Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

Our series of weekly NASCAR driver interviews continues with Danica Patrick, who returns to her home track at Chicagoland Speedway this week. Patrick grew up in Roscoe, Ill., which is about two hours from the track where she will race this weekend for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Q: What is an errand or chore in your daily life people might be surprised to learn you do yourself?

A: I mean, I have to pick up my dogs’ poop. Especially at the racetrack. I don’t think that’s abnormal, but I always feel very humbled that I’m picking up (crap).

Is there a motor home lot code about picking up poop after your dogs?

Around the buses in the grass area, the drivers have to do stuff (like meet-and-greets) at the back of the bus. It’s pretty inappropriate to leave poop right where they walk. That’s pretty bad.

I also make food for my dogs. I make them beef, peas, carrots. Really, I do all the cooking – so Ricky (Stenhouse Jr., her boyfriend) can never complain about food because I literally will make him anything. Most of the time, he grabs a fig bar for breakfast. But if he said he wanted waffles, I’d be like, “Done.”

Q: If you could do any race over again, which race would you choose?

A: My first Indy 500 comes to mind a little bit, just because I don’t race Indy cars anymore and I don’t have any more chances. That was a tough one. There were some things about that first Indy 500 that could have been different – a little more fuel left than I thought. I probably would have just led no matter what (she gave up the lead with seven laps to go), even if it meant running out of fuel, as opposed to just finishing. I mean, I still finished fourth, but ...

Q: The longest race of the year is 600 miles. How long of a race could you physically handle without a driver change?

A: I would think we could all go twice the distance. I think we could go 1,200 miles before we started to have mental and physical failures such as hunger, exhaustion, dehydration. Really, I think dehydration would set in more than anything. But that would be a really long race. Way too long.

Q: Let’s say president of NASCAR was an elected position voted on by the drivers – and you decided to run. What would one of your campaign promises be?

A: I would promise the drivers would be able to sell their merchandise and make the money they’re supposed to make off it.

I don’t know much about how that works. Is it that others take too big of a slice from the drivers?

Well, I’m pretty sure they’re not buying the shirt because it’s NASCAR; otherwise they’d just buy a shirt that says “NASCAR” on it. I feel pretty screwed in that department.

Q: At the start of this year, exactly 2,900 drivers had ever raced in the Sprint Cup Series. Where do you rank among those 2,900?

A: I think every driver thinks they’re really good, or we wouldn’t be here. This is a safer era of racing, but it’s an era of splitting hairs on everything else. There’s a certain amount that’s out of our control as drivers, and it’s really up to the piece underneath you. But then again, when it’s such fine differences between positions, drivers can make up a little bit, you know? It’s definitely safer now, but the competition is so much more even.

Q: What do you think your reputation is – and is that reputation accurate?

A: I think a reputation is observed by others, so I don’t know exactly what that is. I’d also think if it was something negative, I wouldn’t be told that necessarily. I think that’s a good question for other people.

But I imagine that to some degree, it’s accurate. That doesn’t come from nowhere. But does it by any means define the whole spectrum of what I am? No. Most people only see me at the racetrack or an interview or just after qualifying or the race. You’re seeing a very small glimpse of me as a person in a very similar situation every time. It’s tense, it’s focus, it’s frustration, it’s sometimes excitement. For the most part, we all pretty much come away from each race thinking about what could have been better. So I don’t think that’s an accurate description of what I’m really like in general.

Q: A famous chef wants you to invest in the new restaurant he’s opening, but he wants you to pick the cuisine. What type of food would your restaurant serve?

A: Well, I’m a huge foodie. So the two reasons I’d go to a restaurant are for things that I can’t make and the general atmosphere and experience.

I’m a pretty decent cook and I can make a lot of stuff, so going to a steakhouse is the most boring idea of a restaurant to me. I can make a good steak myself, so I don’t find that interesting. I’d want to get something I can’t make, like grilled foie gras or some form of molecular gastronomy or manipulation of ingredients to make it taste like something completely different. That creativity is really cool to see.

And then sometimes you’re just looking for a fun atmosphere. You’re just looking to get out and be amongst people and have an energy level around you.

So there’s two ways you could go with the cuisine. You could go with the most extreme, fancy cuisine that’s just out of this world and a unique experience – with wine pairings, of course. Or you could go with something a little more casual, where you’re making things you’ve had before but the experience is really good. I love the idea of being able to see the kitchen. We’re going to a restaurant in Chicago this week that’s like kitchen seating, so it’s all a big bar around the kitchen and you can see everybody making the food. Those are unique experiences.

You’re obviously extremely into food and you have a real passion for it. Are you a self-taught cook, or did you take classes?

No, I’m pretty much self-taught. I did take a two-day cooking class – just a fun course you can sign up for – in St. Helena, California. We learned about olive oils and salts and peppers and spices. We made pizza on the grill. Presentation was a part of it – I rocked that one, because I like to make my food look good.

You know, I even make my food look good when I’m by myself at home.

That’s not just for Instagram?

It makes it more fun to eat when it looks good. So usually it ends up looking good and then I’m like, “Oh, that’s good enough for a picture!” Every now and then I’ll just throw things on the plate, but that’s only if I’m like reheating things. If I’m actually cooking the whole thing, I always want to make the whole vision come together and practice the plate.

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Q: What is the most daring thing you’ve done outside of racing?

A: I went bungee jumping in New Zealand, at the original bungee jump and the original bungee jumping location in the world (Kawarau Bridge).

Wow, that sounds kind of crazy.

I know. Hopefully it wasn’t the original cord.

Well, you survived.

I did. It was over a river. Your legs are all bound and they’re like, “Hop on out there to the edge!” I’m like … (Gives alarmed look). And the Velcro looked like it was the same Velcro that was being used when it opened. It was very scary, but I did it.

I did it because I’m scared of heights, so I wanted to see if I could overcome that fear. I’m not over the fear by any means – I’m still really scared of heights – but I can do it if I need to.

Q: In a move to generate more excitement, NASCAR decides in an upcoming race they’re going to require every driver to have a passenger in the car. You get to pick the passenger. Who do you choose?

A: Someone really, really small because you want the weight on the left, not the right. They’d probably have to be over 18 – I bet there’s insurance purposes that could be helpful for. My sister (Brooke) – she’s like my size – that would be good.

Q: How often do you talk inside the car without hitting the radio button?

A: A couple times a race. It’s usually in the form of swear words.

At yourself or somebody else?

Both. Sometimes I get mad at myself at mistakes, but it’s usually about someone else if it’s swearing. If I’m not swearing, I might be like, “Slow down, calm down.” Because you get to racing too hard and you’ve got to drive within the tires and remember by lap 30 that you can’t do what you did at Lap 2.

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Q: Who will win the Sprint Cup in 2021?

A: Well, Denny (Hamlin) is nowhere close to done, so he’s got potential there. Chase (Elliott) will be five years better than he is now, and in a good car. Kyle (Larson) has been doing pretty good and Kyle Busch will still be racing, too. So probably one of those.

Q: I’ve been asking each driver to give me a question for the next interview. The last driver was Denny Hamlin, and he wanted to know: All things aside, including money, would you rather be racing in IndyCar or NASCAR?

A: For the car itself: Indy cars. For the racing: stock cars. For the schedule: Indy cars. For the people: stock cars.

If only you could get the best of both worlds.

I think if you reduced the schedule, it would make a big difference. We just don’t have any lives. This is it. Which is OK – I mean, it’s only for a certain amount of time. But I’d imagine there are some people where the schedule becomes more exhausting than the effort they’re willing to put in anymore. So instead of retiring at 42, it might be 38 because they’re just like, “I’m done.” You just get tired. I think NASCAR would be more appealing by reducing the schedule.

But no stock car can ever be an Indy car, because they don’t have wings like that. You can’t drive them upside down – an Indy car could; that’s how much downforce they have. So just the cornering ability is something a stock car will never have. Just that pure, out-of-this-world sensation of speed – I mean, as a reference, we were flat (wide open) around Richmond in an Indy car.

That's nuts.

I remember I went out to qualify at Richmond, and we had been tight a lot of times in qualifying, so my engineer – that’s the same thing as a crew chief, you just call it an engineer in Indy car – put a turn of front wing in. So I go out and it turned so much and got so loose that I had complete opposite lock in Turns 1 and 2, and I caught it and kept going.

I hung that one on the wall of my bus for the rest of the year.

And do you have a question for the next interview? It’s with Erik Jones.

If it was your last day on Earth and you were racing, what would you have for dinner, what car would you be driving and what track would you be at?

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck