• Home
• Blog
• Podcast
• Forum
• Speed Shop
• Archives
• About Us

• Channels:
• Formula 1
• IRL
• NASCAR
• Motorcycles
• NHRA

Danica Tells All: An Interview with IRL’s Princess of Speed

Indy Racing League’s Danica Patrick plays it cool on the verge of the 2006 IRL season.

Rahal-Letterman Racing driver Danica Patrick is downplaying talk of victory lane. Instead, she is looking for consistency in the upcoming IRL season. The 2005 Bombardier Rookie of the Year spoke candidly, as she always does, about the upcoming IRL schedule and her motivation to improve: “I think (I have) the same sort of attitude and the same sort of optimism and hope and everything as last year. I wanted to do well last year, and I want to do well this year. I will take each individual event for what it is.”

IndyCar.com: Read More from the Interview with Danica at the Indy Racing League’s Official Home Page!

“If we go to Texas this year, and I’m off the pace, I’m not going to go, ‘OK, I should win this one.’ It’s not realistic in certain situations. You just have to take them individually. I would imagine a lot of people are the same way as I am, too. You just can never tell exactly how you’re going to be running each and every weekend.”

“I would hope we’re more consistently in the front. I think that should be the goal. That’s when that win will come. You have to be at the right place at the right time. I think if that happens and I do run in the front consistently all year, (I’ll) win a race. I’d love to win a bunch of races, but I probably would walk away from the season happy if I could win one race.”

With the new season, though, have come some in-house changes, including an untried pit crew for the number 16 car. “We’ve got a few new mechanics; some people have been shuffled around a little bit. A lot of it’s very similar. I still have Ray Leto for my engineer. I have a new ‘DAG’ as I would call him, the guy who looks over all the data, Henry. He’s new on my car, not new to the team.”

“For the most part I’ve got a really young group of guys on my car right now doing pit stops. I’m hoping for the best. I’m hoping that it gets better and better from last year to now and throughout the year.”

As the focal point of “Danica-mania” she has enjoyed more media attention, but also endured more scrutiny than many of her peers. “Well, I’m conditioned, so let it grow!”

“Again, I’m not sure how much further there is to go, but there is room I’m sure. I mean, I’m OK with it. I hope that it gets bigger and better and it, again, keeps growing the series and gets everybody’s name out there. I can handle it. I’m fine with it. It would be bad if I felt the pressure to perform along with it. But I promise you, I want to do well for myself. I’m the one that has to live with all of it at the end of the day.”

“I mean, realistically, I find excitement out of it. I think all the other drivers like it, too. It always feels good to be in a big hyped atmosphere. I never let it get in the way of racing. I am definitely always to my car on time.”

“There’s other stuff that suffers slightly, and that’s just the energy levels. It’s very controlled on the race weekends. Brent (Maurer) with PR does not let it get out of control. He and I and everybody else hopefully know that the news is what happens on the track. That’s the real news. That’s why I’m here.”

“But, you know, there are times outside of those days that get very, very busy. I get sick. I’m very tired. I’m cranky. Go figure, a woman cranky! But it happens, and that’s OK. I’m sure that anybody else that’s in the public eye gets that, too, whether you’re an actor and you go to a press junket or you’re a performer and you’re on stage every night. There are just times where you suck it up and you do it for the good of yourself and everybody else. That’s what I do.”

Patrick has an opinion about the loss of a second engine-manufacturer for the series. “You know, there isn’t any more diversity. It’s all the same. It kind of - pardon my language - it kind of sucks for the ones that had Hondas before because they were obviously a little bit stronger than the rest.”

“We were quite comfortable with our Honda engineers last year. This year it’s a floating Honda engineer sort of program where you have a different one every weekend. That’s new. That’s always going to be changing. (But)

Comments