Watch Danica Patrick Getting Ripped For Her Final Indy 500

“I’m going there to win the thing.”

Maxim Staff

Mar 30, 2018

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Danica Patrick is feeling confident about the final race of her career, which is two months away at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“I’m going there to win the thing,” she told the AP earlier this month.

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But that doesn’t mean she’s coasting toward the starting line. After all, it’s been seven years since Patrick drove an Indy Car, and as she’s said in the past, it takes a mountain of physical strength and endurance to compete. That must be why she’s working out so hard.

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In that same AP interview, Patrick admitted to being nervous ahead of the race. “I’m nervous because it’s been a long time and anything that matters, you get nervous for. And on top of being gone a long time, I want to do a good job. I want it to go well, I want it to be like the old days and have a shot and win the damn thing,” she said.

Earlier this week, she had a chance to shake off some of those nerves by driving at IMS for the first time since 2011. Rain stopped her from getting behind the wheel, but she took the opportunity at the legendary track to reveal the car she’ll drive in May.

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Patrick started her career in the IndyCar Series in 2005, before making the transition to NASCAR full-time in 2012. She remains the only woman to lead a lap at the Indy 500 and, with her 2008 victory in Japan, is still the only woman to win a major open-wheel race.

In February, she confirmed that she’d be ending her racing career this year with a “Danica Double,” running in the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500. She’ll hope the second leg ends better than the first, which ended like this.