Is Danica Patrick’s Controversial Instagram Photo a Big Deal?

Danica Patrick recently posted a controversial Instagram photo of Kyle Larson’s son Owen. Did she go too far with this image?

Once again, Danica Patrick is making headlines in the NASCAR world for something other than her lackluster driving, which is nothing new given the fact that her driving has been nothing special over her five-year full-time Cup Series career. Through 175 career races, she is still without a top 5 finish.

This time, however, the reason she is getting a lot of buzz has nothing to do with speculation in regard to her future in the Cup Series, specifically with Stewart-Haas Racing in the #10 Ford. Instead, it has to do with a controversial photo that she uploaded on Instagram of Kyle Larson’s two-year-old son Owen on Kyle’s 25th birthday on Monday.

Just a fair warning: this image may offend certain viewers. Others will not be offended. Here is a link to the controversial image.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXN5PEoBPNt/

Kyle Larson did comment on the photo, saying “Haha awesome”. But how awesome would it be if you woke up and saw that one of your friends posted a picture of your son, no matter how old, urinating on tires…in an attempt to wish you a happy birthday?

Naturally, if Larson wanted it taken down, it’d be gone by now. So I’m going to make the safe assumption that Larson, the only person whose feelings truly matter in this situation, was not offended by it.

I could be totally wrong, though. Maybe Larson simply doesn’t want to make her feel bad about posting it too and doesn’t want to tell her to take it down. After all, she was wishing him a happy birthday.

But the photo is reaching hundreds of thousands more people than Larson alone. Heck, Patrick has nearly four times as many followers as Larson does on Instagram despite the fact that Larson actually wins races, but that’s none of my business, nor is it the point of this article.

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First off, in what state of mind would she actually post this image of all images for the whole world to see? Even more intriguing, why does she even have access to this image? And finally, what is she trying to gain by posting it out there for everyone, especially when the caption seems to indicate that it was only a happy birthday wish to Larson?

I think it’s more than safe to say that culturally this image, which was posted to her 400,000+ Instagram followers, is unacceptable and gives a bad rap to the sport of NASCAR. After all, we are talking about a professional athlete uploading this image.

I can understand why she would dedicate a photo to Larson for his birthday; people do that for their friends all the time, and that is certainly acceptable. But that photo? Really?

If Larson really doesn’t have a problem with it, that’s his prerogative and I accept that. But regardless of what he thinks, this image is still a huge deal because culturally it is not something that a professional athlete should be posting for the whole world to see.

You can defend her and make fun of the people who find this photo offensive all you want; the fact is, they have a point, because like I said above, the image was not reaching just Larson and nobody else. It was and is accessible by literally anyone at this very moment.

This would image be a complete non-issue if it was sent in private, which brings to light the question of whether or not Patrick simply wanted attention and figured she could get it by posting the image. Was her goal really to wish Larson a happy birthday?

But the fact is, she didn’t send it to him privately. Instead, she put it out there for everyone to see. She published a photo of Larson’s two-year-old son urinating on a tire for the whole world to see. If nothing else, that’s just unbelievable, even from a driver who really has nothing going for her on the race track.

Next: Kurt Busch Situation Echoes Why You Can't Believe Everything You Hear on the Internet

Do you think Danica Patrick’s controversial post of Owen Larson is a big deal? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow me on Instagram as well as Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter. Also, don’t forget to follow along with Beyond the Flag for the latest news, opinions and analysis stemming from a number of different motorsports series. You don’t want to miss any of it.