Danica Patrick made history as the first woman to ever win the pole at the Daytona 500, let alone any Sprint Cup NASCAR race, but the dominating news prior to the weekend was the budding relationship between her and fellow driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Patrick made headlines for her driving on Sunday, taking the top spot in qualifying over Jeff Gordon. Earlier in the week on Thursday she received some questions about the relationship. Media day just happened to occur on Valentines Day.
Patrick will be in the best position of her career in any Sprint Cup race and could commend her first win in that regard. Her highest finish was 17th at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Phoenix. She also led 40 laps in the Nationwide circuit.
The relationship between the two was confirmed during the opening media sessions for NASCAR at Charlotte Motor Speedway earlier in February.
"I have a boyfriend, his name is Richard," she said during an exclusive telephone interview with AP.
HERE is a full schedule for Daytona during the week in Florida.
Patrick is one of the most recognizable racers in the world and she has set records at nearly every level she has raced at in her professional career. She is racing in the Sprint Cup for the first time in her career. Patrick spoke about how the two met and started to get to know each other at rookie meetings before the first weekend of Daytona.
"Poor Ricky has been asked a lot of questions," said Patrick. "But I haven't gotten too many. But I'm happy to answer them. I'm happy to talk about it. It's fine with me."
Patrick is one of the most well known racers in the entire world and she now will dominate headlines even further with her relationship and her new record as the first woman to take the pole at Daytona. Patrick had her best season last year on the Nationwide circuit, finishing 10th in the standings while coming in the top 10 four times in 33 starts.
The couple will be battling for rookie of the year on the sprint Cup circuit this season.
"I mean, we first got to know each other in rookie meetings," she said. "He was Rookie of the Year in '10, was that right? That was my first year, was '10. So I saw him in rookie meetings."
She reached a new career-high on Sunday by winning the pole at Daytona, becoming the first woman to ever do so at any event or at any Sprint Cup race period. She raced in a limited amount of Sprint Cup races and did solid, finishing in the top 20 one time after placing 17th at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Phoenix.
"I was brought up to be the fastest driver, not the fastest girl," she said, according to Auto Week.. "That was instilled in me from very young, from the beginning. Then I feel like thriving in those moments, where the pressure's on, has also been a help for me. I also feel like I've been lucky in my career to be with good teams and have good people around me. I don't think any of it would have been possible without that."
Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski gave a spin on the relationship as well when asked about it:
"I think it isn't so much a story that they are dating as it would be if they were to break up," Keselowski continued. "That would be incredible to watch, to be quite honest. There are so many different ways that could go. Imagine if they were to break up and then wreck each other the next six races because they were mad? That would be way more compelling. I think it is a story either way. It will be interesting for sure and those side stories to our season, as though we didn't have enough to talk about, are fun."