When Danica Patrick revealed “the hardest part” of her life away from racing
Adjusting to life away from the high-octane world of racing can often prove a little difficult, and Danica Patrick had her fair share of the same. The 43-year-old once revealed what she considers the hardest part of her life away from the racetrack.
The Wisconsin native had a trailblazing career, etching her name into the history books of motorsports—a sport historically dominated by men. Patrick achieved enviable feats in both IndyCar and NASCAR racing. However, she once detailed what she described as one of the "hardest" parts of her life away from the grid.
Speaking in a 2017 interview with motorsports expert Jeff Gluck, Danica Patrick admitted to the difficulty she often experiences in balancing other aspects of life outside racing.
“I would say that the hardest thing away from the racetrack is balancing out all the other things I have going on. It’s decompressing when things get busy,” she said.
“If I had to pick one thing, it’s when things get really busy—it gets hard to sort of regroup, and you really have to look day by day instead of just the next month, because you might not have a lot of room to breathe. But that’s just kind of life for everybody; there are phases that you go through where you’re like, Man, I just gotta focus on today."
While Danica Patrick may have found balancing life away from active racing a little difficult at first, the former Andretti Global driver seems to be acing such challenges following her retirement. The 43-year-old has since ventured into several activities, including racing punditry, podcasting, fashion, and public speaking, among other endeavors.
Danica Patrick spoke about improving her personality
Danica Patrick also previously spoke about her efforts to improve her personality during her racing career. The former Indy 500 Rookie of the Year often made headlines for her fiery character throughout her time on the track.
Patrick was occasionally involved in confrontations over racing incidents and collisions with other drivers, and at times also had heated exchanges with her pit wall. Reflecting on her overall aggressive approach, she admitted that she needed to rein it in.
“I always kind of think to myself, ‘Be nicer.’ But it’s just that my reaction to someone, if they’re not perfectly nice, is so ridiculous and over-the-top mean that no one ever remembers the first blow. So yeah, I wish I could tone that down just a little bit. It doesn’t need to be so aggressive," she said in the same interview with Jeff Gluck.
Oh, no, no. I don’t even match. You can’t even remember the first mean when you get done with my mean. And I wish could tone that down a little…I’m just not very shy and I have no problem with confrontations. So I kind of go right to the end of it. I wish I was a little more patient in that category.”
Danica Patrick did appear to get a better handle on her feisty, aggressive nature toward the latter part of her career. In a later interview with Forbes, she admitted that her fiery personality wasn’t always inviting and often painted a distorted picture of who she truly was.