Danica Patrick made her IndyCar Series debut almost 13 years ago. She was perhaps the most anticipated female prospect in American racing history, and she is still doing her thing. Patrick is the only woman to win an IndyCar Series race and her third-place finish at the 2009 Indy 500 is the best ever by a woman. She transitioned to stock car racing in 2012, and she is the only woman to earn a NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series pole. Her eighth-place finish at the 2013 Daytona 500 is the highest ever by a woman.

But of course, Patrick has faced controversy over her gender. In 2005, IndyCar racer Robby Gordon claimed Patrick's low body weight actually gave her an unfair advantage. Others contend that Patrick has more physical challenges during the grueling hours of a competitive race because she's a woman.

At this point, she has a ton of perspective on such debate.

"Why is there a difference between a man and a woman, period?" Patrick says. "I think there's some scientific stuff, hormones and things like that, perhaps that can contribute to pure potential strength levels and things like that, but for the most part, it's kind of just arbitrary, really. It's just something there. It's an illusion created for things to make something normal or not normal. Honestly, at this part in my life, I really question everything. Like, who decided these sort of parameters for life as for what should be man, woman, what should be this or that? Who cares? Just do your thing."

So is there any legitimate physical argument that has been made to Patrick?

"You know, other than the pure strength element, but you don't need pure potential for racing," she continues. "IndyCars were harder to drive than stock cars because they don't have power steering, where a stock car does. So, you can make it as easy as you want to make it. But other than that, there really couldn't be a difference. Like I said, maybe your hormones play into it with somewhat of what testosterone versus estrogen does inside of the body, chemically, when drama arises or when tension moments come about, maybe. I don't know. There should be a science project done on it."

Patrick will address this and many other questions Wednesday when "Danica," produced and directed by Hannah Storm, debuts on EPIX at 8 p.m. ET.


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