Danica Patrick Says IndyCar Has Lot Of 'Posing' Compared To NASCAR

Danica Patrick hung up her helmet for good after the 2018 Indy 500 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was a one-off appearance after ending her career as a full-time racer at the end of the 2017 season.

After coming through the ranks in junior formulae, the Wisconsin-born racer joined the IndyCar Series in 2005 and registered her first win at the 2008 Indy Japan 300. After a successful stint in the single-seater motor racing series, Patrick made the switch to stock car racing in 2010 before joining the NASCAR Series in 2012.

Patrick is the only woman to win an IndyCar race and clinch pole in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. She also holds the honor of being among just 14 drivers who have led at both the Indy 500 and Daytona 500 race.

The American joined Graham Besinger in his “In Depth” talk show to discuss the difference between IndyCar and NASCAR. Patrick pointed out two vital differences between the two North American racing series’ – the first was that there was a lot of “posing” in the former, and also that the races were a lot more evenly matched in IndyCar than NASCAR.

Patrick said the drivers in NASCAR were more “loosey goosey” with their behavior and everyone did what they wanted prior to the race. During her time at IndyCar, she revealed there were people, who would fake being extra committed and not drink just because the season was underway.

“There’s definitely a lot of posing [in IndyCar],” she said. “I always felt like in IndyCar everybody was like, who could go to the hauler earlier to show they were more committed… People would not have a drink the entire season because it was the season,” Patrick said, during a recent interview with Besinger.

“And then you go to NASCAR and… people are rolling in on helicopters an hour before practice starts, and out crushing beers the night before. OK, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but maybe some people crush beers, I don’t know. But definitely [NASCAR was] so much more friendly… and less posing; less faking it, fronting.”

On the racing front, even though Patrick was more successful in IndyCar, she revealed the team played a massive role in determining your competitiveness in NASCAR. The cars' specifications are almost identical in the single-seater series, while in Stock Car, it depends on individual teams – and even within the teams, the two cars varies.

“The teams [in NASCAR] always make a really big difference,” she added. “And not just the team itself, but the individual cars within the teams. I think that’s why you see the drivers thanking the guys at the shop – the guys working on the cars – because it’s a big deal. It makes a big difference.”

“So that goes back to the whole, getting people to believe in me and what I could do, and putting in the amount of effort to get there. And how, if one believes in you, that’s just not enough. That one person can’t build the whole car. That was the hardest part; just that there was so much that was out of my control. I look back, and IndyCar was much more even than stock cars.”