“I was just like a b**ch about it”: Danica Patrick recalls major moment of realization during early days in NASCAR 

Danica Patrick recently shared her thoughts on adjusting to the NASCAR Cup Series' grueling schedule after transitioning from IndyCar, where seasons were shorter. Initially, she wasn't accustomed to the relentless week-after-week racing that NASCAR demands.

After a stint in the UK's Junior Formula and seven years in IndyCar, Patrick announced her move to NASCAR's full-time stock car racing in August 2011. While she expressed a fascination with NASCAR’s strategic complexities, such as pit strategies and track variations, there were speculations that difficulties in securing sponsorships influenced her decision to switch gears.

Patrick thought transitioning to NASCAR would be easier than it turned out. In a recent conversation with Codie Sanchez, she opened up about the challenges she faced moving from the shorter IndyCar season to NASCAR's nearly non-stop schedule.

"So, when I got to NASCAR from IndyCar, there's race after race. IndyCar was a much shorter season. NASCAR was basically like every single weekend," Danica Patrick said. "The energy of one weekend would spill into the next one very easily. And that's what I let it do when I first got there. And then it fully spiraled when it was like 2nd or 3rd race in a row, that was bad early in the season.

"And it was Phoenix, it was my sponsors' hometown race and I was just like a b**ch about it. And I realized after that I was like, whoa, I better learn how to get over this stuff really fast so that I can reset the next weekend and bring a better attitude and a better mood because I'm always on."

Today, Danica Patrick has successfully transitioned to being an entrepreneur and business owner, having retired from full-time racing in 2017. She briefly returned to the track to compete in the 2018 Daytona 500 and the 2018 Indianapolis 500 before hanging up her helmet for good.

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Danica Patrick discusses her image in NASCAR

Danica Patrick, who won the 2008 Indy Japan 300, often captured significant media attention, not only as a standout female driver in the predominantly male NASCAR but also for her media presence and image.

During a 2016 interview with Fox Sports, Patrick spoke about the special attention she received and her views on being labeled a sex symbol of NASCAR. She explained that such recognition is neither inherently good nor bad but simply part of being in the spotlight. She said [via Fox News]:

"I don’t think there is anything you can do about that. I think it’s not good or bad necessarily; it just is what it is, and I would imagine everybody is a sex symbol to somebody, maybe not as many as others, but everyone is a sex symbol at some point to somebody."

Patrick stays connected to the racing world, lending her expertise as a broadcaster for NASCAR and F1 events.