I'm a big fan of racing and always liked Danica Patrick. It was exciting to see a woman win an IndyCar race, and to this day, she is the only woman to ever win in IndyCar. And yeah, she never got a win in NASCAR and that's a bummer, but she did a lot of "firsts" in the sport, including becoming the first woman to win the pole at the Daytona 500 and the first woman to win a pole the Cup series period. Those are no small feats!
And while I liked Danica, there was always a part of me that felt so bad for her. I mean, the HATE that people spewed towards her. "Danica sucks." "Danica can't drive." Can you imagine being her and hearing the negativity from the haters week after week? Even though she never had a NASCAR win, it still takes a tremendous amount of talent to be able to wheel those cars around. I would like to see all of the haters get behind the wheel... I bet they couldn't do a fraction of what she did. And sure, you can argue that she got to a high level in part due to her sponsors, but again, if she didn't have talent to begin with, she wouldn't have gotten to where she was. Taylor Swift said it best... "a hater's gonna hate hate hate hate hate," and I am sad to have seen the amount of Danica Patrick haters. But I am thrilled that she was able to put it out of sight, out of mind, and carry on to blaze trails.
She recently sat down with Graham Bensinger for an insightful and candid chat about her career, her team owners, the sponsors, the haters, her family, her life after NASCAR, her winery, and her boyfriend Aaron Rodgers. Here is her chat.