Who is the most accomplished female IndyCar driver? Everything you need to know

IndyCar, like other open-wheel racing series, has been a male-dominated sport ever since its inception. The intense physical demands of the cars, where power steerings are absent, make it more challenging for women to break into the category. Yet, there was one who went toe-to-toe with the driving greats and scripted history in the process - Danica Patrick.

At age ten, Patrick's karting career began quite late compared to many established racing drivers. However, she quickly made up for lost ground and won three World Karting Association Grand National Championships in her class in the mid-90s.

After briefly moving to and racing in the UK, Danica Patrick returned to America. She raced in the Barber Dodge Pro Series for Rahal Letterman Racing and the Toyota Atlantic Series, becoming the first woman to secure pole position in the latter.

In 2005, she joined the Rahal Letterman Racing IndyCar team and secured three pole positions in her rookie year, equaling Tomas Schekter's record. In doing so, she also became the first woman since Sarah Fisher in 2002 to get a pole position. In that year's Indy 500, she started in a career-best fourth position and led 19 laps of the race, becoming the first woman to ever lead the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

The Wisconsin native was awarded Rookie of the Year for both the Indy 500 and the IndyCar series. In the years to come, she raced in eight Indy 500s, securing an inspiring career-best P3 finish in 2009 with Andretti, becoming the first woman to stand on the podium there.

A year before that, she recorded one of the biggest achievements of her career at Motegi by becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar race. As per Indianapolis Motor Speedway's official site, Patrick's Indy 500 earnings amounted to a massive $2,865,240.

Another feather in her cap came straight from die-hard racing fans, who voted her most popular IndyCar driver for six straight years, from 2005 to 2010.

Danica Patrick's transition to NASCAR and her F1 dream

ARCA Racing Series Testing - Danica Patrick - Source: Getty

While concluding her successful IndyCar stint in 2011, Danica Patrick also shifted disciplines to stock car racing in a part-time capacity. 2012 marked her first year racing in the Nationwide Series full-time for JR Motorsports and part-time in the Sprint Series for Haas-Stewart Racing.

In 2013, she rewrote history yet again by being the first woman to secure pole position at the Daytona 500. However, the rest of her NASCAR career didn't go as planned. After retiring from racing in 2018, she said via Reuters:

"I didn’t have as good a results in NASCAR as I wanted. It’s more difficult in some ways just because I was fighting for a top 10 or the top 20 and IndyCar I was fighting for a top five or a win. I still fought really hard, they are still both difficult but as far as tangible results that people understand IndyCar went better so for that I loved it."

During her time in the UK, she also obsessed over her then-ultimate dream, which was racing in F1. However, that fizzled out when she returned to America. Patrick currently serves as a Sky Sports F1 analyst and also hosts her own podcast named 'Pretty Intense', where she interviews personalities from all walks of life.