Danica’s next move explains why she’s the face of the IndyCar Series. That handshake, strong and gripping, is the one her father taught her when she was 13 years old. He taught her that her handshake would make people forget how little she was, forget that she was a girl in man’s world and think she is capable of the big things they both knew she could accomplish.
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“My dad always shook everyone’s hand really hard and told me to do the same thing,” Patrick said. “Shake it like you mean it. That was what he always told me to do and I never knew any different.”
This weekend Patrick will kick off 2009 at the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona — a race that gets her re-acclimated to racing without the pressure of an IndyCar points race. From the week after she became the first woman to ever win an IndyCar race, last season in Japan, Patrick set her sights on the next win. She wants a lot more this season.
“There would be nothing cooler than to follow up a win with another win,” Patrick said. “I thought about winning again right away. When you get a taste of it and you just want to keep having it, that’s your new solid expectation. Look, I won the last race, why can’t I win again?”
“I think being a girl she has to have a little more fire than the guys because she has to stand up for herself a lot more,” said T.J. Patrick, her father. “It’s not like she can go and push a guy because they can’t push back. She can chew them out. Most women love that, a lot of women would love to be able to do that, stand up to the guys, but just don’t have the demeanor to it.”
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