Changing Paces: Danica Patrick
By Kristian Alegado

As a competitive amateur athlete on the roads, the most obvious role model would be the revolutionary leader in a huge sport. What makes this a different story though, is that I am an Asian-American young male, who does not competitively compete in a car, but I do on my feet with the same state of mind as a race car driver.

Growing up I was really unaware of NASCAR or even any other of their affiliates, flipping the channels past their track to watch another sport with a ball on a field, but as soon as I saw myself racing on a track of my own, I sought out to find myself a wall breaking, breakthrough athlete.

Then around the same time I was creating talk and cheers as a young different kind of runner, Danica Patrick became the Michelle Wie of her sport, the difference between them though is that Danica has a stonger longevity, which is very relative to me as I am a long distance runner.

Danica Patrick blew down walls as the first women in NASCAR, and is continuing her success in racing and in the high financials business through her endorsements, where finance and business is an area of study and occupation that I would enjoy to endure.

Danica Patrick is modern-day hero in extreme sports, professional sports and even the investment sports.  From GoDaddy to the "Got Milk?" campaign, she is a role model to both genders, to all types of people, to all kinds of racers.