 Danica Patrick picks up her trophy in victory lane as she celebrates securing the pole position for the upcoming Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday. (Reuters) |
Danica Patrick made history — again — on Sunday, becoming the first woman to win the pole position for the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s most important race.
After a series of other remarkable racing achievements — the first woman to lead a lap in the Indianapolis 500, the first woman to win an IZOD IndyCar Series race and the first woman to have a top five finish in NASCAR Nationwide Series — Patrick’s pole win on Sunday at Daytona International Speedway tops them all.
Not only was it the first Daytona 500 pole for a woman, it was the first pole by a woman in NASCAR Sprint Cup history period.
Prior to Sunday the best a start by a woman in a Sprint Cup race was ninth — twice — by Janet Guthrie in 1977, at Talladega and Bristol.
Patrick also became the first rookie to win the Daytona 500 pole since Jimmie Johnson did it in 2002.
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