How Danica Patrick stays behind the wheel

Danica Patrick isn’t reluctant to exploit her sex appeal, said Peter Boyer in The New Yorker. The 28-year-old race-car driver was a virtual nobody eight years ago when she agreed to a risqué photo shoot in a lad magazine. Posing variously in a red bikini, black leather hot pants, and stiletto-heeled boots while splayed over a ’57 Chevy, the magazine labeled the petite Patrick “the hottest thing on wheels since Roller Girl.” The attention got her a sponsor and kick-started her career. “It helped me get the ride,” she says. “The bottom line is, it takes money to go racing. If there’s money there, and it puts me in a really good car, then I can go show what I can do.”

She’s now a credible competitor on both the IndyCar and the NASCAR circuits, although racing purists—as well as some feminists—scorn Patrick for continuing to do suggestive photo shoots. “People say that it takes away from the driving, because it kind of overpowers what I’m doing [on the racetrack],” she says. “Yeah, I do catch flak for it. And I totally don’t care. I don’t have to conform. I am just trying to earn everyone’s respect out there on the track.”

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