Racing Through Anxiety: Danica Miles Inspires Young Racers

Sponsor Messages And Discounts

Melinda Russell 0:48

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Meet Danica Miles At 18

Melinda Russell 2:30

Hello everyone. This is Melinda Russell with the Women's Motorsports Network podcast. And my guest today is Danica Miles. Danica, I want to welcome you to the show. And as we always do, I'd like to know a little more about you so my audience knows who is Danica Miles.

SPEAKER_07 2:49

Thank you. Well, obviously, my name is Danica Miles. I am 18 years old. And uh this is my ninth year in motorsports. I started when I was 10. Um, I have recently made the change from drag racing to dirt racing, and I have recently started my own motorsports as the owner and driver.

Melinda Russell 3:14

Oh, that's pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Yeah, it's a lot different.

Melinda Russell 3:19

It is, yeah. You you made a big change. So let's go back to the beginning and then we'll get up to where you can explain to us why you went from drag to dirt. So, how did

Anxiety To First Junior Pass

Melinda Russell 3:29

you get started and when you were 10 years old?

SPEAKER_07 3:31

Okay, so growing up, I have always had a lot of anxiety, and I didn't like doing things that were out of the ordinary. And my dad was always the my mom and dad were always trying to get me out of my comfort zone and always trying to do things. So, um, us living in South Carolina, we're right near Charlotte, and the NHRA race came to Charlotte, and my um grandpa raced dirt, but nobody else raced, he was out of it by the time I was born. So my dad took me to the NHRA race, and I remember walking around, and I was just blown away by all of it, and I couldn't believe that people actually did this. I had no idea that racing was even a thing before that. We watched NASCAR, but and I don't think it clicked, I was never old enough. Um, and I think I was nine when we went, and I saw the juniors, and I'm like, God, like how do grown people fit in these? Like, I never understood it. My dad was like, hey, I think those are kids. And I was like, hmm. And I would have a thing where I would get obsessed with something like every kid does, and then I'd watch it for a couple of weeks, and then I wanted to move on. I had always been in dance and cheer, gymnastics, figure skating. I kind of did a little bit of everything. So when I came home, I pretty much obsessed over it. I sat in front of a desk and watched all these YouTube videos. I even found an old motorcycle helmet and would sit there with the helmet on, pretending I was doing it. And they thought, oh, okay, this is just a phase that'll pass. And I started asking for a car and started asking for a car, and my mom was like, Absolutely not. This is not happening. You're insane, you'll get over it. Well, a whole year went by and I was still obsessed and still told them I would do it. So for Christmas, my dad bought me a junior, and we don't have any our localist track is Darlington, and that's like an hour, 45 minutes to an hour away. And I mean, it was December, nobody was testing, so my dad was like, Hey, I'm gonna take you to a parking lot and I'm gonna let you run it. I mean, and it had a Harbor Freight motor, it probably didn't run any better than a lawnmower. It was a pool start. I mean, we were it was something. Um, so I went to a parking lot and I ran it, and I was terrified. I was terrified to even hit the gas. I thought I was gonna take off like John Force and them did, and they kept telling me, like, you've got to calm down, like you're gonna be okay. And I did it, and I was like, Nope, don't think this is for me. I'm good. So, fast forward another year, the spring race rolls by, I see them again, and I'm like, why don't we just run my car? Why can't I run my car? And they're like, You're the one who chickened out, like, I don't know what you're talking about. So, sure enough, we went to a test session. They had they were shutting our a track down close to us, and it was really run down, holes in the track and everything, but they held one last test session, and we were like, Okay, well, we're gonna go to that. And after I did that, I remember like my first pass, the chain broke off of the car, and I had no idea. And I said my famous line throughout my family of well, I didn't let off because I wasn't at the finish line yet. And then I just feel like from that day on, I was like, Yep, Danica's gonna drive race cars, and ironically, my name, everybody was like, Oh, well, we always knew, and I'm like, No, no, y'all didn't know, y'all had no idea this was gonna happen. No, so it started as a hobby.

PDRA Commitment And Early Sponsors

SPEAKER_07 7:11

I would run a couple of Darlington races, and then I found out about PDRA, and we decided we were gonna run a race there. Um, I didn't qualify I think I qualified like 17th, and they take the top 16. And I was like, okay, so then we decided we're gonna run the full PDRA circuit. And at that point, when I started running, I had a company reach out to me, um, ES Foods out of New York, and they supply like 98% of the public school foods through the United States. And they flew me out there, they wanted to sponsor me. I signed a contract, and so that's when it started becoming like, okay, this isn't just a hobby. This is like I'm getting paid to do this. And for I had more sponsors, little sponsors, and then we ended our deal with ES Foods and Applied Imaging, whose sponsors Doug Coletta came in contact with me, and they were my sponsors for the last few years of my junior career. But I ran juniors from the time I was 11 to 18 in the PDRA and never missed a single race for those seven years. Wow. Yeah, I um finished top ten in points, I think five out of those seven years, the best being second, and the worst being eighth or ninth. So that grew up and that was like my family. Those were my people. I always thought that's what I would do. So that's pretty much how it started for me. It went from a whole lot of nothing to we're just gonna be little drag races on the side, to I ended up being homeschooled, and I was traveling up and down the East Coast to race.

Melinda Russell 9:07

Mm-hmm. So you get out of your that's pretty amazing, first of all, that you never missed a race.

SPEAKER_07 9:16

Not a single I had COVID one year, and I was like, it was when COVID was like freshly happening, and luckily I had been within like I got it on a Sunday, and I had been in the days where it was good, but I was still sick, and I still raced. I have raced with probably just about any sickness, and it was never any pressure for my parents. Like, even when I had when I first started, my anxiety was so rough that I would cry, and I thought I was gonna throw up before I got in the car because I was so nervous. But also through racing, it made me calm down and it helped my anxiety a lot. And my dad was always like, You do not have to do this, like we can go play basketball, we can play any sport you want to, and just pushed right through. And it was a goal that I was gonna be at every single race, and that's exactly what I did.

Melinda Russell 10:06

That's pretty cool. Yeah, I haven't had anybody tell me they've done anything like that, so that's pretty cool.

Why She Left Drag Racing

Melinda Russell 10:13

So now you told me you went from drag to dirt. That sounds like a big switch. Tell me how that came about.

SPEAKER_07 10:21

Um, I think with everything, it was unfortunate. I love drag racing, it is always where I started, and it's always I will always love it, but something didn't feel good, it didn't connect to where I did I ran a big dragster for when you turn 16 and you can get into a bigger car and the PDRA. And I got my license and I started testing it, and um the last two years I ran it off and on. But when I was in it, I just was like, Yes, I love it, but I wasn't looking forward to it like I thought I would. So it was a lot of mental stuff going and like, do I I didn't want to quit because I knew I wanted to drive a race car, but I had always hated on dirt track racing. I was like, screw that, going in circles, that's boring. Like, why wouldn't you want to go as fast as you can in a straight line? Um, and like I said, my grandpa had ran dirt track in like the early 80s, probably longer than that. I'm probably wrong on that, but he had ran. So my dad grew up around that, my uncle grew up around that, and just about that time I was getting out of juniors, my uncle was like, Hey, I think we should get dirt cars, and to my dad, and so we started going to the dirt track. Um, Lancaster Motor Speedway is 45 minutes from me. And we started going, and I'm like, okay, and I was gonna let them have it. I'm like, I still don't know about this. This is weird. Uh it's a lot different too when you go from big haulers and all this money, and now you're in dirt and totally different crowd. And I'm like, okay, and then we go to more and we go to more, and I was like, I heard my dad say one night, Danica, this is the class you should be in as we're watching them go around, and I thought I could drive that, no issue. And sure enough, then I had a car before they had a car. And I ran before my dad even got on the track, and my uncle hadn't made me and my uncle have just about the same races, he has one race more than me. But then when I was hooked, I'm like, you know what? My dad still, um, my dad still has a dragster, and the plan was to run PDRA, but it blew up the first race, so then we just got to focus. But my dad's late model racing, so he like skipped all the classes and just went the late model. My uncle is Crown Vic racing, and I got into the front-wheel drive, and I knew nothing, like I didn't know how to drive a stick, so we bought an automatic car, and last year I ran the last two races there, and I realized very quickly that an automatic cannot keep up with these guys. So when I made the decision, I'm done drag racing, I'm gonna fully make the switch. I also made the decision because I raced for my dad, which is under Miles Custom Racing, and I'm like, I love you, but I think I just want to switch everything up and let's go for it, and I want my own. And I created Danica Miles Motorsports and got a car, which he did help me with the car, but ever since then I have paid for every part. I have learned how to do so many things with this car. We got it switched over to a manual. I learned I just had to go out there because with Dirt Track, yes, they have practices, but we chose not to go that route, and they just put me out there, and on a first race, Danica just had to learn how to drive a manual, and it was rocky, but I've gotten it. I think I've ran seven races now, and I am third in the Lancaster Motor Speedway points, and I have finished second twice, and other than that, it's all been top ten finishes, so it's gone pretty

Learning Dirt Racing And Manual

SPEAKER_07 14:20

well.

Melinda Russell 14:21

So now I love how you said you thought to yourself, Oh, I can go out there and run that, and I'll bet you found it was harder than you thought.

SPEAKER_07 14:29

Oh, it was so hard, and people think it's really easy, and especially me being in kind of the lower class at the racetrack. I mean, they're Chevy Cavaliers, they don't go that fast, but when you're going 70 miles an hour left, and it's like I said, I had to learn everything new. The only thing you can really take from drag racing is having to make decision decisions in such a short amount of time, and the takeoff is about really all you can take. Everything else, and I've it's a whole new thing. You have to worry about 10 other people out there with you and what they're gonna do. Yeah, it was not as easy as I thought, and I really have no idea what I'm doing, but it sure is working out very well for me.

Melinda Russell 15:18

Yeah, it sounds like it, it sounds like it's actually a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_07 15:21

It is so fun. I it's like a whole new love. Like I thought I was losing it, and it was such a terrible feeling because what had gave me such joy when I was little to now coming back, and now I enjoy it. And unlike PDRA runs once a month, I get to run every single Saturday. And that's a blast too. And to be doing it as a family is even better. Like I've always enjoyed racing with my dad, but now I have my dad and my uncle, and my boyfriend is basically my crew chief, and we get to all do it together, it's great.

Melinda Russell 15:56

Yeah, yeah. I I when you mentioned about you know your dad and your uncle, I was gonna ask you if you know, running with your family, where you know you're all there, you're each running a different class, which is good. Um, how important that was to you. And I can tell it is because you just said that, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 16:15

I was gonna say, yeah, that's what really makes I don't I don't think it would be as fun if I was by myself, and even though we're in different classes, we're still competitive. It's still like they're glad we're not in the same class because I honestly think it would be a game of bumper cars, and we're all just that competitive, and not to toot my own horn, but I am so winning at that.

Melinda Russell 16:38

I'm so winning the family competition, absolutely, absolutely for sure. So you had to learn how to drive a stick. Was that the hardest thing in the transition from drag racing to dirt? Or what what would be the hardest things you had to learn?

SPEAKER_07 16:58

Um physically, yes, in the car doing everything that is because I mean honestly, uh once you get in, I only run third gear, so I'm starting first. All I gotta do is switch it. By the time I'm in the first corner, I'm in third, and it's pretty much fine after that. I did have an issue for a couple of races that I would miss third and put it in fifth accidentally, and I ran a whole race, and luckily there was only three of us out there because it was before points started. I ran a whole race in fifth gear and wondered

Wrecks Conflict And Online Hate

SPEAKER_07 17:30

why my car was so slow. And yeah, so physically that was the hardest, but the actual hardest is mentally it's the most dangerous thing I've ever done. And drag racing was terrifying, but I feel like also I was a kid and I didn't think about I didn't think about what was going on, and as I get older, I'm like, okay, and I'm running against I'm the only girl at the track there weekly, the in any division. I'm the only girl in my class, um, I'm the youngest, and mostly everybody is 30 and up. So I'm running against these grown men. There's like a couple that I think are younger than that, but I'm running against these grown men who have been doing this for more time than I've been alive. And I it's my first year, and I'm just you really just have to go at it. You there's no babying it, you just have to do it. And that's been a mental that's been a mental challenge because I'm not a I feel like outside of the car, I'm not a just go after it kind of person, and I struggle with the confidence and the anxieties there, but as soon as I always say as soon as I get in that car, and as soon as it cranks up, any thought I was just thinking is gone, and it's just the race car driver takes over, and I'm out there, and it's a whole different person than me outside of the car.

Melinda Russell 18:59

I mean, you kind of see that you're not the only person, I think, that you know, it's kind of one person out of the car and a different person in. I mean, I first one that comes to mind is Joey Logano, they always say, you know, on the track, how um aggressive or some, you know, he is, but yet out of the car, he's like one of the nicest guys, and there's a lot of and so I think I think you just put yourself in a different mindset once you get inside the car.

SPEAKER_07 19:31

Yes, yeah, 100%. I think you have to. If you don't, you're toast. You can't and you can't play nice, and that's the bad thing, and that is what I've learned. You can't take things personally because things can happen, and I have had to apologize a number amount of times because you do rub, you do hit, things go wrong. I mean, you you have control, but sliding on dirt, you have little control. So I have had to apologize so many times, and I am always willing to make like to own up to my mistakes, and I am learning, and I have had certain events like my um my whole hub and tire broke off, and the guy who helps me and build my car was right behind me, he hit it, and I he flipped over me, and that you just can't mentally prepare for that, and I just you know, you feel terrible, even though it wasn't my fault, but it was my parts failure, and the dirt world is a lot different than the drag world, and there's a lot more haters, and they are a lot more violent online, and I had to deal with that, and then that has made its way to the racetrack, and I have had to power through all the negativity because these people like to try to fight, and I'm not a fighter, I don't want to fight you. I will apologize, I am so sorry, and let's move on. I never would like I it's like I told them I pay for my stuff. I would never want to wreck, I don't want to wreck it on purpose, I don't want to ruin it. I gotta pay for it. And I definitely I know how hard people work during the week to get their car built. I don't want to wreck you, I don't play dirty. If I'm gonna win, I want to win right. I don't want to wreck you to win.

Melinda Russell 21:23

Right, right. It's amazing how fast people can just get really irritated and and think the worst. And if you just take a breath, slow down, and think about what happened. You realize that the person didn't want to wreck you any more than you want to be wrecked or the other way around because it's expensive for everybody, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 21:46

And we all have the same goal, we all have the same goal, we're all out there trying to win, and we all want to make it home. Yeah, we all want to make it home, we all don't want to get hurt, and we all want to win.

Melinda Russell 21:56

It's the same goal, yeah, exactly. So what does keep you going back to the track? I mean, you know, like your dad even said, you could do anything else you wanted to do, but why what keeps you going back there? Even with the negativity, you're the only girl, all of that stuff, and yet you keep showing up. Why? I wish I knew. Some days it's a question.

SPEAKER_07 22:23

But um I don't know. Something in me. It's all I think it's also like a proving thing. Not that anybody's there going you can't do it, but I think deep in me, it's like I know you can do it, and I know I want to go far, and I know my goals, and not even that I have specific goals, like I have no idea where the end goal is. I don't know where I want to end up. All I know is that I want to drive a race car, whether what series that might be in, right now the goal is to build up in the dirt world, and who knows the opportunities I'll have and where that can take me. But I think it's just maybe proving to myself.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 23:04

I think every time I have a bad weekend, like this last weekend, was not a good weekend for me. I broke, had a little run in, I broke, and I have also never experienced the fan base that I've had, and all these little girls keep coming up to me, and they want pictures and they want me to sign their shirt because these people around here haven't seen a girl run at their track. And I think that also makes it harder for me because now I really want to prove to these little girls like, hey, you picked a good one, yeah, and I just want to prove it that I'm gonna win, and not that it's happened yet, but I feel like we're really, really close, and I keep wanting to prove to myself I can do it because in nine in the seven years of drag racing, I never won a single race.

Melinda Russell 23:54

Yeah, that's hard. You know, there's people that don't ever win a race.

SPEAKER_07 23:59

So you know that's I made it to multiple finals and never was able to pull through it, and it took me a long time in drag racing to build up where I got that far. So I never had that first year luck in drag racing. I never it was always something. I'd be in a final round, my motor blew. That happened more times than I can count. So to be doing this and having people telling me like how impressed and how good and how everything's going with this, I f I just it feels completely different. And I feel like it is a goal that is achievable, and I think feeling like that makes it easier to do. Like if you feel that much confident, then I think it's easier to get there.

Melinda Russell 24:47

Yeah,

Life Lessons From Missing Normal Teen Years

Melinda Russell 24:48

so Danico, you talked about your anxiety and and confidence a little bit, but you know, there's a lot of things that I believe that you learn in motorsports, whether you're a driver or whatever your part is that you can take into life. I call them life lessons. If you've ever listened to any of my other podcasts, that's a familiar term for me to use. What are some other life lessons that you've learned from being in motorsport?

SPEAKER_07 25:22

That's a great question. Um I'll like I just mentioned, I think how to treat people is a big thing. Um not to give up. And I feel like I have how to word it. I feel like I have missed out on a lot of things before racing. Like I said, I was homeschooled, I never got a prom. I never got any high school experience. I um was homeschooled when COVID started, I was in seventh grade, so eighth grade up, I never had school, and I think the life lesson of that is that it's okay to miss those things for stuff that you really want. And to whatever you put your mind on that you can do it.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 26:14

If that makes any sense. It's a that was that's uh it's been a big lesson. And teenager you doesn't see that, and not that I mean I still am a teenager, but little you, I thought, and I went through that phase like, oh, I want to go to parties, I want to go to prom, I want to do this, screw that. And I'm so glad I did not listen to myself. I'm so glad I did not listen.

Melinda Russell 26:38

Okay, good, good, because you know, the other thing that I hear a lot of times from girls, and I'm sure boys maybe are the same, but I don't really interview boys, but a lot of a lot of things that I hear from them is friendships. Like if you don't go to public school or you know, you're if you're homeschooled, um, and then you go to the races on the weekends, that is your community, and that is your, you know, whereas if you go to public school, you know, those kids there are your, you know, that's who you go to pizza with, or you go to watch basketball, or you do whatever it is you do, you know. And I've had a lot of girls tell me that even when they were in school, like in public school, that a lot of kids didn't understand about their racing and that they didn't really have a lot of friends, and so that's always sad to me, but um it doesn't seem like the girls that have said that really felt that it was a bad thing, you know. They were just like, Oh, yeah, I didn't really have a lot of friends, nobody really understood why I wanted to be at the racetrack on the weekends, those people were my friends, yes, and like I said, that was my whole family.

SPEAKER_07 27:57

Those I grew up with all of those kids because especially being in a junior class, they're all kids, yeah, and um, yeah, from the time little, immediately you make friends, and to now, I still, even though I'm not drag racing, I still talk to them, yeah, and they will forever, I think uh we'll forever be somewhat in each other's lives because they're from Pennsylvania, New Hampshire. I have a friend in Canada, like we're from all over the place, and we would have never have met without an opportunity like that.

Melinda Russell 28:30

So I 100% agree that I would have rathered those friends because I feel like they bring different aspects of life versus high school friends, yeah, and they'll be like you said, they'll be your lifelong friends, even if you really never see them in person, um, or you just maybe randomly see them once in a great while. You guys had a lot of things in common that they brought to your friendship that maybe kids at the public school would not have done. So there's a balance, excuse me. You know, for some kids it's better one way or the other, but um, I'm glad you don't regret going to the racetrack because I think not only did it teach you a lot of what I'm gonna call again life lessons, but um I think kids that race typically the girls that I interview that are involved in racing pretty heavily are more confident and more mature for their age just because of what they're involved in.

SPEAKER_07 29:37

Yeah, you have to grow up pretty fast. And we say that all the time that going from a little kid to being in business meetings, signing contracts, dealing with that amount of money, you kind of have to get out of the oh, I'm a little kid playing with Barbies, yeah. And have to go straight into business like stuff. And you still can have a bit of the childhood, and it's still fun. You're still a kid driving a race car and everybody thinks you're cool. But I like the way I am now. I feel that I know a lot of people who went to regular high school and stuff that either went the wrong way or they really don't know stuff I feel like I know. And I feel like without the racetrack, I would not have had those experiences and I would have been in their shoes. So I am very glad I went to the racetrack instead of that's good, that's good to

Building Sponsors Through Real Social Media

SPEAKER_07 30:38

hear.

Melinda Russell 30:38

Yeah, so Danica, um, let's talk a little bit about social media. What platforms do you use, and how do you use that to promote yourself, support your race team?

SPEAKER_07 30:52

So I will have to admit, the whole junior career I was not very good on social media, and my parents tried and tried and tried, and that was the resilient teenager part of me. I was like, oh, it's so not cool because nobody else was doing it except adults. So, like nobody my age, nobody my age was taking juniors as seriously that I was. So my stepmom ran the Miles Custom Racing page and everything she did there. It was on Instagram. I think we had a couple YouTube videos, Facebook, everything. So when I really took over, I was like, okay, you're gonna have to do this. And I now have an Instagram and Facebook page, um, both Danica Miles Motorsports, and I post on them multiple times a week. I sometimes you sometimes you suck at it, but I try to video whenever I'm working on my car, and I give people real stuff, I feel like I I edit it, but I leave in parts that I feel like a lot of people would take out. Like I want them to see the bad, I want them to see what I'm having to go through. The days where I'm sweating and didn't get ready and put makeup on and didn't do my hair, and I have these lazy clothes on, but I'm outside working on my cart. That's what I like to show people. I don't like the glamorous, and I'm not like that. I don't get up and get ready every day and put makeup on because I'm not gonna do that when I'm working on my race car. Right. You know, there's no point in ruining good clothes while you're and I have never in my life been as dirty as I have been since I started messing in mud. I never knew, I never knew, and I do not know how that much mud gets in my car, but it does, and only one person has to get it out, and it would be me.

Melinda Russell 32:39

Yeah, and it's a good hose and a good nozzle and spray all that.

SPEAKER_07 32:44

I have never been closer with a pressure washer, yeah. I've never used one until recently.

Melinda Russell 32:50

That's funny. So if somebody wanted to know like where you're gonna be racing or how you did, they could find you on Facebook or Instagram. Yes, and um have you had any like has had social media you think been a benefit for you though to be on and posting more?

SPEAKER_07 33:11

Yeah, I um I recently I'm not gonna say who because it hasn't gone through yet, but I recently had have had multiple people reach out to me who know me through the racetrack, but then they also went and looked online and they want to be on my car, and I never thought that would have been possible. So it's kind of like it just feels amazing when people message you and say, Hey, like I see you at the racetrack, but I also came and checked you out, and I love the way you are on the track, and then I love how the way you are off the track, and that kind of builds your confidence to where you want to post more because it does take a lot to put yourself in front of a camera and just talk or video yourself. You've got to have a certain mentality for that and be okay. Like, hey, people might not like this, and this might not get a lot of views, but if you keep doing it, yeah, they will. People will eventually see it, people will see it, and it might not even it might be 40 people who see it, but those 40 people are gonna come back next time and watch you and tell 40 more people about it, yeah. Yeah, so I do think it has been a big benefit.

Melinda Russell 34:18

People like to see authentic, like you said, how some people will, you know, cut stuff out and redo it 10 times to get it perfect. No, that's that's one of the draws of this podcast is unless something really terrible happens, or like we lose connection, something like that, or one time a lady's cats got up on the piano and was playing a tune while we were trying to talk. Unless something like that happens, this is this is gonna air just like we've talked because I like it like that.

SPEAKER_07 34:54

The realers better, and the more people want to watch it. I don't know what it is, and I've learned like even putting music over your race car, people don't want to hear music over your race car, they literally just want to hear your race car run, right? It doesn't matter who it is, and it's just like little things like that that you wouldn't know till you post and you figure it out, and when you see it do good, yeah, it's an amazing feeling.

Melinda Russell 35:18

Yeah, it is. Well, Janica, what have we not talked about that we should talk about? About you or your story or your racing.

SPEAKER_07 35:38

I don't I think we covered it. I could talk forever. That's the thing that's gonna get me talking. I could sit here and spill so many facts about myself. Yeah. Um, a lot of people don't know a whole lot about me.

Racing With Anxiety And Ulcerative Colitis

SPEAKER_07 35:54

Because when I do post, I don't like say like, hey, this is about me. Like, I don't think a lot of people would know I have anxiety. Um, I have a disease, I have um ulcerative colitis, which is a step under Crohn's. Um and I have to deal with that on top of it. And I mean, that's an everyday thing. It um affects my immune system, it affects if I'm tired, like I'm tired all the time. Um I go on and off being anemic and not. Um, and that's been a big battle, but luckily I have made a huge improvement to when I was younger. Like I got diagnosed, I think I was 15. Um since then, I think I've only had a couple of flare-ups, and it's very rare that it affects me, but there's some times it affects me, and I just always have to go through it. I'm on a great medicine that helps, and I will continue to be on medicine for the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_08 36:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 36:54

Um, yeah. So that like things like that, people don't know.

Melinda Russell 36:59

But you know, there's there's part of the being authentic because it maybe somebody that's listening to this has a daughter who's a little or young who has anxiety, or or has maybe not anxiety, but something similar or whatever, and they're like racing helped Danica. Maybe it would help my daughter overcome whatever it is, and so I think that's an important piece that you brought out because um you're not the only one who has no, and I mean, I still I still struggle with it. So, Danica, I really think that you being so authentic and sharing about having anxiety, having some health issues, you never know who's going to be listening to this, who might have a daughter or a son, or even themselves that might be going through those same things, and then they look at you and they say, Oh, you know, racing really helped her through this. Maybe I should do this or that. And so um, I think that's important that you are willing to share that with people.

SPEAKER_07 38:04

Yeah, 100%. I um I was to the point where no mind you I was little, but I wouldn't go in a gas station, I wouldn't go in a grocery store, I was terrified of someone knocked on the door at my house. It was just anything. I wouldn't go to a doctor, I wouldn't go to a dentist, I anything you could possibly name, I was scared of. And I never knew why. No doctor can tell you why. I couldn't voice ever why I was feeling that way. Um, and I only wanted to be with a parent. My mom, my dad, my grandma, anybody like that in the close circle is who I wanted to be with. And if I wasn't with them, it was insane. Like I would freak out with everything. And I think it even started like I had it before I could even talk. I remember getting dropped off at preschool. I they had to meet me at the car with a bucket, and knowing I was gonna throw up every single morning because I had to leave my parents. I I don't know, and then randomly, the first I think the first year of me junior racing, I'd have to have a Dr. Pepper on the side, and I would just sip it. And I learned that if I sipped it, I wouldn't feel nauseous and it would take my mind off of it, and I wouldn't throw up or I wouldn't gag or anything like that. And then I remember randomly it was just gone. And when that was gone, then I remembered, oh, okay, well, now let's worry about something else. And talking to people was scary, and posting on social media was scary, and then now I would have never done this. And I think a lot of people that know me and listen to this are gonna be like, gosh, like she's talking good, and it's a sense of being proud of myself because I never ever thought I would be where I am, and my anxiety has been so much better, and I think being in motorsport is the reason for that. You just have to find something that takes you out of your comfort zone that you love enough, and I think it helps, it really does.

Melinda Russell 40:10

Well, Danica, thank you for being on today. I really appreciate you being on the show and telling your story. I think it's gonna help somebody out there. We may never know if it does, but I'm guessing it will because there's enough people that listen to the show that there'll be somebody that says, uh, I'm glad I'm glad I heard that show. So well, I hope you have a really successful season.

unknown 40:36

Thank you.

Melinda Russell 40:36

I hope you I hope you win your first race this year. Um, make sure you let me know if you do and send me a picture because I like to keep track. And yeah, and when you post on social media, if you tag Women's Motorsports Network, it's easier for me to keep track of you. So I I just want to wish you good luck and have a great summer, and maybe we'll connect again at the end of the season. For sure.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

This is the women's motor sports.