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00:00 Our next guest is 2005's Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
00:05 Please welcome the immensely talented and lovely Danica Patrick.
00:09 Everybody.
00:10 [music]
00:26 Oh, you look tremendous.
00:27 Thank you very much.
00:28 You look just great.
00:29 Jennifer, I love you. It's so pretty. I'm not really feeling...
00:31 We have two lovely women on the program this evening.
00:34 Hey, can I get you a grilled cheese?
00:36 I actually feel like I might have lost my appetite for grilled cheese.
00:41 I certainly understand that.
00:42 That was a lot of grilled cheeses. I was feeling his pain.
00:44 Like, maybe you should just tell him to stop.
00:46 Yeah, I wish somebody had told me to stop.
00:48 Just add ten seconds.
00:49 Yes. Now, this year is, I'm guessing, the culmination of a lifelong dream for you.
00:54 This is what you wanted as a kid, and now here you've had it.
00:57 You've got two races, three races left in the season.
01:00 Two left.
01:01 Yeah. So how did the year measure up to the dream of the year?
01:05 It's been a little bit difficult to kind of sit and absorb it.
01:09 It's been so busy, and I've tried to do the best job I can to make the future look good, too.
01:15 So I've spent so much time on the business side of it all.
01:18 But when I do reflect a little bit, it's amazing.
01:22 I went to my local go-kart track two weeks ago when we were racing at Chicago.
01:27 The week before, I stayed home, which was really nice.
01:30 And I went out there to Sugar River Raceway and saw all the kids out there, and it was like, "Wow, I've come a long way."
01:37 And I told them, you know, I went out and stood on the track and said, "One of you guys is an IndyCar driver."
01:42 You know, that's just really neat.
01:44 That's where it all began for you. And how old were you when you first started driving go-karts there?
01:47 Ten.
01:48 Ten years old.
01:49 And the year, as I have observed it, seems--I mean, forget the competition on the track
01:54 and proving to yourself and to your competitors and to your team that you can do it, which you've done easily, undeniably.
02:01 It's been a tremendous success from that standpoint.
02:03 But the part that I find frustrating and fatiguing and suffocating is everybody is always yacking at you about something and about this
02:11 and come here and do that and can we go there and do this and can we come back here and do it again.
02:15 And doesn't that just drive you crazy?
02:17 I mean, as far as coming back to talk to them or--
02:19 Anything. Just like, will they leave the poor woman alone? Just let her get in the car, for God's sake.
02:24 Yeah, you know, it's like I--it's been a little bit difficult to balance being energetic, having health, and, you know,
02:33 I have a little bit of a cold right now and I'm like, I just need my rest.
02:36 I need to take like five Benadryl and just sleep for two days.
02:39 But there's business to be done and there's things that have to be done and commitments that have been made.
02:43 And you just, you know, you--but you want to--you have to, you don't want to, you have to perform in the car
02:49 because that's the job or else you're going to fire me.
02:51 Yeah, oh yes, I'll fire you.
02:54 But I mean, when you just mentioned it, when you show up at a track, it would just be great if that's all you had to worry about was,
03:00 how is the car, how am I feeling, what do I have to do?
03:03 But that really, in many respects, this year has been the least of it, hasn't it?
03:06 Pretty much. Time-wise, yeah, I've spent a lot less time doing the actual racing part than I have doing the media.
03:12 I mean, the month of May in Indianapolis, I didn't--not a single day went by that I didn't do an interview.
03:18 Not a single day, and that was a whole month.
03:20 That's the longest I've been in one place in forever.
03:23 Yeah, and that race turned out to be--you did not win that race, although toward the end it looked like you might win the race.
03:29 But late, like two-thirds of the way into the race, it looked like you might not even be in the race.
03:34 But yet when it came right down to it--
03:36 What a rollercoaster.
03:37 Oh, it was crazy, wasn't it? How did that feel to you?
03:39 It was--you know, the race started great, you know, I'm falling in, I've picked off a couple of cars, and I'm up in the top five,
03:45 and then I have this horrible pit stop where I stall the engine and I drop back,
03:50 and everybody just kept telling me, all the people that have really done the race a lot and have won the race many times,
03:55 "It's a long race. Just take your time. No matter what happens, there's time in this one. It's 500 miles."
04:00 So I thought, "Okay, stay calm. You stalled. Okay, do a restart."
04:03 Now I spin, and, you know, the front wing comes off,
04:06 and for some miraculous reason I'm right there in the pit lane, spin down, drive into the pits, fix the car,
04:12 and with fuel strategy was able to make it to the end on fuel,
04:16 and that was what helped us take the lead and what ultimately kind of helped us to lose the lead.
04:22 So you were actually advised by the pit crew to relinquish the lead because it was better to finish the event than run out of gas, run out of fuel.
04:31 Was that more or less what happened?
04:33 Well, I think that they looked at the options. I think, you know, Bobby Rehal looked at the options and said,
04:38 "Look, you can run out of fuel and finish this position, or you can make a pit stop and finish the race under fuel and finish this position,"
04:45 and they were like, "One off." So I said, "Just keep going and hope for yellow flags."
04:49 Yeah, but it was a--what a tremendous day. What a wonderful experience,
04:54 and you could certainly feel that the crowd, like 400,000 people, all were just excited and on the edge of their seat and said,
05:01 "Standing the last 20 laps." Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
05:03 I've heard so much. You know, I wish I could just, you know, hear the crowd for two seconds.
05:08 Not for my ego or anything, but just to kind of, I don't know, be able to feel what the excitement was
05:17 because so many people said it was just so loud you couldn't even hear the cars.
05:20 Well, yeah. I mean, in addition to being loud, you kind of expect that, but you get the sense that this group of people,
05:26 all racing fans, had coalesced and their hearts were pulling for you, and the power of that is undeniable
05:33 and just a wonderful experience. You have beautiful hair, by the way.
05:36 Thank you. I have to give it to the team backstage.
05:43 They did my hair, and, you know, the shampoo can--you know, people aren't calling.
05:48 This is the problem. You know, I feel like I--you know, I promote these products, you know,
05:53 mortgage companies, TVs, you know, car part things, you know, windshield wipers, and, you know,
05:59 but the makeup and the hair haven't been calling.
06:02 We'll try and get you a shampoo, but don't feel bad. The shampoo people are not calling me either.
06:08 We'll be right back with Danica Patrick, everybody.