Danica Patrick addresses if she feels she's held to a different standard
NASCAR driver Danica Patrick was on SI Now on Friday and was asked whether she believes she is held to a different standard as a woman on the racetrack.
Last weekend, Patrick broke Janet Guthrie's record for most top-10 finishes by a woman in Sprint Cup Series history by coming in ninth place at Bristol Motor Speedway. She had previously tied Guthrie in March.
"This is the year you're building towards something, silencing all those critics who look at your 260-odd starts dating to IndyCar and say 'you know, if she was a dude she'd be fired by now,'" Patrick was asked.
"No, I don't think that," she said. "Every race feels like a test, shoot, every lap is a test. Every run I make is a test and it's a test to push myself further and find more speed by pushing my comfort zones. I do that every single time I go out. I mean I get nervous sometimes when I'm just going and testing somewhere, where nothing counts. It does count, because it's showing what you can do.
I think this year so far, starting off well is a product of working hard and having people believe in me. I'm so lucky that people have believed in me for so long and stuck it out. It feels good to get some good results."
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Last year, Patrick called her position as a woman in racing as something that has "always been anything but normal" in a first-person account in The Player's Tribune.
