Danica Patrick has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Twice. She’s yukked it up with Letterman. Just last month, she found herself seated on the front row at the ESPYs next to Becks and Posh.
Patrick’s telephone rang. Jay-Z was making the call.
The “retired” hip-hop star was plotting his return. He had a video treatment in mind for his comeback song, Show Me What You Got.
Casting himself as a hipper James Bond, Jay-Z wanted Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to co-star.
Which is how Patrick found herself in Monaco, racing a Pagani Zonda Roadster against Dale Jr., in a Ferrari F430 Spider, for the 2006 video.
“I’d always been a Jay-Z fan, and this was his comeback video, so that was huge,” Patrick said Wednesday in a phone interview. “Beyonce was there. It was the first time I’d met Dale Jr. It was really cool.”
Watch The Hot Danica Image Gallery
The phenomenon that is Danica Mania returns to Kentucky Speedway Aug. 9 for the Meijer Indy Car 300.
Open-wheel racing is reunified this year, but Patrick’s victory came on the weekend that the teams from the old Champ Car World Series were competing in Long Beach, Calif.
“I still have the same nerves before every race that I had before I won,” she said. “Nothing has really changed in the way I feel. I want to win races.”
Since her tearful post-race victory moment at Motegi, the lasting images of Patrick in 2008 have been from her temper.
With only 29 laps left in this year’s Indy 500, she was running seventh when a wreck on pit road with Ryan Briscoe took her out of the race.
The video of a fuming Patrick’s subsequent march down pit road toward Briscoe’s pit got more air time on TV than anything race winner Dixon did.
Just weeks ago in a practice session at Mid-Ohio, an incident in practice led Patrick to the pit of fellow female racer Milka Duno.
Watch The Video Here
A YouTube video of that confrontation — with Patrick pleading of Duno “I just want to know if you saw me?” and the Venezuelan responding by throwing a towel at Danica’s face — has more than 327,000 views.
“I don’t have an answer,” she said. “I’m very fortunate to be in the position where people are interested in what I do. The more popular you get, the more people who are watching what you do.”
“My results haven’t reflected the runs I’ve had there,” Patrick said. “I love going to Kentucky. I like the track. Hopefully, my ‘good runs’ will end with some good results there.”
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