Can Danica Patrick Bridge the Chasm Between IndyCar and NASCAR?
In “Changing Lanes” (p. 52), Peter J. Boyer profiles the IndyCar racer Danica Patrick, as she makes her début in the world of stock-car driving on the NASCAR circuit. Aided by several racy photo shoots, including her now famous 2003 pictorial for the men’s magazine FHM, Patrick’s arrival on the IndyCar circuit “proved a tonic for the sport,” Boyer writes. “A new female American driver who could hold her own offered immeasurable promotional promise”—and Patrick took advantage. “She determined to market herself aggressively,” Boyer writes, “fashioning what she refers to as the ‘Danica brand’—part girl next door, part speed-demon temptress—suited to a racing audience that is mostly male.” Patrick’s popularity and earning potential soared, and “the Danica brand soon became a multimillion-dollar business.” Patrick is a rare female in a sport dominated by men, and it didn’t take long for the press to characterize her as a feminist and a role model for women, a depiction that not everyone agr
