Danica Patrick's Popularity Skyrockets After Winning Daytona 500 Pole

For Danica Patrick, her historic moment at the Daytona 500 Sunday was one large step for NASCAR, and one giant leap for her career.

Patrick dominated NASCAR's Daytona 500 weekend, first with headlines regarding her new romance with fellow driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., followed by Patrick topping the speed charts and then, as the perfect cap to the weekend, made history by becoming the first female driver to win a pole at the Daytona 500 on Sunday.

If there was ever a time where Patrick's star has shone brighter in the sport, one would be hardpressed to remember it.

"I've heard stories about a kid, a boy or a girl, saying, 'But mommy, daddy. That's a girl that's out there racing.' And then they can have that conversation to say, 'You can do anything you want to do and gender doesn't matter.' Your passion is what matters. And that's cool," Patrick told CNN's Don Lemon on Sunday.

Patrick has been breaking a lot of barriers since her debut in the sport in 2005 for the IRL IndyCar Series, garnering widespread attention with her commercials for GoDaddy.com and racy photoshoots. Prior to Sunday, Patrick's highlights included winning a race in the IndyCar series in Japan 2008 and being the first woman to ever lead a lap in the Indy 500.

Now, after winning her historic pole at the competition as she prepared to enter her first season as a full-time driver in the Sprint Cup series, there are those who think that Patrick is about to take off into a whole new level.

"She comes into this with a racing background, with a tremendous amount of exposure, momentum, just popularity that we've never seen before, especially from a female driver," Jeff Gordon, who qualified second, told the New York Times. "For her to then follow that up or start the season off with a pole, it's huge. It's big. Surprised you're even talking to me right now, right? I'm glad I didn't win the pole; we would have messed that story all up.

"She runs so smooth, keeps such a smooth line and that's what you have to do to carry speed here," co-car owner and fellow driver Tony Stewart said of Patrick.