Throughout her career, Danica Patrick has been well-known and loved by several fans for her time racing in IndyCar and then later in NASCAR. Although she did not win much across both series, except one race in IndyCar, she is arguably one of the most successful women in motorsports.
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One of the biggest moments in her career arrived while she was still in her IndyCar career. After failing to secure victory at the fabled Indianapolis 500 despite being close in the summer of 2005, Patrick later considered it to be the greatest regret of her life. In a clip shared by Patrick herself on social media, she explained the reason why she regretted the outcome.
Danica Patrick reveals the moment she regrets the most in her life
During a one-on-one conversation with Graham Bensinger, he asked Patrick why she had mentioned that not going for the win at the Indy 500 had been the greatest regret of her life. The former IndyCar star responded, “Well because they’re hard to come by, period. And you know, being experienced now looking back like, I would have rather hoped for a yellow at the very end and then stayed in the lead than playing it safe to make sure that I had enough fuel to finish the race.”
“Like, much cooler to run out of fuel in the lead than it is to just drop back at the end. I mean, it was still a great story but, play the Lucky Dog card and hope for hope for some luck where you can win the race. So anyway, I would have just banked on hoping I had enough or a yellow instead of just detuning myself.”
Later on, Patrick added, “Of course, this is not what I knew them, which is why I didn’t include it in the decision. But we didn’t have the right systems in place to know exactly how much fuel was left. So I ended with enough for two and a half more laps. So another… That was just like the real information on how I could have, you know, made it but…”
What happened at the 2005 Indy 500 race with Patrick?
The 2005 Indy 500 will forever be remembered by the fans for the majestic sight of Danica Patrick taking over the lead on the final restart. The crowd roared as she went past Dan Wheldon.
However, after her team misunderstood the amount of fuel in the car, she was forced to conserve, which in turn slowed her down and Wheldon eventually caught back up and subsequently won the race. When the chequered flag came up, Patrick could barely hold onto fourth place.
Patrick had possibly the greatest opportunity to have a woman win the iconic Indy 500 race, but that opportunity slipped out of her hands just because there were no proper instruments to gauge the amount of fuel left. Nonetheless, Patrick’s 4th place result was the highest-ever finish for any woman to have raced at the event until it was surpassed with a third-place finish by Patrick herself in 2009.
