When Danica Patrick shared a profound take on 'what it means to be a woman in racing'

In an interview with the famous American podcaster Joe Rogan, Danica Patrick once shared her thoughts on what it's like to be a woman in racing. The conversation is from a clip shared on one of Rogan's YouTube channels on January 17, 2018, not long after she announced her retirement from full-time competition in NASCAR.

Rogan started by asking Danica Patrick how many other female drivers are competing in NASCAR, to which she responded by saying that there was no other woman who was racing at her level. When the podcaster asked what it meant for her to be the only female driver competing at the highest level of stock car racing, Patrick said that she couldn't tell because she doesn't know what it means to be a guy in racing and that she only has the perspective of a woman.

However, she did explain what she thought others felt about her being the only woman at the Cup Series level.

"I would say that they don't want to get passed by a girl," Patrick shared. "And you know what? I don't either; is that weird? I really don't. I mean, I've driven, I've raced with girls, and I don't I don't like it." (2:05 onwards)

Patrick then went on to explain the cultural norm that women are not considered to be good at certain things, like racing, and she couldn't understand why people wouldn't change with time.

"You know, I don't know; it's just a cultural norm that girls aren't very good and that they somewhat don't belong. And I get like the little bit of animosity at first, but I would have thought that people would have got got used to it a little bit more than they did," she added (2:50 onwards).

Danica Patrick remains one of the most successful female drivers in the history of American Motorsport as the only woman to win an IndyCar race and to claim pole position in the Daytona 500.

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Danica Patrick thinks racing requires a more masculine mind than feminine

Danica Patrick at the F1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix - Source: Getty

At the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick shared her views on women in motorsport during a broadcast aimed at younger audiences. When asked about the likelihood of a woman competing in Formula 1 in the near future, Patrick expressed skepticism.

She noted that finding top talent in racing requires filtering through 100s of male and female drivers, suggesting that the odds are not favorable for finding many female racers at the highest levels. She described motorsport as inherently masculine and aggressive and stated that excelling in racing demands a mindset not typically found in women.

"At the end of the day, I think that the nature of the sport is masculine," Danica Patrick said (via PlanetF1). "It’s aggressive. You have to, you know, handle the car — not only just the car, because that’s a skill, but the mindset that it takes to be really good is something that’s not normal in a feminine mind, in a female mind."

Patrick acknowledged that while she would adopt an aggressive approach when faced with challenges on the track, it is not a common trait among women to be overly aggressive. Patrick mentioned that she discussed this with her female friends, and most of them seemed to agree with her perspective.