Patrick finished eighth in the 2013 Daytona 500, the highest finish by a woman in the race's history.
On February 24, 2013, the day after claiming the historic pole position, Danica Patrick finished eighth in the Daytona 500, marking the highest finishing position ever achieved by a woman in the history of NASCAR's most prestigious race. Racing for Stewart-Haas Racing, Patrick led laps during the event and ran competitively throughout, validating the pole position she had won a day earlier.
Her back-to-back achievements that weekend—the pole on February 23 and the eighth-place finish on February 24—together represented one of the most significant weekends for women in NASCAR history. Prior to Patrick, no woman had come close to matching this level of performance in the Daytona 500, an event that had been run since 1959.
The eighth-place finish, paired with her pole-winning run, generated enormous media attention and drove a surge of interest in NASCAR from new and diverse audiences. It reinforced perceptions that Patrick's crossover into stock car racing was a legitimate and sustained challenge to the sport's traditional gender barriers, not merely a publicity vehicle. The achievement remains a frequently cited benchmark whenever discussions arise about the progress and future of women's participation in NASCAR.