Danica Patrick laughed off remarks made by former NASCAR driver and TV analyst Kyle Petty, who said she is "not a race car driver."
"I really don't care," Patrick said on June 28 at Kentucky Speedway. "There's going to be people who believe in you and people who don't. Plenty of people say bad things about me. I see it on Twitter. Some people want me to die. But at the end of the day, you get over that stuff and trust you're doing a good job for the people who believe in you."
Petty, a Fox Sports/TNT analyst and son of racing legend Richard Petty, made his comments during an interview on Speed TV's "NASCAR Race Hub."
"Danica has been the perfect example of somebody who can qualify better than what she runs," Petty said during the interview. "She can go fast, but she can't race. I think she's come a long way, but she's still not a race car driver. And I don't think she's ever going to be a race car driver."
Patrick said she "laughed" when she read that statement according to ESPN.
"It's funny he said I can qualify and not race," she said. "Anyone who has watched what I do knows I'm crap in qualifying. In the races, things go much better."
Patrick is currently in the middle of her rookie season as a full-time Sprint Cup driver. She currently ranks 27th in the Sprint Cup standings driving for Stewart-Haas Racing according to NASCAR.com.
The popular driver had her only top-10 finish at Daytona 500 when she finished eight. Patrick became the first woman to win the pole in a Sprint Cup race and finished eighth in February's Daytona 500.
She's placed in the top 10 seven times in 60 Nationwide Series races according to NASCAR.com.
Petty, who started driving in 1979, couldn't say what does and doesn't make a great driver, claiming if he knew he would have been one.
"If I knew, I'd be a great driver," he said. "I was not a great driver, and I'll be the first to admit it. I was a journeyman driver. Just like in the NFL or any sport, there are journeyman players."
Petty finished his career with 173 top-10 finishes in over 800 races during his 36-year NASCAR career. He didn't win his first race until his sixth year as a full-time driver according to USA Today.
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