EPIX’s ‘Danica’ shows the human side of a sports and media superstar

No matter her achievements on the track, there is no doubt that Danica Patrick transcends sports.

In addition to her exploits in IndyCar and NASCAR, the 35-year-old Illinois native is easily one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, with her image gracing magazine covers and commercial endorsements and her name associated with several businesses, including a clothing line. And she’s the only woman to ever win at racing’s highest level and lead a lap at the Indianapolis 500.

She’s a role model for young women everywhere and now she’s the subject of a new EPIX documentary.

“Danica,” directed by Hannah Storm and premiering Wednesday, Nov. 8, offers up an intimate portrait of Patrick, capturing her on and off the track as she prepares for races, mulls her next steps in the business world and even considers when to start a family.

Since starting her career in 1991, she’s been the most successful woman in the history of openwheel racing, counting a win in Japan in 2008, a third-place finish at Indy in 2009 and Rookie of the Year honors in 2005 at Indianapolis and in the IndyCar series. After jumping to NASCAR in 2012, she set the record for highest finish by a woman at the Daytona 500, eighth in 2013.

At this writing, she was without a ride for the 2018 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup season, but that doesn’t dim Patrick’s confidence about her past or her future.

“You don’t stick around for 26 years if you suck,” she reasons. “You can hang around for a while and fool people for a while in Band-Aid situations but you can’t stick around that long and transition that many times through different cars and series and people and teams and not be able to do something out there. So yes, I’m proud of that. But the competitiveness in me and the reason why I am where I am is because I don’t think any of it is ever good enough.”