Danica Wins!

In her 50th Indy Car start, Danica Patrick won her first race in Twin Ring Motegi race track in Motegi, Japan.

Starting 5th, Ms. Patrick battled understeer the whole race. Demonstrating that smart is better than fast, Ms. Patrick and her crew chief, Kyle Moyer, decided to save fuel and skip a final splash ’n’ go pit stop. For most of the final 40 laps, she drove conservatively, dropping back to 7th while most of the leaders were driving full out. After the pit stops, the only other driver to skip the splash ’n’ go was the leader, Helio Castroneves, who was now trying to conserve fuel to the end. Running second with 3 laps to go, Ms. Patrick saw her opportunity, and shot past Mr. Castroneves in turn 3 and never looked back.

Yes, she’s smokin’ hot. But when I first saw her drive, I saw a confident, competent driver who was as poised in front of the camera as she was behind the wheel. She weathered all the impatient questioning: “When are you going to win a race?” Once the weight of that question was lifted, ESPN’s Jack Arute teased her: “When are you going to win your next race?”

Related: NASCAR Owner Talks To Danica

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