Danica Patrick Many new fans are girls—a point not lost on Patrick, who makes it a priority to sign autographs for her young fans. “I try to encourage kids to embrace what’s different about them,” Patrick says. “In the end, what makes you valuable to someone is what’s different about you.” // BY M.B. ROBERTS THE FIRST TIME Danica Patrick raced, she PHOTOS COURTESY OF BEV AND T.J. PATRICK crashed—right into a concrete wall. // At age 10, Danica hones her driving skills in her No. 10 go-kart. PAGE 4 • A M E R I C A N P R O F I L E .CO M “I was 10 years old,” says Patrick, recalling her initiation behind the wheel while growing up in Roscoe, Ill. (pop. 10,785). “My dad built go-karts and took my sister and me to a parking lot where we set up cans and bottles in a circle. Then we started driving around them, but my brake didn’t work!” “She hit the wall going about 20 miles per hour and flipped over,” recalls her father, T.J., 53. “I thought I killed her.” The crash was scary enough; then the youngster’s puffy coat caught fire after coming in contact with the hot muffler. “I got her out,” T.J. says. “She was OK.” She also was hooked. Driving racecars today at 31, Patrick is among the most successful women in auto racing history and, regardless of the gender of her opponents, relishes every opportunity to compete on the track. “She’s making a huge statement,” says crew chief Tony Gibson, 50. “New fans are coming into our sport because of Danica Patrick.” Trailblazing Women Drivers In a sport dominated by men, Patrick garnered attention as an Indy Racing League (IRL) driver by clinching the Indy Japan 300 in 2008, becoming the only woman to win an IndyCar race. At the Indianapolis 500, she finished fourth on her first try in 2005 and, after leading for 19 laps in 2009, came in third to mark the highest finish of any female driver in the famed motorsports event. After switching to stock car racing, she finished fourth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2011 to notch the highest finish of any female and earn the 10th spot in NASCAR’s touring series in 2012. “She’s got a lot of good things going for her, especially talent,” says fellow NASCAR driver and boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 27. “It all starts with talent in racing.” Competing with Tony Stewart’s StewartHaas Racing team in NASCAR’s premier Sprint Cup Series, Patrick has become both a household name and a famous face, making appearances in TV commercials for godaddy.com and the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. But for now, her focus is on winning the upcoming // Driving her No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet last August at Michigan International Speedway Daytona 500, considered the Super How could I not let her?” Bowl of NASCAR, where last year she finished For three years, Patrick battled homesickness eighth after setting the fastest qualifying time to and frequent resistance from male drivers and become the first female Sprint Cup pole winner. crewmembers. Looking back, however, most of her “I was brought up to be the fastest driver, not experiences as a female in her sport are positive. the fastest girl,” she told reporters after her historic “I’m perfectly comfortable with guys,” she says. 45.8-second lap—averaging 196.4 mph—around the “They’re so easy to be around. Their thoughts are 2½-mile track. “I’ve been lucky enough to make history, be the first woman to do many things. We have like—golf, hungry, tired. We women can overthink things sometimes.” a lot more history to make.” Patrick stayed on track through achievements such as her second-place finish at England’s Brands Hatch road course—the highest ever for an Patrick grew up with an appreciation for speed American—during the 2000 Formula Ford Festival. and machinery. Her dad met her mother, Bev, on By 2002, she was back in the United States and a blind date at a snowmobile race where he was driving for Rahal-Letterman Racing, a team co-owned competing and she was a mechanic. “They’ve been by IndyCar Series champ Bobby Rahal and TV talk together ever since,” Patrick says. (Continued on page 6) NASCAR MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES From go-kart racer to NASCAR contender NASCAR MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES Standing out (Continued from page 5) When not running their plate glass company, the couple took Patrick and her younger sister, Brooke, to watch midget and go-kart races, and later the girls raced at nearby tracks such as Sugar River Raceway in Brodhead, Wis. “After four or five weeks, Danica was really picking it up,” T.J. says. “I’d been around racing my whole life, and I knew she was different. She instinctively understood what to do.” While her early years included more traditional athletic pursuits such as baseball, volleyball, basketball and cheerleading, her passion became go-kart racing. “When she was 13, she wanted us to move to California so she could race year-round,” says T.J., who told her “no” because “we have a business to run.” But seeing her determination, T.J. frequently flew his oldest daughter West to compete in races, where she won numerous regional titles as well as the World Karting Association Grand National Championship in 1994, 1996 and 1997. At 16, Patrick made a pivotal decision to drop out of high school and move to England to train in Europe’s open-wheel developmental series. “Everybody asked, ‘How could you let her do that?’” T.J. says. “But to me, it was a no-brainer. Racing instinct Danica Patrick may be the most famous female racecar driver, but she’s not the first. A handful of female competitors blazed the NASCAR trail before her, most famously Janet Guthrie, who in 1977 became the first woman to qualify for the Daytona 500. When Patrick won the pole in 2013, Guthrie congratulated her. “After 36 years, it was about time my record was broken,” she said. Here are NASCAR’s other leading women: Louise Smith—The first woman to compete in the Cup Series (known then as Strictly Stock) in 1949, Smith captured 38 victories racing modifieds, sportsman cars and in the Grand Nationals (now Cup Series) during her 10-year career. Janet Guthrie—The first woman to run in both the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500 also is a licensed pilot. Her best Cup Series (NASCAR’s top level) finish was sixth at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in 1977. Patty Moise—During her first race, she became the first woman to lead a Busch Series event at Road Atlanta in 1986. In 1990, Moise marked a thenbest finish (22nd) for a female driver. Shawna Robinson—The first woman to win the pole position in NASCAR’s Busch (second-tier) Series, Robinson set a then-track speed record of 174.3 mph at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1994. Tammy Jo Kirk—In 1997, she became the first female driver in the Truck Series and finished 20th in the final standings. Erin Crocker—The only full-time female competitor in NASCAR’s Truck Series in 2006, the next year she won the pole for the season-opening ARCA race at Daytona International Speedway. A M E R I C A N P R O F I L E .CO M • PAGE 5 NASCAR MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES [ cover story ] // Patrick with boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. before a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway show host David Letterman. She quickly scaled the elite feeder series and in 2005 earned her IndyCar ride. In 2007, she switched to AndrettiGreen Racing, where the next year she took the checkered flag in Japan. Changing course Patrick began dabbling in stock cars in 2010—no small undertaking for a 5-foot-2, 100-pound driver navigating a 1½-ton vehicle around superspeedway ovals. She left the IndyCar Series after the 2011 season to pursue a full-time career in NASCAR. “From our first meeting, I knew she wanted to race stock cars,” Gibson says. “She has the desire, the heart and the want-to.” Today, Patrick appears comfortable with her high-profile status. Last year, she ended her seven-year marriage to physical therapist Paul Hospenthal and took criticism in stride as a rookie NASCAR driver. While critics scrutinize her every racing performance, they can’t deny that NASCAR is more interesting with her on the track. Patrick, meanwhile, stays focused on proving herself at the Daytona 500 and also competing in the Sprint Unlimited Race, the preamble featuring past pole sitters and race winners, run at the Daytona International Speedway the week before the big race. “It’s so cool to be part of the very first race of the year,” she says. “It will be a great head start to a new season.” ★ The 56th Daytona 500 is scheduled Feb. 23 in Daytona Beach, Fla. PAGE 6 • A M E R I C A N P R O F I L E .CO M