When Danica Patrick took the lead as an Indianapolis 500 rookie 20 years ago, she could see the fans on their feet cheering.
But Patrick didn’t realize why they were cheering.
“I truly thought it was because they were so excited that the race was almost over,” said Patrick, who had taken the lead under caution on Lap 172. “I did not think it was about me.
“I was like, ‘Wow, everybody’s so excited. It’s almost over. It’s exciting.’”
It was exciting, especially on the restart where Patrick retained the lead. Then on a restart on Lap 190, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway crowd erupted when Patrick passed Dan Wheldon again for the top spot. She led 18 of 22 laps during that late-race stretch and finished fourth, the position where she started.
Patrick’s life wouldn’t remain the same again.
During a pause in her work as a FOX Sports analyst at the track on Saturday, Patrick remembered that time when her popularity exploded. For Patrick, the spotlight was more important for her professionally than it was personally.
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“What it did, for the most part overall, was just kind of more solidify sponsorship and team position — just me being in the series,” Patrick said. “Because until you kind of do something great, you kind of wonder, ‘Am I going to be back next year?’
“After that, and how big of a deal it was, I was like, ‘Well, I guess I’ll probably have a job for at least a couple more years.’”
Patrick kept a job for many more than just a couple of years. She competed in INDYCAR for seven years and then transitioned to NASCAR, where she ran in the NASCAR Cup Series for five years.
Patrick still holds several benchmarks for women in racing.
She ranks as the highest-finishing woman in the Indy 500 (third in 2009) and the only woman to win a NASCAR Cup Series pole, as she captured the top spot for the Daytona 500 in 2013.
The Brickyard will remain the place where she achieved some of her greatest moments. It is also the site of her last race in 2018, where she crashed on Lap 68.
“I didn’t ever crash here until my very last lap of my career, when I crashed in 2018 when I came back,” Patrick said. “I didn’t crash in an INDYCAR before that. Not in practice, not in qualifying, not in the race, other than pit road with [Ryan] Briscoe.”
Why did she race so well at Indianapolis? Patrick said she felt she had a line she was comfortable with and could maximize the speed.
Patrick also felt she didn’t take unnecessary risks at a track that can bite even the best of drivers.
“I was very good at trusting my instincts, and if the car didn’t feel right, I just didn’t drive,” Patrick said. “I’d just come in, or we would work on it and or I wouldn’t drive over my head, as I was a methodical driver.”
Picking up analyst gigs in both Formula 1 and INDYCAR, Patrick said she gets nostalgic when she’s at the speedway. After all, it remains the site of some of her greatest moments.
“Real good feels. I always have a lot of reverence and respect for here, too, just with the facility, the history,” she said.
She is part of that history.
“The only thing I thought when I was young, as I was coming up through racing, is I just thought to myself that if can make it, it’ll be a big deal. But I don’t know what that meant,” Patrick said. “I didn’t really put a lot of imagery to or ideas to what it would be to be a big deal.
“I just knew it’d be a big deal because it was just something that hadn’t really happened. Women had been in racing, but to do well is like a whole other thing.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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