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SPEED Quotes: Danica Patrick’s Exclusive Interview With Robin Miller
SPEEDtv.com columnist Robin Miller sat down with Danica Patrick Friday in a live exclusive one-on-one interview...
SPEED Staff  |  Posted December 18, 2009   Daytona Beach, FL
Danica Patrick walks to her car during a test Friday at Daytona International Speedway. (Photo: Motorsports Images & Archives)

SPEEDtv.com columnist Robin Miller sat down with Danica Patrick Friday in a live exclusive one-on-one interview on SPEED from ARCA testing at Daytona International Speedway. Following is a transcript from the interview.

Photos: Daytona ARCA Test

Miller: When you guys tested in Indy cars here, you got to run a couple of corners here. The first time you drove down the straightaway at Indy and what that felt like going into turn one and comparable to here? It’s a completely different mindset.

Patrick: It seems like it (car) asks for a lot of patience. Also, just a comparison I’ve already kind of felt is when you go faster in an Indy car, the faster you go, the more speed you get going, the better it feels because you just keep producing more downforce. But in these cars, it seems like the faster you go, kind of the more they start moving around and you’re like, ‘Oh, boy’ and I was really slow with the throttle, really slow with the brake because you don’t want to upset it because it just feels like it’s lifting up more. It will be interesting how it feels on these bigger tracks.

Miller: One of the great secrets last week was your test at Disney World … you got to run four-and-a-half hours. Just your impressions of the brakes … completely different way to drive a car?

Patrick: The brakes - they’re pretty good, they don’t lock the car up too quick. I feel like I can use quite a bit of pressure. Still not, I guess, the pressure reads that I’m getting in an Indy car. I felt like I could get on them. The cars really are responsive to driver input. I found myself getting into the corner, getting off the brake and rolling a lot of speed and, almost mid-corner, just dipping the brake a little and getting the nose down. That way, I could get to full throttle sooner so that it didn’t push all the way to the wall. Look at that – I’m using the word ‘push’ already.

Miller: You were prepared for the fact that they don’t have the brakes that IndyCar has?

Patrick: I kind of knew that. I drove a Busch car, I guess it was nine years ago actually. It was kind of funny – in the airport, I saw one of the crew chiefs that day – his name was Harold Holly. I saw him in the airport and I didn’t recognize him because he cut his hair short. He had a mullet. I didn’t recognize him after that. I was starting to reminisce about how that car felt but I remember the first thing I said was, ‘Check the brakes. They don’t work. I push on them and I feel like there’s air in the brakes or something.’ Then sure enough, there was no air. I don’t know if cars have come along a little or not but I had a pretty well-prepared car the other day.

Miller: I have lunch every week with a bunch of old Indy car guys and we’re always fighting about what’s good and bad about racing. They’re all like, ‘She knows nothing about stock car racing and it’s going to be a daunting experience.’ How could it be more daunting than going to England when you’re 16 years old without your parents? Do you ever think about that and think, ‘Boys, I’ve been through this before?’

Patrick: Yeah, that’s a good analogy because when I went to England, I was excited but I also didn’t know what to expect. It’s the same kind of thing - I’m excited but I also don’t know what to expect right now. I have a feeling it’s one thing to drive all by yourself but it’s another thing to add a whole bunch of cars and start drafting and that whole thing. They’ve already started teaching me about how the air works off the side of the car … there’s just all kinds of stuff to learn. I started drawing pictures actually, using boxes as cars. I’m trying to figure it out.

Miller: Dale Jr. is a big advocate of iRacing. I know a lot of guys have said it’s really helped them in certain situations but you’ve said you’ve never done much of it.

Patrick: With this rain situation, we were in there and I went on iRacing.com for the first time and I’m ready to get booted up. They’re going to send me a whole kit with steering wheels and pedals and everything. It’s cool – if anything fast-forwards the learning curve, that’s good. But they were making a comment about how fast Justin (Wilson) was and they said they were running at Watkins Glen. I’m like, ‘Yeah, well, he won there.’ They weren’t even close. One of the guys thought that he’d be within a couple of tenths of him and I’m like, ‘Some people aren’t even within a couple of tenths of him in real qualifying on a race weekend, let alone on iRace.’ Then you’ve got NASCAR guys who are used to running ovals.


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