Danica Sue Patrick was born on March 25, 1982, in Beloit, Wisconsin. Her love for all things racing began with go-karts in her hometown, where she thrived and began to take racing seriously. 

At the ripe age of 16-years-old, Danica left her high school to race Formula Fords and Vauxhalls in the United Kingdom. In the year 2000, she placed second in the Ford Festival race. In the year 2002, she returned to the United States and was signed by former racer Bobby Rahal with her first contract for the U.S. Indy. She never won a race in that series, but grew more and more popular and became rookie of the year in 2005, 2006, and 2007. 

In 2007, she began racing with Andretti Green Racing and secured her first big win at the Firestone IndyCar 300 race in Japan. She became the first woman to win an IndyCar race. This race silenced critics who thought that Danica was being used as a marketing scheme when in reality, she was just there to win and prove to everyone she had what it took. 

Throughout her career, Danica took many chances and faced many obstacles but continued to push through and pursue her goals. “Take those chances and you can achieve greatness, whereas if you go conservative, you’ll never know. I truly believe what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Even if you fail, learning and moving on is sometimes the best thing.” She shares these thoughts to get bring light to the facts that it is alright to try new things, and even if you fail in the beginning or anywhere along the route, keep trying to achieve greatness. 

To me, and to many other women, Danica is a great inspiration. Before she began her career, racing as a woman was very uncommon and was frowned upon. Becoming a NASCAR or IndyCar driver has never been one of my lifetime goals, but learning about Danica as a child gave me so much pride and made me think about how cool it would be to be her, or to race in general as a woman. The racing community is full of hardworking and energetic people who believe that racing is the next step to success. 

In 2018, after 27 years behind the wheel,  Danica called it quits on her NASCAR and racing career. While she stopped racing full-time in the previous year, she participated in the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 before stopping altogether. “No. No, I don’t miss racing. I’m being really honest,” she explained in 2019 to the Orlando Sentinel. “I’m not someone who looks back on things and has a lot of regret. I’m really not. Anytime anybody asks me if I could change anything, what would I change? I’m just not the kind of person that really thinks like that. You know, I raced for 27 years and life is so short and there’s so much to experience and so much to do. I spent a lot of time racing and now I can spend time doing other things.”

In her years of retirement, Danica has continued working and making a name for herself. She has a clothing line [Warrior by Danica Patrick] and her own wine [Somnium Wine]. She also has her own candle brand [Voyant] and a podcast [Pretty Intense]. So, I guess Danica has and continue to prove one thing: women can travel at high speeds in all aspects of life.