Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 is expected to mark the end of Danica Patrick’s career in full-time racing. After she was replaced by Aric Almirola at Stewart-Haas Racing, Patrick announced in November that she was walking away following one last shot at what’s been dubbed as the “Danica Double” – NASCAR’s Daytona 500 and the Indy 500.

Patrick told The Associated Press it took her multiple months to accept that her career was all but over, but once she did, the idea of finishing her career at Indy seemed like a fitting end to a storied career.

"It is a great way to kind of honour where I have been, to be able to have one last go, to be able to thank the fans, to be there," the 36-year-old said. "There is a famous thing in racing called 'The Double,' when you do the Indy 500 and Coke 600 on the same day. My double is doing Daytona and the Indy 500 because I have been able to be lucky enough to race in both series full time. To finish up where it all started 13 years ago, lucky No. 13, is really cool."

Patrick ran in the Indy 500 from 2005 to 2011, finishing third in 2009. She is the first female driver to lead laps in both the Daytona 500 and Indy 500, including a lengthy lead at the Brickyard as a rookie.

While Patrick hasn’t managed much in the way of results the last couple years, she will undoubtedly go down as one of the most successful female drivers of all time. With the curtain set to close on her career, TSN.ca takes a look back at some of her most notable moments behind the wheel.

 

Beginnings

Danica Patrick began racing go-karts at a young age with her sister and eventually started participating in competitions. At the age of 16, Patrick dropped out of high school and moved to England to participate in the ultra-competitive British formula system. She made her European debut in Formula Vauxhall Winter Series and then finished ninth in the British Formula Vauxhall Championship the following year.

Patrick earned the Gorsline Scholarship Award, given to top up and coming road-racing drivers. Other recipients of the award include IndyCar’s Josef Newgarden and J.R. Hildebrand and NASCAR’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Patrick signed with Team Rahal in 2002 and was named driver for the team’s 2003 Toyota Atlantic series program. She finished sixth in the series standings that year and third the following season. She earned a pole position at Portland to become the first female driver to win a Toyota Atlantic series pole. Soon after, IndyCar came calling.

 

Rookie season

Patrick’s debut season in 2005 turned out to be one of the best of her career. She recorded two top-five finishes and seven top-10s on her way to earning Rookie of the Year honours.

But it was the Indy 500 where her career really took off. Patrick nearly won pole with a qualifying session slowed slightly by a slip-up in her first corner, but still took home the No. 4 spot. Patrick passed Dan Wheldon for the lead on the 190th lap but it wasn’t enough as Wheldon would go on to become the first Englishman since 1966 to win at Indy.

Patrick finished in the same position she started, giving her the highest finish ever for a female driver in the event’s history. Her 19-lap lead was also the first time a woman led at Indy.

Patrick went on to finish 12th in the series standings and earn three pole positions throughout the rest of the season in Kansas, Kentucky and Chicagoland to tie Tomas Scheckter’s rookie record for pole positions in a single season.

 

Taking the next step

Following one of the stronger rookie seasons in recent memory, Patrick continued to make strides. She would climb to ninth in IndyCar’s standings in 2006 and secured her first three podiums the year after.

Patrick got off to a blistering start in 2008 and, on April 20, won the Indy Japan 300 for the first and only IndyCar victory of her career. It also marked the first time in history a female driver had won a major closed-circuit auto race. It ended up being her only podium of the season, but she climbed to sixth in the series standings at season’s end.

In 2009, she took her previous success at the Brickyard to a whole other level. Not only did she finish a career-best third, but she set the record for the highest finish for a female driver ever at Indy. She finished fifth in series standings that year, but would drop to 10th in 2010 and 2011.

Although Patrick would never manage another victory on the IndyCar circuit, she once again made history when she announced that she was switching to NASCAR.

 

Switching Circuits

Patrick’s arrival to NASCAR was met with much anticipation. She raced in the lower-tier Nationwide Series while continuing to compete in IndyCar but made the official jump to NASCAR’s top series full-time in 2012. 

Her debut came at Daytona, where she started 29th and struggled throughout the race to finish at No. 38. She competed in 10 of 36 races and did not record any top 10s. But it was the following year she made her biggest stock car splash.

Patrick won pole position at Daytona – becoming the first woman to ever do so in a Sprint Cup race – and also became the first female driver to lead at least one lap in that race. She would go on to finish eighth after falling down the leaderboard in the last few laps.

After Daytona, Patrick did not record a top 10 the rest of the season but bounced back with three in 2014 and two more the season after.

The top 10s dried up – managing just one at Dover over the next two seasons – and Patrick announced at the end of the 2017 season that she would retire from full-time driving.

“I don’t feel like I was necessarily pushed into this,” Patrick said at Homestead in November. “I feel like I should be doing this. I feel like this is where my life should be headed, and sometimes we just get kind of nudged there.”

“I was very fortunate,” she said when reflecting on her career. “I had some high points along the way, and I had fun. I was miserable sometimes because I cared so much about succeeding, and I did it my way.”

 

Career Stats (IndyCar):

Races: 115

Wins: 1 (Twin Ring Motegi – Japan 300)

Poles: 3

Average Start: 12.0

Average Finish: 10.6

 

Career Stats (NASCAR Cup Series):

Races: 191

Wins: 0

Poles: 1

Average Start: 25.0

Average Finish: 24.1