“What the hell?”: When Danica Patrick got into a heated argument post-practice with fellow female racer Milka Duno

Danica Patrick and Milka Duno once got into a heated argument after the practice sessions at the 2008 IndyCar Series race in Mid-Ohio. After the session, the former IndyCar race winner went to see Milka in the pits to confront her about her driving.

Milka allegedly blocked Patrick on multiple occasions during the practice sessions. Patrick claimed the former Dreyer and Reinbold Racing driver hindered the then-Andretti driver’s fast laps. Patrick then wanted to confront the #23 driver regarding her driving and claimed she was getting in the way of multiple drivers.

IndyCar uploaded a video of the fallout on their YouTube channel in 2008. Patrick approaches Milka as she asks,

“Do you have any idea what you're doing out there?”

Patrick's words were met with Milka throwing a towel in her direction. Milka replied, “Go, go, go.” Patrick asked whether the #23 driver saw her as she replied, “I see you, I see you” followed by another towel flung towards Danica’s face. The American driver lost her temper as she exclaimed,

“What the hell? You're slow. You're giving everybody a hard time out there. I just want to talk to her about it. It happened three times this weekend. All I want to know is if you see me?”

The Venezuelan driver again asked Patrick to go away followed by disagreements in raised voices from both ends. Duno suggested that the 42-year-old was confronting her because she likes shows. During her tenure in IndyCar, Danica did get the reputation of confronting fellow drivers, including the Indy 500 argument with Ryan Briscoe.

Danica Patrick eventually ended the 2008 IndyCar Series race in Mid-Ohio in P12, 34 seconds off the leader. Milka Duno, on the other hand, finished P23, 6 laps down on the race winner Ryan Briscoe. The two crossed paths again when the American driver slammed into Duno during the 2010 Honda Indy Edmonton.

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“She's obviously not up to speed” - Danica Patrick after Milka Duno’s 2010 Honda Indy Edmonton crash

Milka Duno crashed the Dale Coyne Racing car into the barrier and damaged the rear wing in the 2010 Honda Indy Edmonton. It was the early moments of the Friday practice session, and Duno lost control of the car and went into the tire barrier.

Danica Patrick claimed that Duno’s problem was not moving out of the way for faster cars whilst being a lap down.

Danica Patrick, 9th Annual espnW: Women + Sports Summit (Source: Getty)

Patrick said (via theglobeandmail.com):

“She's obviously not up to speed. I'm not against having some different speeds up there, but she's not as gracious about her position as maybe somebody else might be.”

Randy Bernard, the then-CEO of IndyCar, suggested that Duno’s performance would be reviewed by IndyCar after the season ended. 2010 happened to be the Venezuelan driver’s last season in IndyCar.