Danica Patrick is enjoying a relaxing but adventurous retirement life, but like so many other recently retired NASCAR drivers, there are some things she misses about racing.
With the latest episode of her Pretty Intense podcast set up in a Q&A format for her — she usually interviews a guest — Danica said she could “pretty confidently say no,” when asked if she’d ever race again, especially at the top of NASCAR or the IndyCar Series. But she was quick to say, “Never say ‘never,'” but then reiterated how unlikely that seems at this point.
However, Patrick did detail what specifically she does miss about being behind the wheel. For her, it’s the instant gratification that came with racing, particularly the times when she would offer her team feedback about the car’s handling, crew members would address it and she’d see results on the track almost immediately.
There’s some NSFW language in this clip.
On her Pretty Intense podcast, she said:
“I miss that, like, part that I grew up loving, which was this sort of instant gratification part of going out, lap time, improving, finishing positions. So that’s all really tangible numbers, and so, so many other things that I do, like everything now … there’s not that quick, instant gratification from, you know, 27 seconds to the next 27 seconds. So I do kind of miss that instant reward stuff that you had with progress of making the car handle better and finishing better. Things seem to take a little longer to turn the ship with these things. But I miss that. What else do I miss?
“Sometimes I do miss the feeling of, like, really going fast as far as like, handling that [expletive] and feeling really confident and comfortable and knowing that it was so on the edge. Yeah, that’s kind of a magical feeling. I don’t really get that. I try on the streets, but it’s tough.”
When Danica gave rides to guests at Sonoma Raceway after retiring, she got a little taste of that adrenaline rush, she said.
“It brought back that memory, that body feeling of pushing the car and getting it to the edge of grip,” she continued.
Going through a wide variety of fan questions previously submitted on Instagram, Patrick talked about how she “enjoyed being different” as a woman in a male-dominated sport, her guess that she’s been pulled over “at least 20 times” for speeding and what kind of car she drives now — “a Range Rover or a rental.”
But she was also asked if she ever had issues with crew or team members in the garage.
She explained she might have had a different or better relationship with some people are on her team if there were more women in the garage rather than all men. She acknowledged she’s not into cars the way some drivers are, but she also thought she couldn’t develop relationships “in a deeper way” because she’s a woman.
Danica then expanded her answer to talk about people who didn’t believe in her ability as a driver and then, perhaps, didn’t work as hard to help her succeed. She recognized she “had great people on my side” throughout her career, but that certainly didn’t include everyone.
More from the Pretty Intense podcast:
“The biggest issue that I think held me back overall in my career was just ones that didn’t believe I was really capable of doing it because then it meant that they didn’t put the work in that it took to build a really, really fast car because the details mattered. All the little details mattered and all the extra homework that they did — what we would call massage on the car to correct details and make it a little less drag here, a little less weight there.
“You know, what’s your incentive if you just don’t think I can do it anyway? You know, why are you going to stay late, and why are you going to come in on days off when you just don’t think it matters anyway?”
Every driver faces a certain level of skepticism and has to prove themselves, she continued. But where male privilege might have opened doors for someone else in her exact position, she speculated she had to prove herself “a little more often.”
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