Danica Patrick has been receiving enormous amounts of support from her fellow NASCAR driver following Kyle Petty's brow-raising comments about his perception on the only female competitor on the circuit.
Petty, who served as a commentator for multiple NASCAR shows since retiring from racing in 2008, made a harsh remark about Patrick as he said she was 'not a car racer' but simply a 'marketing machine.'
"I've said it from the very beginning, she's just a marketing machine," Petty said. "She's a hot commodity and rightfully so. In a market where everybody that crawls into a race car on a Sunday afternoon in Cup racing is male, she's the female. I don't have a problem with her being a marketing machine - more power to her," said Petty, who is third generation NASCAR driver from his family.
Petty's comments drew negative reactions from NASCAR fans and even participating drivers, including 10-time Sprint Series Most-Popular Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick.
In an interview Friday at Kentucky Speedway, Earnhardt Jr. rebuffed Kyle's comments by calling Patrick a tough competitor on the circuit.
"I have to disagree with Kyle," Earnhardt Jr. said. "I think she's a tough competitor. She works really hard at what she does and she has run some really good races. On every occasion, she's outrunning several guys on the circuit. If she was not able to compete or not able to run minimum speed or finishing in last place every week, I think you might be able to say Kyle has an argument. But she's out there running competitively and running strong on several accounts," said Earnhardt Jr.
Harvick, who will be a future teammate of Patrick at Stewart-Haas Racing, also defended Patrick and believes the driver of no.10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS car has shown improvement on the race track over the years.
"To drive them fast is something that is just not going to happen overnight," Harvick said. "I don't know that I would go as far as calling her not a racer because she's raced her whole life and I think on a continuous learning curve. She's obviously dedicated at what she does to try to get better and knows she has a lot of hurdles to overcome in a short amount of time."
Patrick has already responded to Petty's tongue-lashing, saying she doesn't really care about what the former driver said.
"I don't really care. It's funny he said I can qualify and not race. Anyone who has watched what I do knows I'm crap in qualifying. In the races, things go much better," Patrick said.