The Rich Roll Podcast - Danica Patrick is Pretty Intense — Life Lessons From The World’s Greatest Female Race Car Driver

Episode Date: January 29, 2018

Imagine yourself the only female athlete in a very dangerous sport completely dominated by men. You don’t just hold your own. And you don't just break the glass ceiling. Instead, you obliterate it. Kicking serious ass, you make an indelible mark on the sport you love. Along the way, you inspire millions of women and young girls to rethink the limits of their personal potential. This is the extraordinary story of race car driver Danica Patrick (@danicapatrick) — an athlete whose life-long love for speed turned her into one of the most successful, revered, and recognizable professional sports figures on the planet. Although her accomplishments are far too numerous to list, among Danica’s many notable glass ceiling explosions include: * first woman to lead the Indy 500; * highest Indy 500 female finish ever (4th); * first woman to win an IndyCar circuit race; and * first woman to win pole position at Daytona 500 Off the track, Danica is a media magnet. She has served up hosting duties on Spike TV, been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and appeared in a litany of commercials, music videos, and television shows. In 2006, she published Danica: Crossing the Line*, an autobiography she followed up with the recent release of her brand new mind, body, spirit primer: Pretty Intense*. This is a conversation about Danica's extraordinary career. It's about the lessons she's learned along the way about life, performance and wellness. It’s about a piece of unfinished business she calls the Danica Double – her plan to race both the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500 this year — and it’s a glimpse into the new chapter that lays beyond racing. But most of all, this is a conversation about personal empowerment. It’s about the mindset and practices that made Danica a champion, which can be leveraged to unlock the best version of yourself. In other words, take personal responsibility for your path. Stop wasting time. And start kicking ass. Danica is one of the sweetest badasses I know. I totally enjoyed our exchange. I hope you do too. For the visually inclined, you can watch the podcast on YouTube here. Peace + Plants, Rich

It's really not too late to follow a passion. Sometimes it might not be able to reach maybe its pinnacle or highest level based on maybe your age, but you can definitely still do it and have an effect and find joy in that. The journey is to find your truth and to really know who you are. That's Danica Patrick, this week on The Rich Roll Podcast. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey, everybody. How's it going? What is happening? How are you? My name is Rich Roll. I am your host. This is a podcast. It's my podcast, the Rich Roll Podcast. And what I do here is I go deep with the most kick-ass people I can find. And the idea behind it all is to hopefully provide

you with some tools, with some insights, with some information to incorporate into your life, to, you know, implement so that you can be just a little bit better. So today, what do I want to say about today? Well, imagine being the only female athlete in a sport historically and thoroughly, utterly, completely dominated by men. Now imagine not just holding your own in that sport, but actually kicking ass, crushing it. Well, this is the story of race car driver Danica Patrick, who is an extraordinary athlete, someone whose lifelong love for speed made her one of the most successful and widely recognizable athletes on planet Earth, as well as a hero and a role model for women and girls all across

the planet. Her accomplishments are too numerous to list, but among them include Danica becoming the first woman to lead the Indy 500, which is unbelievable. I think she ended up fourth in that race, which is the highest finish for any female in the history of Indy 500. She was also the first woman to win an IndyCar circuit race. And then she switched to stock cars where she became the first woman to win the pole position at the Daytona 500. Unbelievable. She's now on the cusp of retirement, and she just released a new book.

It's called Pretty Intense, which is sort of a primer or a program for enhancing mind, body, spirit potential. And today we sit down, we had a great talk, which we're going to get into in a second. But first, we're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well

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Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life in recovery is wonderful, and recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. All right, so this is me and Danica Patrick in a conversation about her extraordinary career, her impending retirement, the lessons about life and wellness and performance that she has gleaned along the way, and what Danica's next chapter holds for her. Danica is a badass.

She's super cool. I totally enjoyed this one, and I hope you do too so without further ado i give you danica patrick all right let's do this danica thanks so much for uh for coming out sure thank you psyched to talk to you you can we turn the hourglass over is that our time limit no it's not our time we're definitely going to go longer than that. I hope not. I hope I don't run out of things to ask you. Is that like a five minute clock? And I hope you're not talked out. You just came from Rogan, right? I did. Yeah. Did you go three hours with him? Not quite. No, we went over two hours, but we didn't get to three. I hope you're not too tired to tell your story once again. No,

it's never a problem talking about things that I'm interested in. Well, cool. Well, I'm psyched to talk to you. I know very little about racing, but I have had a couple race car drivers in here before. Have you? Well, I'm good friends with Landon Castle. Oh, okay.

Wow, sweet. He's a really nice guy. Such a nice guy. Yeah. And Leilani Munter. Okay, yeah, I know her too. Yeah, I know. I know you do. So we can unpack a little bit of that, but let's talk about the new chapter. I mean, it's been an interesting year for you. You're in transition from one world to the next.

Yeah. I've got a little bit left in my sort of racing world. Just doing two races this year to finish off my career. And that'll be the Danica Double. The Danica Double. Is that sorted out? Well, it's called the Danica Double because for those who don't follow racing, the Double is known as doing the Indy 500 on Memorial Day weekend on Sunday and then going straight the same day to go race the Coke 600 in Charlotte. So 1,100 miles of racing in one day.

That's known as the double. And two different cars. Two different cars, two different states, two different series. Yeah, so that would be the double. But this is the Danica double because, well, it's just different. It's the way I would do it. And it's the two biggest races of both series. And since I spent half of my professional career in IndyCar

and half of it in NASCAR, it's the Daytona 500 next month, which is the biggest NASCAR race of the year. And then finishing up with the IndyCar and half of it in NASCAR. It's the Daytona 500 next month, which is the biggest NASCAR race of the year. And then finishing up with the Indy 500, which is what I started off in IndyCar racing. And so it's the biggest race of their season. So that's why we call it the Danica Double. Yeah. Well, it's been a long time since you've been in an IndyCar, right? Yes, it has. It's been since 2011. And do you have the sponsors lined up for that and the cars and everything like that? We hope to be announcing all that stuff really soon. That's cool. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. That's really cool. I mean, the idea of going from,

you know, one kind of racing and car into a completely different one, especially one, you know, you haven't done in a while. That got to be daunting and what's weird and interesting about what you do your sport is that you can't do it every day like if you're a runner you go out and run every day if you're a cyclist you ride a bike every you know you can't get out on the track and race a car every day i mean yeah it's for one it's very expensive even if you did it's tires and engines and fuel and all kinds of stuff, brakes and whatever else you wear out pounding around. So yeah, it's not, it's just totally different. It's more of a, well, I suppose with like, let's say if you're a runner or something you could do every day, it's really just all you, but with racing it's you, yes, but it's also the build of the car. So really, no, there isn't many days that go by that something is not, there's not an effort being put towards the program.

It's just not on track always. And obviously it takes, you know, teams and teams of people to support a driver like yourself. How involved are you in like the actual gearhead aspect of the cars? Do you get into that? Not at all. And in fact, I disappointed Joe very much on his podcast because I'm like, I'm not a car girl. And he was so mad. He's like, you're a race car driver. I'm like, well, I'm just not. I just don't care. I said that, you know, drive cars are like purses to me. I just need one nice one at a time. And when it wears out, I get a new one. And you just never went under the hood that much. But your dad, your dad was kind of a guy like that, right? My dad was into racing and, you know,

loves that stuff. It's more his passion. You're just like, let me drive. Yeah. Right. So what is the training like for these kinds of races? I mean, you don't really I mean, how sad is it? You don't really have to be that fit. I mean, there are some drivers in both sports, but especially NASCAR that you look at and you're like, yeah, you probably probably don't. Isn't that changing? You probably don't really work out that much, do you? I mean, like changing. Not really. But you have I mean, Landon's, you know, triathlete guys are getting into cycling. Dale Jr. Even interest. I mean, Dale's still at Dale Jr.

Is interested in it was his last year and he's not racing anymore really. So, and I think he still goes out and does that. And Jimmy does it because he likes it. And you don't think that has any impact on sure. You know, it's physical fitness is important, but you know, then you've got guys like, you know, Tony Stewart or Ryan Newman that don't work out and they do just fine so um so i don't think you really have to so but it is an endurance event i mean i think i've heard you say like it's sort of like running a marathon you have an elevated heart rate for a very long period of

time you need a certain amount of stamina you got to be able to maintain your focus like incredibly so, right? Absolutely. I think the focus comes from practice, but the stamina, you know, hydration is critical. So that's something to think about. And other than hydration, then, you know, repetition with the muscles. So, you know, a general amount of a little bit of flexibility and some endurance. So, but, you know, there's also like the whole being race fit, which is just basically being able to, you know, get in the car and you kind of get conditioned by doing it, doing the actual job itself. So I am more fit

than I need to be to do the job. Yeah. But is that, is that always been the case? Cause you know, now pretty intense is out your new book, which is congratulations and you know it's all about wellness fitness you have a fitness regimen in there is this something that you have practiced over the years to become a better driver or is this a newer the regimen for you no it's it's not to become a better it's not really about driving it's really about being the best version of myself but but in the context of driving, has that fitness regimen made you a better driver, do you think? Or is that relationship not that direct? I think the only thing that I would put

towards being a better driver is that with the style of working out that I do, with the intensity level, with the competition of it at times, I think it makes you mentally stronger. So that mental strength, I believe, translates. Well, one thing that is another big part of the new book is mindset. Yeah.

Sort of your mentality. I mean, the book is called Pretty Intense, right? So you're an intense individual. I presume, you know, God gifted with a certain level of intensity so yeah you know what is that um intensity all about and what is your mindset the mindset is really i mean the workout stuff is where i really get into the level of intensity and um you know using things like mantras to get past it and techniques to to push harder but um but the mind the mental part of the book which is really it's really cool that a lot of almost everyone has said that's their favorite and techniques to push harder. But the mind, the mental part of the book, which is really, it's really cool that a lot of, almost everyone has said that's their favorite part of the book

is the first five chapters on, you know, the sort of mind-body connection and the mental aspect of your life and gaining strength and confidence through certain techniques and doing certain things, activities. So I, but I really like that because that's where you're going to find your foundation for the rest, which is why it's the first five chapters of the book, because your mind, the body follows the mind. So if you can tell it to keep

going, if you can teach it that, believe it, then it will. And so, yeah, the mind comes first and everybody's really loved that part. And I, I love the fact that they did because I feel like as a, as a culture, we're starting to scratch the surface on how powerful the mind is and what it's capable of. And I love that because I believe I was born with a certain amount of that already. And, you know, through the job that I have, which is unique and different, and you need a lot of that, I've been able to, you know, continue that development. And so, you know, unknowingly, really, if that makes sense, like just, you know, we understand you're supposed to be believing yourself and everything, but to really start to understand how powerful the mind is, is more new to me. And so I look back and see how, yeah, like many, but ahead of the curve a little

bit on some of that stuff. Yeah, I think that there's no question about it that the body follows the mind, that, you know, the mind has to be in order for the body to follow. And what's interesting is we're in this period now where we're finally embracing that aspect, in this period now where we're finally embracing that aspect, the mental game aspect. And the idea that the mind is trainable is almost like a new concept for a lot of people. I know. We have science now to back it up

and meditation and all these things, but it's sort of self-evident, especially if you're an athlete. You kind of know these things and you come up with this understanding, but I think for a lot of people, it's a struggle. yeah it makes me think of um talking to an anesthesiologist a couple months back about um putting people to sleep and how amazing it was that you don't have to numb the body when you put them to sleep and they're like yeah we don't we don't really understand it completely i'm like

wow it's because you're in a different dimension mentally and like you don't you is pain even really happening if we don't put you, is pain even really happening? If we don't put any thought towards it. Well, what is pain? If you don't put any thought towards it, then, right, exactly. I mean, essentially your body's still there. You're still operating. You're still breathing. You're just kind of sleep state.

Why don't you feel anything? And even beyond that, the idea that, that you can become more focused, you can become more present, you can become more aware, you can become more present, you can become more aware, you can train yourself into a state of positive outlook, all of these things that we now understand we have agency over as opposed to, well, that person just has a sunny outlook or he's depressed or-

He has all the good luck, I have the bad luck. It's about manifesting what you want for your life. And what are the strategies that you employ? all the good luck. I have the bad luck. It's about manifesting what you want for your life. And what are the strategies that you employ? You know, one simple one is just really getting out in nature. I think that nature is a really powerful element for us to ground us and give us some perspective, feel at one yet be in awe at the same time of everything. It kind of creates a state of appreciation, you know, gratitude, gratefulness, connection. I just, I don't think it's possible to go out in nature and feel worse. It's almost not even possible to just feel the same. You feel better, you feel more positive, you feel happier.

So that's one of them. Also, this sort of concept of neuroplasticity and how your thoughts kind of create patterns in your mind of and they become normal for you. And so you have to retrain your brain, which is the practice, right? That's just the practice it's just you know correcting first it's identifying your negative thoughts and then it's correcting them and then they eventually become all more positive overall and so um you know retraining your brain and that that chapter is called mind river essentially trying to say that as you the river cuts in deeper and deeper and the more you think about something the deeper it cuts and the harder it is to get out of that pattern. And so make sure you're, make sure you're thinking of things that are positive and good. You can't have a happy life with negative thoughts. And a sort of a counterpoint or not counterpoint, but like cousin point to that is this idea of acting as if, right? Like this, yeah. Like sort of, and you talk about this in the book this idea of like if you're

not feeling up for it just like trick yourself into the mindset that you're capable of this and sort of carry yourself accordingly as a way of you know creating that new neural pathway or like emboldening it yeah and because it's quick it's amazing how quickly you do fall into that new attitude if you you might start off your day and again it's just your own thoughts it's amazing how quickly you do fall into that new attitude. If you, you might start off your day and again, it's just your own thoughts. It's your own, you're creating your own reality. So if you tell yourself like, oh, it's a crappy day, then it will be. But if you, maybe you start off with one of those thoughts and you quickly correct it and identify and you're like, it's going to be a great day. And I don't even care how over the top you are. You be obnoxious about it.

Like say like, man, I just saw a unicorn fly by. This is going to be wonderful. Um, I don't care what you have to do, but you will find yourself being positive and in a good mood much quicker than you think. I mean, honestly, it probably takes, I mean, you could probably change your mood in minutes if you wanted to. And do you have a formal meditation practice? Yeah. Uh, well, what would you describe as formal? Sitting as opposed to like active meditation, like, oh, I'm jogging or I'm walking around, like just literally sitting down and, you know, practicing a specific technique. I wasn't sure if you meant like once a day when I wake up. No, no, there's no pattern to it. But there is formal meditation practice as well as moving

meditation practice, which would be more of my nature walks and things like that of listening to. And for some reason, for me, music gets me there a little bit better than pure silence. I would think that it seems to me that every race car driver should meditate. You know what I mean? Because you have to stay so present for so many hours. So one thing I did when I was younger that I do think there are a fair amount of drivers that do it, but I think there are lots that don't as I would do visualization

for sure. When I was a young kid in go-karting, I would visualize the perfect lap. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how you can maintain that level of just intensity for that many hours. Well, you do, you develop that, but then there's also the next level. And I think that every sport you see that come out of an athlete, whether it be, um, the last 10 laps of a race, just having to start from the back. Cause you got a pit road penalty and you were running really well and you get mad and you kind of, you're able to enter the next level mentally. And all of a sudden, while you had to start in the back, maybe you were running sixth

and you had to start last. And all of a sudden you find yourself right back up to top five again. And it didn't take any time at all. You're like, wait, where'd that come from? You've been stuck right here for the whole race. You know, where did that come from? I think as a driver, as an athlete, as a person, we can achieve the next level, but we can't stay there. That's not a sustained state. I don't think that next level mentality, but by all means,

probably what we do in the car in general is next level for a lot of people. But I think, you know, to the critical level, there is another level too. I think, you know, to the critical level, there is another level too. Right. But that idea that, you know, let's say you're in the front or you're in the mix near the front of the race and then something happens and suddenly you're in the back, you know, somebody with a less well-trained mind could then start looping negative, I blew it, it's over, like, just forget it, you know, as opposed to understanding like, oh, there's still hours left in this race.

There's plenty that can be done, like keep keep it together some are mentally weak and melt down and others dig deeper how much of it racing is mental versus physical oh if i had a percentage i mean i think as far as i think mental is probably if we're only talking about mental physical and we're not breaking it down in any more categories than that i would say mental is probably if we're only talking about mental physical and we're not breaking it down in any more categories than that i would say mental is probably i would think like 75 of it yeah there's mental physical and then there's like the mechanical aspect of it you know it goes into that so which most athletes don't have to worry about that kind of percent and then when you get beyond the car and you break down the rest.

Yeah. So the thing is, like, if you don't have a great car, like, there's only so much you're going to be able to do. And I think a lot of racers are in that position where they could be amazing drivers, but they're just dealing with equipment that's just never going to get them there, right? Yeah, that's 100% true. Yeah. look at your, when you reflect back on your career and the mental aspect, you know, of what contributed to your success and everything, you know, that you've enjoyed as a result of that career, like, can you pinpoint it to any one particular thing? I mean, intensity, yes. But what is that actually? And like, what do you think it is that, that made you great or that distinguished you from other competitors? Yeah, it's the, it's the, the mindset of being able to focus critically as well

as dig deeper when times get tough. So I'd say in the longevity of my career and having the endurance to get through having no ride or being put down or being judged or, you know, having bad days, whatever it may be. It's the mindset. It's the being positive. It's being, you know, it's being strong enough to endure those things without breaking down. And where do you think that comes from? Yeah, that's a great question. What do you think? I don't know. I don't know you well enough to know. Well, it's not really about me. It's about anyone.

Well, I think that on some level, it's a result of your upbringing. It's how your parents raised you. It's your environment growing up and whatever stimulus you had to sort of weather or overcome to be the person that you are. And it's what is inherently driving you, motivating you to succeed, like whatever is behind that. Like, I don't know, only you know that. Yeah, I think all those things matter. All those things.

I wonder how much you're born with. I wonder, you know, I wonder as we come into this world, I mean, how much does our spirit dictate things? Are we, I don't know. I don't know. Were you competitive as a young kid? I mean, I know you started racing when you were like eight, right?

Oh, yeah. So from the get-go. I mean, I was competitive with my sister growing up. The phone would ring and I'd be like, all right, we'll race to the phone. Three, two, one. And I'd just sit there. So I won because I didn't want to have to go get it.

You know, things like that. I've been competitive my whole life. So there's a lot already there. But then, you know, my dad is a driven person and, you know, he owns his own business. And he was never let being a girl be something that was a defining factor on how well I should do. It was just about being a driver. So, you know, my upbringing and my value system was good for that. I didn't really even think about being a girl in racing until I started

being asked about being a girl in racing. Yeah. It's amazing to hear you say that though, because it seems like such an obvious thing that would have been front of mind in the beginning. It really wasn't until I was 14 and I started being noticed for doing really well and being, I was on, you know, getting on TV shows. And I remember the first thing, the first big thing was it was on ABC sports and it was, or on ABC, it was a Sunday afternoon special and it was called passion to play making of a champion. And it was an hour long special. And it was myself, Tara Lipinski, the figure skater and Anna Kornikova, the tennis player, the three of us, and we're all 14. And so, yeah, that was a long, long time ago. And they came and followed me

around at my high school and went to the track with me and 20 hours of VHS videotape interviews and back in the day. So yeah, so there was a lot of footage back then. And then MTV came and shot something for one of their shows that was about kids doing extreme things. And that was before you went off to the UK. Yeah, I was 14. I was a freshman in high school. So you had to have some awareness at that time. So that's when I started to get the awareness.

There's like a whole thing here. I have an opportunity here. That's when I started to notice. Yeah. But let's take it back before that. So you're eight years old. You start racing go-karts. Ten. Ten. Uh-huh. Yep. My sister was eight. Your dad was like into it and all that kind of stuff. Yep. My dad used to race snowmobiles. Well, actually started off in motocross and then he did snowmobile racing and then midgets, which

is like on a dirt track where the cars are sideways. Uh-huh. And this is in Illinois? All over. I mean, he r and down. Where you grew up? Oh, yeah. Northern Illinois, right on the border of Wisconsin. Actually, I was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, but we lived in South Beloit, Illinois. So we were right on the state line. Right. And when you're in that circuit as a young kid, there's race. I mean, what is that world like? There's like races all over the place. Like there's a whole world there, right? Yeah. I mean, there's local. So I started off with like one track for a year and then we started going regional. So around the Midwest. And then we started going, you know, all over the country and I raced everywhere from

California to New York, Canada, Florida. So yeah, raced all over the place. So you just kept going further and further. And then obviously winning, having some success, which leads to this decision to drop out of high school and go to go to go to Britain, right? I did. I won a lot. And I'm growing up. And then it was about what do you do next? And I didn't want to become a professional go-kart driver. So I was like, well, let's go race cars then. And so we I went to England when I was 16. I pulled out of high school my junior year, halfway through. And in fact, my junior year, I only was there for the first few weeks and the last few weeks of the semester because I was in England racing as well.

So I pretty much only went through my sophomore year, but I officially pulled out of high school when I was halfway through my junior year. And then I moved to England. And why England? What was going on there? You know, there was way back when I was 14. 14 was a, I wonder what, what was going on when I was 14, a lot was happening. Um, but there was, um, where my family, my, we were at the Indy 500 and, um, we were invited to a suite, um, of a family that had a race team. And so there was a British guy sitting at the bar. And so I,

I'm 14 at the bar. I just realized that I'm describing the story like that. But I was just, I mean, it was daytime. So we just hung out and I was asking questions about racing in England. And, you know, lo and behold, I must have struck a chord. So two years later, when I was 16, this family, they contacted me and said that they wanted to meet with me and my dad and talk about going to race in England. And so, um, it was an opportunity and we took it. And so when you're there, there's like instruction, there's teams was the path or like the idea that you would end up in IndyCar or ultimately Formula One? Or was there like a sense of... Well, when I lived in England, it was definitely, I had said that if I don't

make it to Formula One, I will fail. I will have failed. Right. So let's maybe describe the differences between like NASCAR, Formula One, IndyCar, all of that for people that don't know. Well, they're all the top levels of each of their sports. So Formula One is international. IndyCar is domestic in the States. It's also open wheel, just like Formula One. And then there's NASCAR, which is stock car racing. So open wheel literally just means the wheels are open and exposed. So stock cars are just the wheels are covered. So NASCAR is the top level of that and indycar is the top level open wheel domestic and then international is top level is f1 so um i'm sure everyone could argue why theirs is better right so you're in you're in the uk formula one

is what it's all about yep and like you like you, you were like Formula One and soccer. Yeah, soccer, of course. And at some point, at least I read this somewhere, like Jackie Stewart comes into the equation. He becomes like a mentor to you. I was, there was a little bit that I thought I might race for him. He had a Formula Three team over there, but that didn't end up happening. But yeah, I mean, I rode around in a carie stewart and he was driving me around and yeah i knew i knew him all right yeah that's crazy if i saw him he would remember me today and yeah we and each other a few times is that where you think like you got the crazy skills like you really learned how to drive a car or like what happened over there i mean not from him specifically but from like being in the uk and that experience and kind of learning what that world is all about well i think that when it comes to your ability i mean i kind of feel like you can or you can't you see that you have it or you don't yeah

that's why i think in racing you see just the driver on their own it's not like any other sport where there's a coach for everything you can't like learn a play and run it or you know what i mean like runs i mean it's just it's all instinct it's all so it happens so fast it's a feel on on such a fine level that you know you just have to have and um yeah you just have to have that ability for it so you know, you just have to have. And yeah, you just have to have that ability for it. So, you know, usually if someone's good, they're always good. They're always good.

It seems like there could be like virtual reality games that could help improve your drive. Like, you know how pilots go into the simulator and learn how to, you know, learn how to fly a plane. Like it seems like there should be something like that for driving so you could practice consistently. Maybe from a visual standpoint, but you'll never replicate feel so you can't replicate g-forces lateral load slip of the tires you just can't replicate that video games in my mind um simulators because i've been in a couple um simulators are are i'm gonna be mean

simulators for people who want to play video games yeah i don't like video games at all well that goes against the whole nature thing so yeah yeah i mean so what do you think it is that that distinguishes like a good driver i think the only thing you can do that will help you develop as a driver is to put yourself in more scenarios where you're uncomfortable to expand your comfort zone. So new cars, new environments, new conditions, different changes, all that stuff. That I think is about the only thing you can do that would really help you develop as a driver. And the dividing line between a good driver and a great driver is?

Yeah, I think one of them is probably what i was mentioning earlier about being able to sort of tap into that that higher level of consciousness maybe or that much more um in tune elevated state that gets you to a further along place and on track where you can focus better drive harder believe more um i think that's one of them i think if you can get into that space and that zone more often for longer that um uh i think that trickles down right so confidence gets you a lot of places um so you know being able to not only believe what you're doing on track, but then have that translate to the people working on the car. And, you know, having them believe it just as much as you. I think all those things are really powerful because then they're going to give you a better car and you go faster when your car is better.

What kind of like pedestrian driver are you? Like when you're just driving around. Are you? Do you get tickets and stuff? Yeah, the only way- What happens when a cop pulls you over? The only way I can guarantee that I'm not gonna get a speeding ticket

is if I don't drive. Because I won't, I will speed. Do you drive a fast car? Well, I've had various different cars over the years. I've had everything from a Lamborghini to a big mom SUV. So, you know, I've run the gamut of all different kinds of vehicles. And when a cop pulls you over and sees it's you, does he let you off? God, I'm hopeful that happens.

I'm hopeful that happens. Does it happen? Has it happened? If it happens, I usually get out of the ticket. Do you? But it's when they... They're like, oh, she can't help it. you does does he let you off happens i'm hopeful that happens does it happen has it happened if it happens i usually get out of the ticket but it's when they like oh she can't help it you know i think that if they knew who i was and they said it i don't think they're not going to give me a ticket but i think sometimes they might know who i am and they don't say it so they can give me a ticket yeah to pretend like they recognize that i'm breaking the law i do but i you know what i

was thinking? Well, I can't help it. I have a large comfort zone. But I think that I should pull out my FIA racing license. I only have a little bit more time to have that license since I've got one year left on my schedule here. But I'm going to pull that out when I get pulled over again. I'm sure I will. Right.

So if anybody's going to speed, it should be me. Yeah. At least I know what I'm doing. I'm more qualified than you, cop. And I am. I know. That argument So if anybody's going to speed, it should be me. Yeah. At least I know what I'm doing. I'm more qualified than you, cop. And I am. I know. That argument probably won't go over well, though. I don't think it'll go over well.

No, I don't think it's going to work. But they're probably going to give me a ticket anyway, so screw it. Yeah. That's funny. I've got to try, right? Because what makes me mad is when I don't try at all and I'm like, gosh, as they're walking back to their car, I'm like, I really just hope that they recognize and know who I am.

And they put it together and they go, you know what? Slow down. Ha ha ha. It cuts both ways, though. It could be like, oh, she thinks she can do that because she's who she is. Like, I do. I'm not going to get away with that. Yeah, I bet you didn't.

I'm sorry. I'm just being honest. I'm qualified. So you're you're learning your craft in the uk start racing you come back to the united states to give me what happens next well i didn't have a ride um i was um i was over in england and it was towards the beginning of the season in 2000, I think it was. And I remember my sister was over with me and my manager called and said, don't get in the car tomorrow. And I was like, oh, my God.

And it was a race the next day. And I had already been on track practicing qualifying. And I was like, this is the weirdest thing, not driving to the track today. And then I went home and I didn't have a ride 2000, 2001. And then, well, the last half of 2000 and the first half of 2001, finally at the end of 2001, I, um, I got a ride in another series. Um, that car didn't end up racing. So it gave me another chance to look for the real ride that i wanted in open wheel racing so then i found one in 2002 and then i raced um formula atlantic in three and four and then indy car five six seven eight nine ten eleven and full-time nascar 12 through now right and you

start you know breaking through all these boundaries in indy car you had some crazy success like i'm looking at your wikipedia i was like i can't remember all of these results there's just like way too many races. Like, how do you even like, you know? Some people have a real memory for that stuff. Not I. But, you know, the big, there were two big ones. Third at the Indy 500 in 2005, right?

And then 2008, you win Indy Japan. Yeah. And the first year really in 2005, actually, at Indy. I came off of finishing fourth in japan um qualifying on the front row it was only my third indycar race third i think third or fourth only a few and um and then uh indy 500 i i i almost i have i i get a little loose in turn one on lap one because i told myself i wasn't gonna lift in qualifying and it was kind of cold that day and so i got a little loose in turn one on lap one because I told myself I wasn't going to lift in qualifying and it was kind of cold that day. And so I got a little sideways.

I still qualified fourth. And that was the race that I was leading really late in the race and ended up finishing fourth. But that was quite a breakthrough because there was a lot of buzz about me being there and being fast. And I really did almost win the race. So 2005 Indy 500, 2007 Indy 500, I finished third. And then 2008, I won in Japan. And what was that like, that period of time?

I mean, it must have been crazy, right? The amount of attention being thrown at you. 2005, we kind of nicknamed Danica Mania because it just kept coming. Like I remember it was really close to the race, to the Indy 500 race in May. And again, I'd only been in the IndyCar series for a couple months. And I was so just over everything, interviews. And since I had just started to really rise in popularity right then, everybody kept asking for interviews, new ones every day. And so I remember I told my PR guy, I was like, Brent, I can't do a single,

don't even ask me for one. Don't, just don't even ask. And he was like, Brent, I can't do a single, don't even ask me for one. Just don't even ask. And he was like, called and he's like, Morning America. I said, don't even ask. And so we ended up doing it somehow. But I was, I had had enough. Is it overwhelming? Yeah.

Well, I think when it comes so fast, it is. You know, I could not handle what I'm doing these days schedule wise five years ago and 10 years ago you're like 24 25 years old when this is going on right yeah yep so you know it was all kind of coming quickly uh but you know i you get used to it just like races i mean my races were 10 laps long and they're 20 and then they're 40 and then they're 100 and you know you get used to it just like races. I mean, my races were 10 laps long and then they're 20 and then they're 40 and then they're a hundred and, you know, you build up to five hours in the car. And kind of baked into this is this mantle that then you're kind of shouldered with that you're this empowering female role model.

You're breaking these barriers. I mean, the only woman to ever win an Indy race, right? Highest finisher at Indy 500 yeah and to this day are there are there women in Indy car now is there any other women not that I know of right now yeah and what about NASCAR no yeah not at the top so ten years after this still right so how do you like how were you processing all of that at that time? Same way I am now. Yeah. And what is it like now? Like, how do you think about your sort of role with respect to

all of that? Somewhat of a duty. Like, I was given a special gift and an ability to do this. And, you know, I felt like, um, felt, I feel like on some level it's while I am retiring though, it's, it's been my duty to follow through and to keep pushing and going for not only for myself, of course, which is the look, if I don't want to do it, I won't do it anymore, which leads me to what I'm going, where I'm going now. But, um, but for the inspirational element too that's the powerful thing that you don't really realize when you're doing things is how it can affect someone else so that was a pretty cool element to kind of discover over time and when

you're young you get asked about being a role model and you're like shoot I need one like I'm just I'm just starting off um but then you get older and, um, you answer questions about it, which is almost like therapy. Cause you're like, you don't even know what to say, but you have to come up with something. And I don't just waiting for you to say the inspirational thing. Yeah. And, or how or why, like, what do you, what would you tell young girls or what's your advice and how did you get to where you are now? And, you know, at first when you get asked that question, you're like, I don't know. You just did what you like doing.

Yeah, but then you kind of end up identifying over time and in contrast to other people how maybe your mindset is different and how it could help people. Well, I would imagine you have young girls coming up to you all the time, right? Who, who want to connect with you or just want to tell you how much you've inspired them. And I would imagine that that sort of, you know, has to impact you emotionally on some level. Yeah, it does. Yeah. It's a definitely a lot of grateful. Makes you want to do more. Yeah. Do better. And yet, you know, 10 years after these, you know, the sort of pinnacle, like your biggest successes, there still aren't, there's no women in these sports. But that wasn't my goal.

No, I know. But just the trickle down impact of just you being, you know, this huge name in the sport. You would think like by now, I mean, maybe there are, I hope there are women who are kind of like coming up. Again, my, my goal to inspire has a lot more to do with people following their, following their dreams. And, but for one, having one, I mean, that's, that's the start. If you don't know what you want, how do you get anywhere? And most people don't even know what they want. Most people don't. They don't. That's why they're

wasting money going to college for a general degree because they still don't know what they want. So how do you get somebody to know what they want? Well, they have to let the ego step aside and they have to really be true to themselves instead of what their friends or culture or high school or their buddies or someone like that tells them they're supposed to be like or some guy tells some girl what she should look like or do or how she's supposed to act. You have to get to the core of who you are. And it's not as easy as it sounds. And I because I think a lot of that comes from um being alone and um that's not something that we do very much of when we're younger we don't really want to be alone it's a

punishment it's also it's also harder and harder to be with yourself now because you're we're just constantly distracted well you pick up your phone and you're not alone yeah it's so hard which is why meditation practice is so valuable because like I always see stuff pop up on social media about should meditation be a class in school? I'm like, yes. I mean, you should teach teach kids from a young age the value of being able to listen to them, listen to the inner voice and be quiet. And well, there's truth in the in the silence.

And so, you know, that that comes to people when they get good at listening to it. But if you don't ever learn how to be quiet, then how do you ever hear it? Yeah, I agree completely. We're so socially conditioned to just get on a certain track and follow that track. And if you step a little bit to the left or the right of it, people get a little nervous. You step outside of it, then they get really nervous. And if you step a little bit to the left or the right of it, people get a little nervous. If you step outside of it, then they get really nervous. And if you decide to go become a race car driver, then people freak out. Yeah.

And so people stay in their lane. And then 20 years later, they're like, what am I doing? You do. And if you ask that person, what is your goal? Or what makes you you? Or what is your heart song? Or like, you know, what makes you you? Or like, what is your heart song? Or what gets you out of bed in the morning? Most people don't even know how to answer that question.

And it's not their fault. It's because they were reared in a system and in an environment where that kind of that line of questioning was never a priority. I just agree with that somewhat. It is their fault. They're the only ones that can change it. But I do feel like... They're the only ones that can change it. But if you're from a very young age, you're being messaged in a certain way. 100% made more difficult. And sometimes you're not, you don't have access to

different mentalities, environments. But you really are the only one that can change it. So, you know, so it's about access. It's about raising awareness about that, about your mind. It's about, you know, so that's why, I mean, I've written dream big on a million hero cards for people, because I, especially for kids, because I mean it. And what's funny is when I go do like, let's say I go to something for like the Girl Scouts or something and I that is my message but I also because there's parents in the room as well I'm also like for kids but adults too because we all can I mean look at Betty White Betty White's working and she's like 150 you know like we you know you

can work okay she's like 80 or 90 or something but still kicking yeah exactly so you can't tell me that you can't have a career when you're 40 or 50 or 60. I mean, you can take on new projects and no one wants to just sit at home and do nothing. So it's really not too late to follow a passion. Sometimes it might not be able to reach maybe its pinnacle or highest level based on maybe your age, but you can definitely still do it and have an effect and find joy in that. And so the challenge for everyone that I give them is what would you do to answer the question, if you could do anything in the world, what would you do? And most people don't have an answer. Most children

do though. Most children do. It gets beat out of them at some point yeah well they get put on you know like you said but like i would i might you get put on the wheel right you're just like on the mouse wheel and you just keep going because you know you go to school and you're you know your your creativity is um dampened by you know reading out of a book and sitting in a specific chair raise your hand you can i go to the bathroom you know like it's just you know very regimented and then you know you you've got to figure out what you want and sitting in a specific chair, raise your hand, can I go to the bathroom? You know, like it's just, you know, very regimented. And then, you know, you've got to figure out what you want to do in life, but you've not been given the mental capacity or creative space to really actually know what you want to do. And you've been culturized by, you know, media and social media

and TV and all the other things that go on. And then you are like, well, I don't know what to do, but I got to go to college. And now you're in debt. So you get whatever job you can get because you got to pay the bills now because you're out of college and got your general degree. And then you're doing a job that you don't like, but you have to do it because you have no other option. And you're too scared to try anything new because you're stuck there and you have to pay your bills. And it's just like this horrible cycle. And then you become resentful. That resentment devolves into anger. And then you start trolling people on Twitter. Social stalking.

Okay. It's called social stalking. But even that kid, you know, back in elementary school. Social stalking and trolling. Trolling are the mean people. Those are two different things. Yeah. Well, the trolls are, it's more about, it's all about them and their mental state, of

course. I feel such sympathy and sadness for those people the trolls did you see what because i have i can't do that like there's no way i would be able to tell a stranger especially like if it was a famous stranger like oh you're such a piece of whatever i wish you would have died in that rack or you know you're such a I don't know but like now sort of shift it to school and kids and you know somebody says something mean about on social media I mean like look they've got you know what 38 followers yeah they know all their fault they know those people so much more impactful because

they're like wow you called me fat you know what i look like you know what i mean like or you know you you called me mean oh shoot you walk by me in the hallways you know there's just it's so much closer to home for kids they can't escape it and social media is just so dangerous from that perspective so even myself i find myself like unfollowing people as I go along to some degree, just because if I'm like, if I have a negative thought enough times about someone and what they're doing or saying, I have to unfollow them because I realize it's a bad pattern, bad mental pattern.

It's not productive for me. You're allowing that into your space. You're making a decision about what you, you know, what you're consuming and what's coming into your boundary. Right. And I think being more mindful about that is important. But to your point about kids, it's devastating. You know, bullying is bad enough without the tools of technology that can amplify it.

And you can hide behind it. Yeah. It's really devastating. It is. It is. And, you know, like kids, back to your earlier point, like a kid in elementary school who maybe is a little bit different because he wants to draw comic books or become a stand-up comedian or showing any kind of like creative flair or interest that's outside the narrow scope of whatever is being taught in that classroom. Right. Is rather than encouraged, maligned and told that they're different or there's something wrong with them.

Yeah. Right. And we really need systemic structural changes to identify those kids and to support them. Yeah. So that they can be that person who, you know, they want to be. I've heard about some schools that are a little bit more progressive and uniquely different in their structure. I don't know a lot about them, but I've heard a few different examples. But I mean, I think that the school structure is just so outdated. The institution of it is so outdated. Yeah, definitely. Did you see what's how Sarah Silverman dealt with a troll

recently? Kind of like made news. Oh, no. Somebody was trolling her, but I didn't read it. What did I can't remember what the person said, but it was it was just a bit of nastiness with a nasty word, like the C word or something like that. She did to them or somebody said to her? No, no, somebody did to her. Somebody said to her and she kind of responded to this person with this unbelievable message of compassion. Like, I'm so sorry, you must be a very unhappy person.

Or I can hear your pain behind that. And, you know, let's talk about it. and she ends up in this dialogue with this person at the end of it like this guy is like you're amazing confiding all of his secret and like i'm so unhappy and this happened to me and that happened to me and she ends up like getting this person help wherever he lives for his i can't remember whether it was depression or he had back problems or all these kinds of things. It was like this master class in how to like really flip the switch on the whole thing. You're just going to find yourself on Oprah in no time then. I know. Well, she's amazing.

Do you watch the, what is it on Oprah? It's Sunday. It's Super Soul Sunday. I haven't watched it. Those are great. Those are great. It kind of gets more. Inspirational people.

So you've had it, but you've had to deal with haters and detractors and all that kind of stuff. People would say, I wish I would, I would have died in an accident. Of course, people are so mean and rude. So crazy. People that say mean things about the way I look or the way I act or what I do. Absolutely. But again, they're strangers.

Yeah. And what do you think that's about? Like you're just, just your existence is threatening to their worldview or something? I, like it is a reflection of what they can't do. And they, they are, it's their insecurities screaming out that they can't, but they do it. And you just block them or mute them or what is your strategy? Sometimes, but I've done a lot less of that. I just tend to not look at it that much, to be honest. Yeah. Well, it's interesting. I mean, like I might

look at the feedback on Instagram, let's say like maybe some recent ones or maybe I'll flip back a couple, but you know, there's 500 responses, so I'm not going to read them all. And I don't recommend anyone does. Right. It's an interesting time right now. We're in this moment of incredible female empowerment with the Me Too movement and a lot of bad behavior getting rooted out. And as you, you as somebody who's basically emblematic, like this ambassador of female empowerment, do you see yourself as somebody who needs to speak to that at all? Or are you just doing your thing? Yeah, I mean, I know what you're talking about. I don't find myself in sort of those very public sort of Hollywood circles of like awareness on something or getting involved in movements or whatnot. I try and live my life as an example in and of itself and stress the importance of confidence and knowing who you are and what you want from life. I think if it affected me directly that I would say whatever the hell I wanted to. Yeah, I mean, you're a straight shooter.

Yeah, because that's my truth. But I also, you know, depending on what's going on, there's, it's hard to know the truth about anything completely. And so, you know, depending on what's going on, there's it's hard to know the truth about anything completely. And so, you know, I tend to see things that pop up in the media and I'm like, well, but, you know. What about this and what about that? And really, it's a matter of knowing your own personal space, your own personal confidence, your own worth, and not putting yourself into situations that are risky. worth and not putting yourself into situations that are risky. But then there's a lot of it where, you know, humanity in and of itself, you know, probably a little bit more men towards women at times. There needs to be a respect. It just has to be. I mean, we all need to respect each other more. Like those great commercials, like we're more alike than not all of us yeah and you know we need to embrace

that and understand that and the old people saying can't we all just get along yeah i mean why why can't we i don't know i wish we could maybe we can help help together we can help get there i agree i do believe that's somewhat of my role i look forward to that in fact one of my hopes is is that the book is successful and that especially the mental part of the book resonates with people. And I've heard great stories about it just from my own friends and how like one of my friends' mom will read the book. And I just heard the story the other night and how she loved it so much. And she was surprised almost by it. And she's like buying it for all of her girlfriends and um but i would love to

make a book for each section of the book the mind the body and the and the and food and have it but the mental book was what i'd want to write first because i think that's what our culture needs the most what i like about the book and kind of what preceded it was this intention, this idea of not just writing a book, like here's all my secrets or whatever, but doing like involving your community, like by setting up this website, pretty intense.com and the Facebook group and like really crowdsourcing, you know, the people that are into what you have to say and do and getting them involved and taking them on this journey with you towards whether it's weight loss or changing their diet or whatever to get them healthy. And then sharing those success stories like throughout the book.

I think it's really cool. The focus group test was a great idea. And I loved that I was able to test it out. test was a great idea and um i loved that i was able to test it out and so as i also was sure that incorporated into the program we did this a year ago so january through march of last year 700 people signed up for it in which they had to send a before picture in and every one of them was was screened like they had to be a qualified before picture because i didn't want everyone to just sign up and then be like not take part or think like, why would I buy the book now? I already got the workout.

There is so much more to the book than just the workout. So 700 people were in and there was a forum so that I could talk to anyone that had questions. Because again, I'm new to this. I know what I'm doing, but providing structure from a diet standpoint or a fitness standpoint or even like a mental standpoint, I loved being able to be honest with these people in this new capacity that I was in, this new space, because a lot of it had to do with telling them they just loved making excuses why they couldn't stop eating dairy or they couldn't stop doing this or that and i wanted i just was able to tell them that they're on their own way and they can do whatever they want to do

kind of thing so um but there was such it just really went so well and it was fun to engage with them on that level but a limited level like i can I can't, I couldn't do a, I couldn't do a forum right now with the people that are buying the book and doing the program because it's not, you know, it's not like a core group of 50 people that keep talking to me on it. It's, you know, wider than that. So I can't do it now, but it was great to do in developing the program and understanding more so I could make it better for everyone else when the book came out. In the book, you say kind of point blank, I'm not going to bore you with my personal story. And you kind of just don't, and you don't like, you don't, I know. And then it's just all

about like, here's how to help yourself, you know, here are all these tools, et cetera. But at the same time, I was like, yeah, but your story is cool. Like that's not going to bore anyone. You know what I mean? Like, like, let's hear a little bit about your story, because I think that, that like, that's why people are, are buying your book because they, they want to connect with you and who you are. No, they can't be you, but they can, they can learn from your example, you know, to. But these are all the things that I've found make me a better person and have helped me. And so it's really about finding your own inner confidence

and your own worth and your own dreams. If you don't, then it's all temporary. Yeah, I guess that's true. You know, you have to have you have to have a goal. You have to know why you're doing something. You have to have. And even in the program, I don't even recommend that your goal be to lose weight. Like I don't even recommend that be your goal because you will, like if you do the program, you will, there's no way around it. You're going to, you're going to lose weight. You're going to feel better. You're going to have more energy. You're just gonna, if you do the program as it's written out, you will. What I really hope is that people want to keep doing it and it becomes a new

way of life. And that's why I also say, and I said this when I wrote the website for the focus group test a year ago, that it will change your life in ways and it will absolutely change your life. It's written on the cover of the book and it will, but in the best of ways, I say, because it's going to change everything. It's going to change the way you eat, the way you grocery shop, what standards are OK for yourself and within your family, for your friends, for your children, for for anyone. It's going to it's going to change somewhat of your structure about what is important for you, like, you know, going out for drinks or is it going to get a workout? You know what I mean? Like, I mean, it's just there's certain structural things that will change, but it's going to be all the bet for the best. I mean, you're going to feel so much better. You're going to be better for you, which when you're better for you, you're better for everyone else. What I found with these kinds of things,

just in my own personal experience and, and, you know, other people that I've worked with is the goals change because when you begin, if you're not used to practicing certain lifestyle habits, they're not wrote and part of who you are, you set a certain goal, but that goal isn't, it's most likely like not the right goal for you because you're so disconnected from who you are. You don't even know what your own goal is. It goes back to what we were talking about, about if you don't know yourself well enough to know what it is that you aspire to or what it is that you want to pursue with your life, then how can you be expected to set a goal that is in alignment with that

higher sense of self, right? So, but you set it, you achieve it, but in the practice of achieving it, you learn something about yourself that reveals more to you. And then perhaps you set a different goal or you realize like, maybe that goal wasn't the right goal for me. I do believe that once you finally, if you set goals for yourself that aren't in alignment with your true self, they just aren't going to happen very easily and they're going to meet resistance.

They're going to be tough. It's going to be, it's just not going to flow. Like things are just not going to flow with that goal. Once you do set ones that are in alignment, though, all of a sudden things start to click and happen and synchronicities going left and right. And you're like, oh, my God. And to me, those are like the green flag, like someone waving, going, doing good. Keep coming. Like, you're on the right track. But when things are not happening easily, it's about recognizing that maybe it's not about giving up, but understanding this is not the way and conceding and understanding that shifting to a new direction is in fact,

just the smart, wise thing to do instead of trying to force something because things that are meant for you and in alignment will flow to you easily. So then what are the goals that you have for yourself now? Well, I don't want to be specific. Like I can start just listing things. Or you mean for myself, like business-wise? Well, I think it's interesting that now that you're not, you have the Danica double coming up. But that aside, you're entering this new phase of your life

where it's not just about getting a certain race result. Like you're trying to build this new career, essentially. And what's interesting is that you didn't wait until you were retired to then figure out like, oh, what am I going to do now? Like you kind of set this in motion, you know, and you've stepped into this with, you know, some grace and success. And you have this amazing social media platform that you can then leverage to talk about the things that you're interested in, that you care about. So in your mind, like where, you know, why is this the path that you've chosen and where do you want to take it? Well, I will say that as far as sort of doing things that are in alignment with you happen easily. I mean, I have wine that's out finally after a long process because it just is not because it wasn't a good path, but with a great name, Somnium, which is dream in Latin.

That's in Northern California, right? Yeah, it is. It's in Napa Valley. So that's finally for sale. And that's all flowed really well. Um, so that's finally for sale and that's all flowed really well. It's just, you know, you can only grow grapes as quickly as you can get them, get the permits and dig it up and plant the vines and plant the rootstock and all the rest of it. But, um, that's coming through now, which is, um, really great.

And it really follows in line with my lifestyle of food and, um, taking care of yourself and lifestyle and, um, being present. And, um, and so there's the's the wine um then the clothing line warrior um that like things like i'm like i'm gonna use an example i remember i was trying to do a perfume like a many many years ago and i couldn't even get a name that worked like everything's taken it's just not possible and so i happened i tried to do it twice and, uh, and it didn't work out now. Like that's just an example. One example now, fast forward to my, my, um, my clothing line. I don't know how warrior was available, but it was, and it was like effortless,

easy, no problem. So I have the clothing line now. Um, it flowing very easily. You know, we got picked up by HSN to to sell it, which is a great starting platform. And then then the book was pretty intense. I was asked by my agent if I was interested in writing a health and fitness book. And I was like, um, yeah, actually, I think I am. I think I finally have something that I want to say and a program that's worked better for me than anything I've ever done. So the book came, the name came easily. The, you know, workout program. I mean, I write workouts for myself every single day. So this was like, but this was the real start of it. I wrote the whole thing and writing it with some fluidity and build for someone who like is working

on air squats and I'm over there doing clean and jerks. I mean, that's a pretty big difference between the two of those things. So, you know, building the progression up was really fun and it just flowed really nicely and it has impacted lives in such a, I'm talking about like my mom, like not just strangers, but my mom even who I'm like, mom, I'm your daughter. I could have done this for you any day you wanted. Like I could have wrote a program for you any day. But so, you know, just affecting lives and having that go so well. And, you know, just all I mean, the book has recipes. I love to cook. So food and wine and taking care of yourself, working out and the mind and presence and all that stuff. It just all flows really well. So, you know, I would say that,

you know, on the heels of doing things that are in alignment, I feel like they've all been very easy to me. They've all come very organically. Even the clothing line came as a result of me going to this company wanting to sell clothes at the racetrack. And because us as drivers get such little cut of that. So we just I was looking for a way to make money that way. Um, while I was still around and they never made up clothes for the racetrack. They came up with a whole different, the whole bigger, bigger idea for me. So all that stuff just came really easily. Right. So the point being like, you go where the energy is, is, is, is working, right? So the perfume, like you're going to bang your head against the wall exactly you're like maybe i shouldn't be doing this right this is not just like you know driving you know racing

beyond last year full time it just wasn't happening so let it go not in the way that i want to do it anyway yeah i mean it was like you had another year on your contract i did but my but this is another thing too at the beginning of 2017 my sponsor left. So that's new to me. I've been fully funded since day one of everything I've ever done. I've always had support. So, you know, it just was one of those unique scenarios I had never been in before that was to me a sign that maybe it's time to move on. Did you feel like you weren't able to leave on your own terms? I think that there was a little bit of that.

leave on your own terms? I think that there was a little bit of that. And I think that's part of kind of what ended up leading into how am I going to finish my career off in a way that is appropriate and feels good to me. So I was okay to be done. But then we were throwing, you know, my agent kept throwing around ideas. And I kept saying, No, you need to be okay with me being done. It's coming. Relax. And then he asked me last year, late fall, if I wanted to. He's like, what if you finished up with the Daytona 500? And I was like, hmm, what about the Indy 500? And I really was only referring to the Indy 500, like just doing that one race.

And he was like, man, he's like, it'd be really cool if you did both. And I'm like, oh, both. That's a good idea, actually. That's perfect. Let's do it. And I got off the phone. I called. I made a couple other phone calls and I was like, hi, am I crazy that I just agreed to this? They're like, no, it's effing awesome. We love it. It's amazing. I mean, it's perfect for creating like a media frenzy to like people. It's because it's a story. It's super interesting. But on that. And for those who have followed this story they and they they probably are recognizing that it wasn't all done and dusted when i said it i mean like i i agreed to this like maybe october of last year and then november we made the announcement and i thought we were close to the team but we weren't and a sponsor and then you know we kind of had and here we are in mid

january and things are still not to the public, although they are very, very close now. Daytona is February. Yeah. It's a month, less than a month away now almost. So, you know, it took a lot longer, but it, deals were not done. I just looked at everyone and I was like, this is happening. It's going to happen. And I like willed it so.

And I will say, yeah, manifestor, exactly. And so I, and I also have recognized in the process how there have been things that have just been difficult. And I'm like, why is it difficult? And then in the end, the way everything's coming together now, I recognize why it was difficult and it just all needed certain things needed to not happen to allow other things to happen. So it could fit in this really nice space of getting the right support and waiting long enough to reach out to certain people about certain things and it's like

oh it makes sense now and so you know it doesn't mean don't try it just means don't force something yeah because if you had on another circumstance if you had finished out your contract then the idea of the the damn it could double wouldn't have occurred to you. You just would have like sort of, you would have been done and that would have been it. I'd either done another contract or I'd have just been done. Right.

It's interesting that I feel like, as somebody who doesn't know that much about racing, I feel like, you know, look, there's been a lot of changes in NASCAR, like their advertiser dollars weren't what they were and ratings seem to be not what they were. And it seems like there's more pressure on the drivers to deliver the sponsors as opposed to the teams. And there's this imbalance in terms of the driver's ability to kind of control the situation you know what i mean i don't know i'm not saying i'm very eloquently but like advertise much so they're relying on you to go out there and

win the race so that they get on tv for it and it's like the way that we always do our deals is no matter who it is we try and make sure that the that the sponsor wins before i ever get on track and everything that i do on track and any attention I get is icing on the cake. But there's no like driver union or association, is there? NASCAR, in NASCAR, we did, there was an effort to try and kind of create a little bit of a driver council union group. Right, but that wasn't. It got kiboshed by NASCAR pretty quick. But that also wasn't, my understanding is that wasn't generated by the drivers, right?

That kind of came down from... Yeah, no, that came from the drivers. But, you know, when people catch wind of it, again, you know, nobody wants to lose power. So our point was to make ourselves more powerful as drivers with a voice. And so, you know, people find a way to kind of damper that. Well, there's the superstars at the top top and they don't have a lot of incentive to get all mucked up by that right but then there's everybody else who could really benefit from yeah that kind of yeah and there's people that just want don't want to rock the boat right

how does all the merchandising stuff work that's terrible is it it's absolutely terrible i made so much money i made so much more money in any car merchandise merchandise sales than NASCAR. Like probably four times. So does the team take the money or where does it, who gets paid? Shoot, they've got sponsors cut in on the advertising. Like, oh yeah, even sponsors get a chunk of T-shirt sales. So somebody buys a Danica Patrick T-shirt. Sure. Yeah.

Because it used to flow like the rivers of Capistrana. Right. Because it used to flow like the rivers of Capistrana. Right. It was, you know, back in the day, drivers were making millions of dollars off their t-shirt sales. And now, nope. That's a big reason to unionize right there. Because that doesn't seem fair at all.

It's just a terrible infrastructure. Too many hands in the cookie jar. And do you ever wish that you had raced Formula One? Like, how come you never ended up pursuing that? I don't, because what I ended up realizing after I came back from England and having the whole, the whole saying of like, I will have failed if I don't make F1. Um, I realized that succeeding was about being to be, is to be good on track and to be good on track. I need to be in an environment where I'm happy. I realized that at the end of the time that I was in England. And I realized that I was happiest when I was home and with

not only my family and friends, but creature comforts of like, even just something simple, like breakfast, like in England, they don't really do very good breakfast over there. So, you know, the side of the road is not really going to do the trick and, you know, sweet onion, You know, the side of the road is not really going to do the trick. And, you know, sweet onion jelly, you know, sandwiches from the roadside are not going to cut it. So I'm a little high maintenance in that category. So I was just like, I just like being home. And I realized I was happier.

And when I'm happier, I do better. So I had to redefine my levels of what successful was to me. Are you still living in Charlotte now? No. No? You moved? I moved, yeah. Back to Phoenix. Oh, back to Phoenix. Yeah. Yeah living in Charlotte now? No. No. You moved? I moved. Yeah. Yeah. Back to Phoenix. Oh, back to Phoenix. Yeah. Yeah. You've had some some lifestyle changes. I've had some lifestyle changes. I mean, we don't have to go into that. We don't talk about I mean, that's like, you know, paparazzi stuff. But like you, you're you concluded a long term relationship

and kind of around the same time that you're shifting into this new life. And so, you know, that's a lot. Timing is, I mean, timing was great. I mean, if I was still racing, I would still be doing that same exact schedule and I wouldn't be entering a new space and happy and, you know, doing, doing these other new things. Yeah. Can we talk about the migraines? Oh yeah. I forgot to tell when you met Julie. Actually, not racing as much. I used to get them on Sunday nights after my race. After your races, right. And so for Monday and Tuesday, they would be horrible.

And I probably had a dozen or so in the last two years that are just like, sometimes they get to the point where I have to just close my eyes and go to sleep. Sometimes it was like, I'm nauseous and I feel horrible. I threw up once or twice. I mean, like they're terrible. Do you ever get them? I don't, but Julie, my wife who you met, like I forgot to mention to her that you suffer from those

because she has gone through like the gamut with this. Like, and she's determined to get to the other side of it. And she does all kinds of, you know, amazing experiments on herself to try to resolve them. Neurological stuff or actual physical? No, just more like lifestyle stuff. Food or? Yeah, like she's really into Ayurveda.

So like all kinds of Ayurvedic treatments. And we got a clear light infrared sauna and she's doing like hot oil massages in the sauna. And like, she's just journaling everything and paying attention to like what is impacting that. Just trying to identify the common denominators. Yeah, exactly. I was able to identify mine.

Mine were number one that came up really easily was obviously understanding that it was probably some level of dehydration. So if I had, you know, one or two drinks on a Sunday night after a race, I had a much higher chance of having a migraine the next day. Like it didn't take very much. So that was one of them for sure. For another one that's out of my control is, and I found this out later because I ended up doing a deal with Excedrin migraine because I had them and they heard about that, is coming down. So adrenaline up or adrenaline down can also be a trigger. So I can't do anything about that, about the adrenaline coming down. anything about that, about the adrenaline coming down. Um, uh, hydration is still important. Yes.

Um, but that's not the critical element. Um, what else? I also cut out, um, I also cut out in my drink and my, in the car and my camelback, I changed to just water because I realized that my, my like hydration mix that I was using has fake sugars in it. I mean, almost everything does like that. That's meant to. So I was like, oh my gosh, like that stuff causes headaches. So, um, you know, maybe it causes migraines too. So, um, so I cut that out and shifted to just water. And so I tend, I did a little bit better at the end. So, but since you have, since you stopped racing, do you still get them from time to time or no? It was only always like the day after racing. It was usually, but I've had them outside of that too. Yeah.

I had one, the last one I had was, yeah, it was kind of, it's like late November. It was after the season, but it lasted about two days. It never got to being nauseous, but man, I was like two, three days. That's a long time. Yeah, it's so miserable. People that I used to, I mean, I'm, I'm kind of one of those suck it up buttercup kind of people like get on with it and your headache, just take a Tylenol or take a Excedrin or take a whatever and drink some water and just stop complaining.

But yeah, until you've had one, you really don't know how bad they are they're pretty debilitating yeah i've never had one but i just see how much julie suffers and i just i can't imagine you can't do anything i couldn't even sleep that's that's the real problem is that it would wake me up because my head hurt so bad it's brutal yeah so but you haven't found the ultimate cure i have not found the ultimate cure yet, but maybe just it'll be something that just fades away over time. I don't know. Well, I hope so. Yeah, I hope that your wife figures it out too

because they're no fun. No. All right, well, we got to wrap this up here, but I want to take us out with maybe some words of inspiration or encouragement to somebody who's listening to this, who's inspired by your story, your example, um, is looking for a lifestyle change and just needs, you know, that spark to get them off the couch and, and begin. Well,

the journey is really about the journey. Actually, my word of the year last year in 2017 was truth. about the journey. Actually, my word of the year last year in 2017 was truth. And the journey is to find your truth and to really know who you are. There's so much strength in that. And so the book is scratching the surface, especially at the beginning on the getting to that point. I mean, there's even a chapter about mantras and there's like a magic marker mantra section where you can kind of help develop your own with keywords that are triggers for you that feel good and resonate with you. So but it's really about having a healthy association with food and exercise in a way that's going to help you be better because food is medicine and exercise is incredibly productive for not only your body physically and your agility and your flexibility and your ability to be able to maneuver throughout your life into old age, but also from a hormonal standpoint and from a confidence standpoint. And just the, you know, when people, people look at a hundred pushups so like, I can't do a hundred pushups. And I'm like, yeah, no kidding. I can't do a hundred

straight either, but I do 10 sets of 10 and I'm not, it takes me a few minutes, but I get through it. And you know, some people it takes more, but it's all doable. So there's a level of confidence that comes through that. And so when we're at peace with ourselves and confident in ourselves and feel good and are not dragged down by food that isn't real. I mean, if the food, if your food isn't made by the sun or a byproduct of the sun, then it's not really food. Um, so it's about getting to real food and taking care of yourself. So I, uh, I love seeing people come into their own, um, with a level of confidence and it's not, again, it, if your goal is to lose weight,

what are you going to do when the three months is over? Stop. I hope that you're, I hope that most people do. They, well, I hope that with this book, if they do read it and they do the program, your life will change, but for the best and that you won't ever turn back and you'll be waiting for hopefully the next pretty intense book to come out. Awesome. I love it. Danica, Patrick, you're an inspiration. The book is pretty intense

it's awesome everybody should pick it up i appreciate you coming to talk to me thank you it's great what else uh what else like knock chompa in here is that sandalwood yeah i think maybe this was here oh yeah i burn incense on the daily so that smells lovely what else do you have uh going on here in la? Well, let's see. Yeah, we went to Joe Rogan, got one more podcast. And then maybe see some friends that I haven't seen in a while. Oh, I'm shooting, doing a warrior photo shoot. So I'm like fully like doing this all on my own to develop like a really, really great website to create some branding around

Warrior at this point in time for the last year, it's really just been on HSN. And it's been just like basic, basic shots with the clothes on their website. But, you know, some of my friends are like, where do I get it? And there's some stuff that's not all available there. And, you know, I want to help develop it. I want it to be my baby and, and done in the way that I want. And so, I really want, I really am going there with the branding. So, hired models. I hired the stylist, hired the photographer. In fact, the photographer for the cover of my book and all the lifestyle photos in it is shooting Warrior tomorrow. So, I'm really excited to see him. His name is Scott. And so, yeah, it's a full production shoot.

And gosh, I don't know, whatever else. Whatever else pops up. You've got to live life in flow, you know? You're becoming this crazy entrepreneur, lifestyle entrepreneur. I love it. It's fun. It's really just flowing through things and their passion projects. And when we do things that we're passionate about, it resonates with people.

They can tell, you know? Of course, they know if it's real. Yeah. And then when you go to an interview, you actually know what the heck you're talking about because you did it, you know? I mean, the worst thing is, is when you do something and you have to talk about it and you really don't have content because it wasn't your thing, where there's nothing in my life that I do that I don't understand to a very high level. I mean, okay, do I understand every last detail about winemaking? No, but I understand quite a bit about it. So do I ever understand every element do call it my worst paying job because of how much time I put into it. But it was by all

means my most fulfilling job as well. Even if all I did was change my mom's life. Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah. Awesome. So thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much. If people want to connect with you at Danica Patrick, pretty much everywhere. Yeah, prettyintense.com, somniumwine.com, Warrior is coming. Warrior website is not done yet, but that's what the photo shoot is for. But you have like Instagram accounts set up for all of those too, right?

Yeah. Yep. There's Instagram accounts. Yep. So we try and get the information out there. All right. Awesome. Thanks so much.

Thank you. Peace. Peace. Awesome. Thanks so much. Thank you. Peace. Peace. All right. I hope you guys dug that. I enjoyed talking to her. Give Danica a shout out on the social channels. Let her know what you thought of today's conversation.

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Can you hear all the wind out there? It's pretty windy out. Anyway, all is good here. I hope it is with you as well. And I'll be back here next week. Until then, make it great. Peace plants. Namaste. Thank you.