to put a driver in a Dallara now?

NOTE: Since YA only allows 10 source links, I had to eliminate a photo link of Lloyd with the new nose at Barber.

UPDATE: Bottom line: Milka was 16 seconds behind in Friday P2 with the old nose and 7 seconds behind in Sunday practice with the new nose. That's 9 seconds difference with only one apparent technical change. I don't know how much of that 9 second pick up can be attributed to the new nose. However, I also have no idea how many other older/slower parts Coyne may be running that helped contribute to Milka's still 7 second difference on Sunday either.

Just to put a number to the concept, let's say the other older parts slow down Milka by another 3 seconds on Sunday. If Milka was only 4 seconds behind fastest (105%) instead of 16 seconds behind (124%) on Friday, there would not be as much of an issue. Still slow? Yes. Still a hazard? Yes, but nowhere near as much even at a concrete canyon like Long Beach.

I'm not saying a brand new Dallara would automatically have Milka contending with Penske and Ganassi. However, if Milka's Citgo money is paying an estimated 80% of DCR's budget for both cars, then it's unfair for Alex to get all of the part upgrades. When Milka came to IMS as a rookie in 2007 with Samax in only her second IndyCar oval race, she was driving a used Hemelgarn chassis that had a road course setup and speedway wings bolted on. She had to have some sort of skill to take that pig of Frankenstein and qualify it in the middle of Row 10. I think DCR has been doing much of the same with Milka this season.

BTW, if you're Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in 2008-2009, would you give your newest/fastest parts to your full time driver (Rice & Conway) or your part time driver, Milka? Answer the question honestly, especially given Robbie Buhl's recent admission that DRR was "stretched too thin" in 2009, and one really starts to wonder how much of what we see now has always been Milka's talent, how much is it the cars she has driven and how much have those second choice boat anchors degraded her driving skill since 2007. I don't know, but I wish there was some way to find out.

yeah and she doesn't really race. She just race a few laps and then she's done.