An American ex-professional race car driver, Danica Sue Patrick was born on March 25, 1982, and goes by the slang /daenk/. When it comes to American open-wheel automobile racing, she is the most successful female driver ever—she is the only woman to win a race in the IndyCar Series.
Since her early days in the karting world, Patrick has been recognized as one of the best female racers in the world, having won the World Karting Association Grand National Championship three times. In 1998, she took a year off from high school and traveled to the United Kingdom to pursue her career.
Danica Patrick Career
Before coming to America in 2001, Danica Patrick competed in Formula Vauxhall and Ford’s Formula Ford. As a member of Rahal Letterman Racing’s 2002 Barber Dodge Pro Series team, she competed in five events that year. Two more seasons in the Toyota Atlantic Series followed for Patrick. In 2004, she finished third in the championship standings and became the first female driver in the series to capture a pole position.
It was with Rahal Letterman Racing that she debuted in the IndyCar Series in 2005, when she took three pole positions in a season, tying Tomas Scheckter’s record. Both the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Series named her Rookie of the Year in 2005. She grew as a driver in 2006 and 2007 with Rahal Letterman Racing and Andretti Green Racing. After winning Japan in 2007, Patrick finished sixth in the drivers’ standings in 2008.
When she finished sixth in the next year’s Indianapolis 500, it was the best performance by a female driver at the race. Patrick’s overall performance dipped in 2010, but she still scored two second-place finishes on oval tracks before switching to stock car racing full-time after the 2011 season in IndyCar.
Patrick made her NASCAR Nationwide Series (now Xfinity Series) debut in 2010 with a fourth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2011, her best result.
A career-high tenth place in the season standings in 2012, she became the second female driver in the Nationwide Series to take the lead after Shawna Robinson in 1994. After starting in the Sprint Cup Series (now the NASCAR Cup Series) in 2012, Patrick has been racing full-time ever since. When she set the quickest qualifying lap for the 2013 Daytona 500 she became only the second woman to win a Cup Series pole position. There were more top-ten finishes by a female driver in the Sprint Cup Series this year than there were by Janet Guthrie in 2014. However, she competed in both the 2018 Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 before formally ending her racing career.
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Danica Patrick and Carter Comstock have ended their romance
It was revealed by the former NASCAR driver that she and her boyfriend had ended their relationship after nearly a year together.
Although their relationship didn’t work out in the end, she told People magazine on March 4 that they had a great time together and accomplished a lot of beautiful things.
The 39-year-old race car driver went on to explain that the split—which happened a few months ago—wasn’t anything more than the fact that they weren’t meant to be together forever.
“It doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with either of us,” she continued. You just have to find the right person to spend the rest of your life with.
Last April, Danica and Carter Comstock, the co-founder of the popular meal-prep company Freshly, made their Instagram relationship public. Carter kissed her on the head in a beautiful selfie that she captioned, “Beach workouts are fun for one, but better with you.”
Aaron Rodgers was Danica’s high-profile boyfriend before the two started dating. After more than two years together, the two will part ways in July 2020. In response to a troll criticizing her “failed” relationship with an athlete, Danica fired back.
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We are doomed if we allow one person’s opinion of us to define us, she wrote at the time. It’s important to remember that what someone tells us is based on the pain they’ve suffered in their own life, not ours.
Paul Edward Hospenthal was Danica’s husband for two years prior to their divorce. Following an eight-year marriage, the couple split in 2013. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., another NASCAR driver, was her long-term boyfriend from 2012 to 2017.
Tamron Hall interviewed Danica
Before she went back to being single again and asked her what she was looking for in a mate.
Knowing exactly what you don’t want is the first step toward achieving your goals, as Danica remarked back in March. We know they’re going to tick all the boxes and be an excellent hire.” Just because I know exactly what I want doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of boxes to tick. I’m not as eager to give in or bend as much as I used to be.”