Danica Patrick still lives life in fast lane after racing retirement

After a career spent clocking speeds over 220 mph, Danica Patrick is looking to slow down.

Way down.

Accustomed to having her schedule booked each week around a high-profile racing career and lucrative endorsement deals, Patrick is eager to finally live a normal life.

So what was Patrick missing out on all those years?

“I didn’t even have the chance to go see concerts because concerts happen on the weekend because that’s when people have time off,” she said. “So whether it be that or a farmers market or just having a Sunday sleep-in, waffle morning where you just have nothing to do, those things were foreign to me.”

Her younger sister Brooke Selman said Danica doesn’t know how to sleep in or do anything remotely associated with a slow pace.

“She hasn’t sat idle for too long,” Selman said. “She enjoys having things going on.”

Patrick’s life hasn’t slowed one bit since she quit racing in May 2018. She splits time between her home in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, where her boyfriend, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, lives during the season. She also takes frequent work trips to New York, Las Vegas and Napa Valley, California, to visit her vineyard, Somnium.

Will Bucquoy Photography

“I’ll text her and say, ‘Where in the world are you, Carmen Sandiego?’” Selman said. “She’s never really in one spot for long.”

Patrick built an empire over her racing career. In her final full season in 2017, Patrick was the seventh highest-paid driver, earning $12.2 million, despite not winning a race, according to Forbes. She also tied for second-most endorsement and licensing earnings with $5 million, the report said.

Patrick called herself a “forward-thinker” and “planner.” With the end of her racing career approaching, Patrick paved way for her next career move, launching an athleisure line called “Warrior by Danica Patrick” on HSN.com and publishing her book, “Pretty Intense: The 90-Day Mind, Body and Food Plan,” in 2017.

The book’s success set her up for her next venture, a podcast, also called “Pretty Intense.”

Remember, she’s “retired.”

The podcast, which will debut next Thursday, is a journey of self-reflection for Patrick as she dives into deep conversations about life and failure with special guests who vary from former professional volleyball player and fitness enthusiast Gabby Reece to former baseball star-turned-entrepreneur Alex Rodriguez to nutritionist Melissa Hartwig, who created the popular Whole30 diet.

Provided

“I didn’t want to lose that ability to inspire just because I was going away from [racing],” Patrick said during a conversation with Sports Saturday. “So for me, a podcast is a way to still do that through not only my own stories that of course kind of trickle in here and there pertaining to whatever the guest is talking about but also these other amazing people out there that have fantastic stories.”

A healthy lifestyle always has been part of the foundation of Patrick’s brand, but she wanted to use this period of her life as a time to focus on her own happiness. So when she isn’t recording her podcast or attending meetings for her other endeavors, Patrick often can be found at the CrossFit gym or sipping red wine — two things she loves. She regularly shares her rigorous workouts and the fruits of her labor on social media.

Another big part of Patrick’s post-racing career — and a frequent guest on her Instagram page — is Rodgers, whom she has been publicly dating since February 2018.

Rodgers has been key in helping Patrick adjust to her new lifestyle.

“He helps push me in the go-with-the-flow aspect of life that I’m not quite as good at,” Patrick said.

In March, Rodgers told Patrick one morning to pack her bags because they were going somewhere. What happened next was an unforgettable adventure.

Rodgers surprised Patrick with a trip to Paris for her 37th birthday.

“He’s very thoughtful and very sweet,” Patrick said. “And one of the things we both shared early on is that we enjoy surprising people with things.”

The two haven’t been shy about their affection for one another since.

Patrick, who was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, but grew up in Rockton, Illinois, feels like she has found her person in Rodgers, and the feeling seems mutual. In an interview with Artful Living, Rodgers said: “We’re really attracted to each other.”

What makes the two so compatible is their similar personalities. They’re both extremely competitive, disciplined and hungry to succeed. They push one another to become better. And Patrick said they both have a spiritual side and regularly engage in deep and meaningful conversations.

Patrick is so infatuated with Rodgers that she severed ties with her beloved Bears.

“I definitely had my run of cheering for that team,” said Patrick, who inherited her Bears fandom from her father. “But I can tell you I’m 100 percent a Packers fan and 1 million percent an Aaron fan.”

And you can bet that she’ll be at the Bears-Packers season opener Sept. 5 at Soldier Field sporting green and gold.

“I don’t think you’ll see me with a Rodgers jersey on,” Patrick said, “but I will definitely be cheering for the Packers.”

How does her father feel about this?

Patrick laughed and said he approves.

Family is important to Patrick, and her sister said they’ve become more close over the last year.

‘‘Growing up, I’m sure I had my own difficulties at times with dealing with having a famous sibling,” said Selman, who said she saw Patrick only at the racetrack because her sister was so busy. “But I think overall we both came out on the positive end instead of our friendship and our sister bond being hurt by it.”

They text daily.

‘‘She calls me her little oracle,” Selman said. “I will just sometimes say, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ And then I can literally tell with one reply in a text how she’s really doing.”

Patrick frequently visits her family, most of whom live in or near Indianapolis now.

Patrick owes a lot of her success to her parents, who helped her become an accomplished driver by encouraging her from a young age that she was capable of doing anything she dedicated herself to do.

Patrick claimed never to have had role models or idols when she was growing up. She never wanted to be someone else — she said she just wanted to be the best version of herself.

“I wanted to be the first me, not the next somebody else,” Patrick said. “I don’t know if that was subconscious knowing that it wasn’t possible. There’s limitless potential when you’re the best you that you can be. But when you’re trying to be someone else, No. 1, you can’t ever accomplish that, and No. 2, what if you can do more?”

Patrick pushed the boundaries in motorsports during her career, which started in England in 1998. Her legacy isn’t defined by her successes and failures on the track. (Truth is, she was a good IndyCar driver and an average NASCAR driver, who never finished higher than 24th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.)

But Patrick will be remembered as the person who inspired the future generation of women in motorsports.

“Danica really paved the way for all women in the motorsport industry, and to grow up and see that was just amazing,” said Natalie Decker, who is in the midst of her first NASCAR Truck Series season.

Decker is one of the many next generation drivers who grew up idolizing Patrick. She remembers going to a race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet and watching Patrick race.

“She really inspired me because as a young girl, to see another female racing, I just thought that was so amazing,” Decker said. “I only ever knew boys racing.”

There are a lot of reasons why Patrick became a sensation as opposed to other female drivers.

It all started during her rookie season in 2005. Patrick became IndyCar’s darling when she was the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500, though she fell to fourth place in a nail-biting finish. Other factors include her warm and bubbly personality and high visibility from sponsorship spots with GoDaddy.

AP

“She’s the whole package,” Decker said. “She was fast, she was good-looking, she was good at speaking, she was just good with fans. It was just overall everything about her made everyone want to meet her, want to be her.”

And luck also might’ve played a part, Decker noted.

Patrick never viewed herself as a woman among men.

“People ask me about it, but it’s not something I really thought about,” Patrick said. “It was just me doing something that I enjoyed doing, something I was good at, and something that I had a goal for. And so all of the rest of it, being the pioneer, doing something unique and different and potentially leading the way for others in the same position was really a byproduct of me doing something that I love.”

Patrick returned to the track where it all began in May. As cars drove parade laps around Indianapolis Motor Speedway, she plopped herself above the pit box and reflected on the past year.

This was usually the part of race when Patrick’s heart rate would start elevating and adrenaline would begin to seep in.

But not this year.

Instead, Patrick sat there relaxed, joyful and grateful, while eating dried apple chips.

“Oh my God,” she said to herself, “this time last year my life was so different.”

In the hours leading up to the race, Patrick excelled in her debut as an analyst alongside longtime sportscaster Mike Tirico on NBC. Patrick later admitted she was somewhat intimidated working with Tirico, but any nerves she may have had vanished as soon as the show began.

Their chemistry seemed natural as if they had been friends for awhile.

And Patrick spoke confidently while discussing the event, sprinkling in anecdotes of her own experiences. One of the highlights from the broadcast, Tirico recalled, was when Patrick made a playful remark about how she crashed her car into the wall at this track in the last race of her career.

“A self-deprecating humor about herself, I think, was one of the personality traits that I take away,” said Tirico, who praised her overall performance. “I was so impressed. I became a huge fan.”

NBC

Will Patrick broadcast future races? Potentially, but as it has been noted: There’s more she aspires to do, and she’s showing no signs of slowing down.

“If Danica Patrick was stock, I’d buy and I would recommend it to my friends,” Tirico said. “I’m super excited to see what the next few chapters are for her, but I think they’re going to be really cool.”

Truth is, nothing is normal about Patrick — not to say that’s a bad thing. No two days are alike for her.

“I think that’s inspiring,” Patrick said. “We can all get in such ruts and rhythms that are monotonous and uninspiring and don’t push our comfort zone, so I think that’s part of the magic is not having a real routine.”

This ideology is not new to Patrick. She pushed her limits every time she zipped into her racing gear, and it clearly has carried over to her new just-as-hectic life.

But for the first time in a long while, time is on Patrick’s side.

”I definitely have plans for the future, and I definitely have things I want to accomplish,” Patrick said. “I’m very good at pushing.

“The podcast is the big thing coming out in the next few weeks, and in the meantime, I’m just selling as many bottles of Somnium as I can.”