Danica Patrick got the biggest break of her motorsports career in 2004 when Rahal Letterman Racing named her as a part of their 2005 IndyCar Series roster. She’d raced in Junior Formula for nearly seven years before then and displayed immense promise. Making her IndyCar Series debut in Homestead-Miami, she went on to secure seven podiums and one win over seven full-time seasons.
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In 2010, she dipped her feet into the world of stock car racing with a part-time appearance in the Nationwide Series. She piloted the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet car that year and in the next. Her experiences in the discipline had impressed her enough to make the call to move to NASCAR beginning in 2012 for a full-time seat in Nationwide and a part-time seat in the Cup Series.
She reasoned her affinity for stock car racing during the transfer announcement, “I just really enjoy driving the car. I enjoy the challenge, I like how the car changes over a race, and I like how the track changes. I like how many pit stops there are and the strategy of pitting for tires at the end or maybe not, keeping track position.” In 2012, she finished 10th in the Nationwide standings after securing four top-10 finishes.
The part-time Cup Series run saw her finish inside the top 20 just once. Regardless, she gained a full-time seat at the top level with Stewart-Haas Racing in 2013. Patrick spent five years driving the No. 10 car for 3X Cup Series champion Tony Stewart. She brought in seven top-10 finishes and zero wins. Her best result was a sixth-place finish at Atlanta in 2014.
The challenges that Patrick faced when she returned to IndyCar in 2018
In 2018, Patrick was scheduled to race in the Indy 500 for Ed Carpenter Racing. She said that drivers have to rely on their instincts more in open-wheel racing as compared to stock car racing and hoped that she still had it in her to pilot an IndyCar. She quipped, “(The biggest challenge will be) probably knowing the tendencies of the car, but I think that’ll come back.”
“I’m a little interested to see if there will be some setbacks from not being in the car for a long time or if it’ll be like riding a bike.” She suffered a crash in the race and failed to finish it. Patrick is one of the biggest icons when it comes to females in professional stock car racing.
She is an inspiration to many and the fact that she stated her debut in an ARCA Menards race back in 2010 as the most fun she had in a race car is certainly something to be proud of for stock car racing fans.
