Danica Patrick: The Only Woman to Win an IndyCar Race
Welcome to the Happy Hour Racing IndyCar Driver Spotlight - where we pull one driver into the garage, look under the hood at their career, and tell you what actually made them matter. This week: the No. 7 GoDaddy car.
The Short Version
Danica Patrick ran 116 IndyCar Series races between 2005 and 2011, came back for one more Indianapolis 500 in 2018, and remains the only woman to win a race in the series. She won at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan on April 20, 2008, finished third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500, and placed fifth in the 2009 championship. More than fifteen years later, nobody else has matched any of it.
From a Go-Kart in Wisconsin to the Indy 500
Patrick was born on March 25, 1982, in Beloit, Wisconsin, and grew up in Roscoe, Illinois, just over the state line. She started karting at age 10 at Sugar River Raceway in Brodhead, Wisconsin, and she was fast almost immediately. She won three World Karting Association Grand National championships, in 1994, 1996 and 1997, plus ten regional titles.
At 16 she left high school with her parents' blessing, got her GED, and moved to England to chase a real open-wheel career. She spent 1998 through 2001 in British Formula Vauxhall and Formula Ford, living the unglamorous version of the dream a long way from home. Back in the United States she ran the Toyota Atlantic Series in 2003 and 2004, finishing sixth and then third, and became the first woman to win a pole in that series. Bobby Rahal signed her to Rahal Letterman Racing for 2005, when she was 23.
The 2005 Indianapolis 500
That changed in one afternoon in May. Patrick qualified fourth for the 2005 Indianapolis 500, led 19 laps, and became the first woman ever to lead the race. She finished fourth, which was at the time the best Indy 500 result by a woman, and she took Rookie of the Year honors for both the 500 and the full IndyCar Series season.
She backed it up with speed over a full year. All three of her career poles came in that rookie season: Kansas on July 3, Kentucky on August 14, and Chicagoland on September 11. In 2007 she moved to Andretti Green Racing and the No. 7 car, and finished second at Belle Isle in Detroit, which was then the best IndyCar Series finish by a woman.
Motegi, April 20, 2008
The win came in her 50th career start, in Japan, and it came on strategy. Rain pushed the Indy Japan 300 back by nearly a full day, and when the 200-lap race finally ran at Twin Ring Motegi, Patrick's team called her onto pit road at the end of a caution on lap 148 and then told her to save fuel. She dropped as far back as eighth with eleven laps to go. As the leaders peeled off for fuel they could not stretch, she went by Helio Castroneves on the back straight and stayed there, winning by 5.8594 seconds.
It was the first win by a woman in top-level open-wheel racing anywhere in the world. Her own description of it was flat and practical: it was a fuel-strategy race, her team called it perfectly, and she could not believe it when she passed Castroneves for the lead.
Her Best Year, and the Indy 500 Record
2009 was the peak. She finished third in the Indianapolis 500 behind Castroneves and Dan Wheldon, which is still the highest finish by a woman in the history of the race. She closed the year fifth in the championship standings, the best points finish by a woman in series history, and the best of anyone that season who did not drive for Penske or Ganassi.
Her Indy 500 record as a whole holds up better than most people remember. Eight starts, six top-ten finishes, and the best result ever posted by a woman at the Speedway.
Danica Patrick finishes her #Indy500 career with 6 top-10 finishes in 8 starts, including the highest ever (3rd) by a female driver.
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) May 27, 2018
2005: 4th
2006: 8th
2007: 8th
2008: 22nd
2009: 3rd
2010: 6th
2011: 10th
2018: 30th
By the Numbers
Here is the IndyCar career laid out in the parts that matter. Every figure below is an IndyCar Series number.
The NASCAR Years and the Danica Double
Patrick moved to NASCAR full time in 2012 and ran 191 Cup Series races through 2018, mostly with Stewart-Haas Racing. She never won at that level, but she did win the pole for the 2013 Daytona 500, the first woman to start a Cup race from the front, and she finished eighth in that race. Her best Cup finish was sixth at Atlanta in 2014.
She ended it on her own terms with what she called the Danica Double: the 2018 Daytona 500 and the 2018 Indianapolis 500, and nothing after. The Indy half did not go to plan. Driving the No. 13 GoDaddy Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing, she hit the Turn 2 wall on lap 68 and was credited with 30th in the race Will Power won. It was a hard ending to a career that had a lot of hard days in it.
Off the Track
Racing was the family business long before she got to it. Her parents met through her father's snowmobile racing, and her mother worked as a mechanic for him. Patrick has written two books, Danica: Crossing the Line in 2006 and Pretty Intense in 2017, and launched a podcast under the same name in 2019. She owns Somnium, a vineyard and wine label in the Howell Mountain area above St. Helena, California, and has put out apparel under the Warrior by Danica name.
She was a spokesperson for the DRIVE4COPD awareness campaign after losing her grandmother to the disease, has appeared in more Super Bowl commercials than any other celebrity, and became the first woman to host the ESPY Awards in 2018. Since retiring she has worked in broadcasting, including Indianapolis 500 coverage and NASCAR telecasts.
The Bottom Line
You can argue about where Danica Patrick ranks among IndyCar drivers and the argument is a fair one. One win in 116 starts is one win in 116 starts. What is not arguable is the record book. She is the only woman to win an IndyCar race, the only woman to lead the Indianapolis 500, and the holder of the best Indy 500 finish by a woman. Those three lines have stood since 2009, and whoever finally breaks them will be compared to her.
There is no Danica gear in the store right now, but the Speedway she made her name at is well covered. A few Indianapolis 500 pieces in stock today:
- 109th Indianapolis 500 Back Home Again Tee
- 109th Indianapolis 500 Red Graphic Logo Tee
- Indianapolis 500 Snake Pit Tee
- IndyCar Checkered Flag Sublimated Tee
- Colton Herta No. 26 Andretti Autosport 1:18 Diecast
See it all in the IndyCar collection. New IndyCar driver spotlights drop every Thursday.
