DANICA PATRICK
Birthdate:March 25, 1982
Birthplace: Beloit, Wis
Hometown: Roscoe, Ill.
Residence: Phoenix
Marital Status: Married to Paul Hospenthal
Children: None
Birthdate:March 25, 1982
Birthplace: Beloit, Wis
Hometown: Roscoe, Ill.
Residence: Phoenix
Marital Status: Married to Paul Hospenthal
Children: None
DRIVER:Follow Danica by clicking the links below
Babe, Wilt, Mickey, LeBron, Kobe, Shaq … and Danica. She burst onto the scene in May 2005 when she stunned the world by leading 19 laps and finishing fourth in her first Indianapolis 500 – becoming the first woman to lead laps and score a top-five finish in the historic race. One week later, Danica Patrick graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, becoming the first Indy car driver to be featured on the front page in 20 years. Three years later, in April 2008, Patrick became the first woman to win a major-league open-wheel race in a North American series with her win in the IZOD IndyCar Series Indy Japan 300 at the Twin Ring Motegi oval in Japan. That victory set her up for her second Sports Illustrated cover just three weeks later, making her just the fourth racecar driver (Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Al Unser) to twice grace the cover of the famous magazine. For 2012, Patrick moves from the IndyCar Series to a fulltime stock-car schedule competing in the stepping-stone NASCAR Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports, while also competing in 10 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) driving the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, beginning with the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. She’ll look to become the first woman to win a NASCAR-sanctioned event and add another chapter to her already storied career. It’s a story that began in Roscoe, Ill., 90 miles northwest of Chicago and five miles south of the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, where Patrick was raised. Like many of today’s successful drivers, including SHR co-owner Tony Stewart, Patrick began competing in go-karts at a young age. During her time in karting from 1992 to 1997, she won numerous regional titles while also winning the World Karting Association Grand National Championship in 1994, 1996 and 1997. Her team owner Stewart captured the same title 10 years earlier in 1987.  Three-time IndyCar Series champion and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal was impressed by Patrick’s accomplishments in Europe and signed her to drive in the United States for his team, Rahal Letterman Racing (RLR). After opening the 2002 season by winning the professional portion of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race from the pole at the Long Beach (Calif.) Grand Prix, Patrick competed in five Barber Dodge Pro Series events for RLR. She again impressed by scoring a season-best fourth-place result at the Vancouver Grand Prix in Canada. Patrick moved up to the prestigious Toyota Atlantic series in 2003 and became the first woman in series history to finish on the podium with a third-place result at the road course in Monterrey, Mexico. She bested that effort by one spot later in the year when she finished second on the street course in Miami, Fla. Patrick finished the year sixth in points with five top-fives. She continued to improve in 2004 as she finished third in the Toyota Atlantic Series standings with an impressive run of 10 top-five finishes in 12 races. In June of that season, at the road course in Portland, Ore., Patrick became the first woman in series history to win the pole before finishing second in the race. Her runner-up finish gave her the points lead, making her the first woman ever to lead the standings in the prestigious feeder series In 2005, Patrick moved up with RLR to the IndyCar Series and it didn’t take long for her to serve notice that she would be a factor. In just her fourth career start, she qualified second and led 32 laps en route to an impressive fourth-place finish at Twin Ring Motegi. Her momentum from Motegi carried her into one of the most memorable performances in the more than 100 years of racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Patrick set numerous records during her Indianapolis 500 debut and set the tone early when she posted the fastest lap on the opening day of practice. She went on to set the fastest practice lap five times throughout the month – more than any other driver – including Pole Day and Carb Day. Patrick’s practice lap of 229.880 mph on Pole Day was the fastest of any driver during the month and the fastest turned by any woman in the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. During her qualification attempt, Patrick made an impressive save as her car bobbled in turn one on her first lap, earning her rave reviews for her car control by longtime Speedway observers. She ended up qualifying fourth, the best ever starting position for a woman in the historic race. On race day, with 11 laps remaining in the 200-lap event, Patrick blew past leader Dan Wheldon and held the point until lap 194, when she was forced to slow down in order to conserve fuel to make it to the finish. Patrick ended up fourth – the best finish ever for a woman at Indianapolis at that time – and brought her Rookie of the Year honors for her efforts, which included leading the race three times for 19 laps. Patrick went on to win poles at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., tying her with Tomas Scheckter for most poles by a rookie in a season. Patrick finished 12th in points with seven top-10 finishes and earned the series’ Rookie of the Year honors, as well as being named the series’ Most Popular Driver.  In the IndyCar Series that year, Patrick scored a pair of fourth-place finishes en route to a ninth-place finish in points. At Indianapolis, she continued to impress as she started 10th and finished eighth while again being named the series’ Most Popular Driver. For 2007, Patrick switched to Andretti-Green Racing (now Andretti Autosport) and continued her rise in the season-ending points standings with a seventh-place result on the strength of 11 top-10 finishes. She tied Sarah Fisher’s record for best finish by a woman on a road course with a second-place effort at Belle Isle in Detroit and, for the third consecutive year, was named the series’ Most Popular Driver. Patrick again performed well at the Indianapolis 500 with her third straight top-10 finish as she came home eighth in the rain-shortened race. With her skills improving each year, it was only a matter of time before Patrick found victory lane, and she did so in April 2008 at Motegi. It was a win that was heard around the sports world and helped propel her to her best points finish, yet, as she ended the year sixth in the standings on the strength of nine top-10 results. Unfortunately, despite starting fifth, her string of top-10 finishes at the Indianapolis 500 came to an end after she was involved in a pit-road collision with Ryan Briscoe on lap 171 and placed 22nd. In 2009, Patrick again opened the racing season in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, where she finished eighth driving a Crawford Pontiac with Andy Wallace, Rob Finlay and Casey Mears for Childress-Howard Motorsports. At the Indianapolis 500 in May, she started 10th and finished an impressive third, the best result ever for a woman at Indy. Patrick continued to climb the points ladder as she ended the season fifth in the standings on the strength of 10 top-10 finishes – the third consecutive year she compiled at least 10 finishes of 10th or better. More records came Patrick’s way in 2010 when, following the August race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., she set the record for most consecutive races running at the finish. Infineon marked the 29th time she had completed a race without a DNF (Did Not Finish), and she ended the year 10th in points. And, once again, she was solid at Indianapolis for, despite starting a career-worst 23rd, she came home sixth. While the IndyCar Series continued to be Patrick’s main focus, she began dabbling in stock car racing in 2010 and opened her career with an impressive sixth-place finish in the season-opening Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) event at Daytona. One week later, she made her NASCAR debut in the Nationwide Series and finished 35th after being involved in a multi-car accident midway through the event. She continued to adapt to the heavier stock cars throughout a 13-race Nationwide Series schedule that year. Her average finish in her first seven races was 31.1, while her average finishing position in the last six events improved to 24.3. To gain additional stock-car experience, she competed in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East event in September at Dover (Del.) International Speedway, where she started 13th and finished sixth. In 2011, Patrick continued to drive in both the IndyCar Series and the NASCAR Nationwide Series and finished 10th in IndyCar Series points on the strength of nine top-10 finishes, including a 10th-place result in the Indianapolis 500. In seven starts at Indianapolis, Patrick has compiled six top-10 finishes in seven starts and completed 97.7 percent of the laps available to her. One again, she did not record a DNF, meaning that she had gone an IndyCar Series-record 50 races without failing to finish. On the NASCAR side, Patrick continued to improve while running 12 Nationwide Series races with an average finish of 17.4. She scored three top-10 and six top-15 finishes, including a fourth-place result in March at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The finish was the best ever by a woman in a NASCAR national stock-car series, besting a fifth-place run by Sarah Christian in a Sprint Cup race in 1949 at Heidelberg (Pa.) Raceway. In addition to her success at Las Vegas, Patrick led 13 of 100 laps in July at Daytona en route to a 10th-place result. One of the most recognizable athletes in the world, Patrick has graced the cover of ESPN: The Magazine and TV Guide and was featured in pictorials in the 2008 and 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. In her free time, Patrick enjoys running, weight training, extreme yoga and shopping. She enjoys the music of Alanis Morissette and is an avid fan of late-night talk show “Chelsea Lately” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Patrick and her husband, Paul Hospenthal, reside in Phoenix. |
