October 2010
It was that time of the weekend again – rookie meeting time. As directed by a veteran driver, the rookies were instructed to converge into a little room and take down some key lessons heading into the weekend.
Danica Patrick walked into the room, looking for a seat, realizing they were all gone. She then went to stand by the back of the room, catching the eye of another driver – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
"Danica!" He called out, catching her attention. "Have my seat. I can stand at the back and still see." He then stood up, moving behind the row of chairs to stand. Being a little taller than her, he knew he could get away with standing and still being able to know what was going on. She then sat down, smiling. This wasn't the first time that Ricky had done that for her and caused her to smile slightly.
"Thank you." She replied, as she usually would. She had watched Ricky progress on track. For starters, the beginning of his season sort of matched where she was – finding trouble, not being able to finish the races, stuck wondering what was wrong. However, she noticed that through the second half, he was getting better. It intrigued her as she wondered what had he figured out that she was missing.
"Your welcome."
Throughout the meeting, they both listened to the advice for that day in regards to what line to run, how to run the race and other warranted advice that answered their questions. As the meeting began to draw to a close, Danica kept her mind focused on Ricky. She badly wanted to talk to him, see what he had to say, feed off his experience. Whether it was by his looks or just the simple gesture, it caused her to become more and more intrigued.
At the end of the meeting as everyone began to file out, she followed Ricky through the exit door.
"Ricky!" She yelled, catching his attention. "I was wondering if maybe we could meet up some time and talk about racing." After she said it out loud she looked down. It had sounded so much better in her head and with how it came out, it just sounded odd. She new she had to add something to make herself feel better. "I'm just starting out and knowing that you've been through the learning curve, I was wondering if you'd be willing to offer some advice." Ricky was shocked by the gesture, but also smiled. He had wanted to become friends with her after seeing how hard she tried on track and the personality that she had underneath what everyone called the 'Go Daddy Sexy Girl' image. He wanted to get to know the real her and find out if she was really here for the right reasons. "I mean, if you don't have time, I under-"
"I'd lo-I mean, I wouldn't mind." He replied, catching his almost slip of the word 'love'. Well it meant that much to him, he didn't want to let her know that in case it scared her away.
"Great." He then wrote his cell number down on a piece of paper, handing it to her. For him, anytime that she planned would work fine as he was excited.
"Call me and let me know when you're free and we can get together some time this week. I know you've got a busy schedule so I'll let you decide the time." Ricky then began to walk away, smiling. He had finally broke through to the next level and it made him happy. Now if only she was the girl that he thought she was – then this would go perfectly. As he turned the corner, he hid the smile that wanted to creep out behind his cheeks, knowing that for his team, it was time to get to business. But he couldn't help but be excited for that potential phone call from her.