NASCAR's first couple open up about their seamless, silly and syrupy romance on and off the track. She's cussing a bit less; he's dressing better.
ALTON BAY, N.H. — In a secluded bar at the rear of Sandy Point Restaurant, concern crosses Danica Patrick's face as she glances at her boyfriend.
During a two-hour dinner of loving wisecracks and gushing compliments at this lobster house on the bucolic shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, here is what counts for an awkward moment with auto racing's most famous pairing.
"We don't have utensils," Patrick says, staring blankly at a plate of mozzarella sticks.
"Why do you need those? You're supposed to use your hands," Ricky Stenhouse Jr. says with a devilish pause. "You want me to feed it to you?"
She smiles. "Yeah, baby."
NASCAR's First Couple might seem odd only because their relationship has been so ordinary despite the extraordinary circumstances.
Patrick and Stenhouse are battling for Sprint Cup rookie of the year on the track, but away from the spotlight, they have built a caring yet competitive relationship around screwball comedies, high-end shopping excursions and competitive rounds of golf.
STANDINGS: Complete Sprint Cup points
They somehow have managed dating and racing each other seamlessly — well except for those two instances in which they slammed into each other at full speed.
"I guess it has been a little easier than we thought," Patrick tells USA TODAY Sports in their first extended sit-down as a couple. "It is unique. It is different. But you just can't pick when love happens and with whom."
In this case, romance has blossomed at the most critical juncture of Patrick's career — her rookie season in NASCAR's premier series.
As the circuit moves to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday's Brickyard 400, Patrick is 27th in points with one top-10 finish this season, while Stenhouse is 21st. Although her mass marketing appeal has guaranteed sponsorship for years regardless of results, Patrick admits that she must start improving.
"I'm not really in transition anymore," she says. "Most of the (series) I'd been in for a long time, I was like, 'One more year, two more years. Don't rock the boat, do the best you can.' Now I'm like, 'Holy crap, I've got to make this right.' (Sprint Cup) is it for me, you know? It needs to be better because I'm not waiting for the next thing. This is it. Or there won't be a next thing."
Yet it's been mostly sunshine and roses away from the track for Patrick, who revealed her Stenhouse news in January, two months after announcing the end of her seven-year marriage. It initially seemed the NASCAR universe might implode from the virtually unprecedented pairing, but the glare faded quickly.
When Patrick accidentally spun Stenhouse at New Hampshire Motor Speedway two weeks ago, it hardly caused a stir aside from the most popular woman in motor sports joking to Jay Leno on The Tonight Show that she "did sleep on the couch that night." There have been no wisecracks from fellow drivers or scandal-sheet headlines about their unusual union — not that it matters to the couple.
"It's not that we really care what people say," Patrick says. "I didn't think about it a ton. Maybe a little bit. But I think people mostly were just happy for us."
Says ESPN analyst and 1999 champion Dale Jarrett: "They're probably extremely happy that it's become a non-issue. As much attention as Danica gets, you wonder why there isn't as much on the relationship, but a lot of it probably goes to the fact that neither one of them said, 'This is what we're all about.' They've said, 'We're here to do our jobs as race car drivers,' so I think that maybe everyone said, 'OK, they don't want to talk about it anywhere past this, and we're not going to get much more out of it,' so it became a non-issue, and I think that's the way it should be."
IN DEPTH: 12 Questions with Dale Jarrett
Though they've kept their feelings low profile, it isn't because they are playing it cool. On the contrary, Patrick and Stenhouse have been virtually inseparable, even during their daily crossfit training routines. At the track, they use one motor home for living and sleeping quarters and the other for Patrick's noted culinary skills ("D's Diner" or "Café D" as Stenhouse has dubbed it).
"Does it worry me at all being together so much? No, because we're worse apart," Patrick says. "We're much better together."
"I mean, we're apart for at least four hours on Sundays," Stenhouse jokes.
"But I'm still as close as anyone can get to him that whole time," Patrick says.
The arrangement might be working well because there hasn't been much of an on-track rivalry or consistent success to attract the spotlight's glare. While Stenhouse contended for a victory at Kansas and has been in the hunt for a Chase for the Sprint Cup bid, he also is currently ranked 21st in points and still seeking his first top 10. So is Patrick whose results have faded since starting the season as the first female Sprint Cup pole-sitter and the first woman to lead the Daytona 500.
Maybe it works simply because "they both seem extremely happy," Tony Stewart tells USA TODAY Sports. The three-time champion has fielded cars for both — the No. 10 Chevrolet for Patrick in Cup and USAC sprint cars for Stenhouse. "I've been around Ricky a lot longer than I've been around Danica, but Ricky seems the happiest I've ever seen him, and that's definitely the happiest I've ever seen Danica," Stewart says. "It seems like everything is going really, really well."
STENHOUSE: Comfortable as Danica's other half
So how far along are Patrick and Stenhouse in their relationship? Well, they've met the parents, they're buying each other clothes and they've entered into various stages of cohabitation and compromise. (Patrick is using slightly fewer vulgarities; Stenhouse is drinking slightly more wine.) But the adoring and devoted bond hasn't prompted any talk of wedding bells in the near future (though they toyed with pranking the news media with a photo tweet in front of a Las Vegas chapel).
"We're enjoying it," Stenhouse says.
"But if you continue to enjoy it for long enough," Patrick adds, "then it's just common law in some states."
CROWDED HOUSE
Patrick, 31, spends much of her free time with Stenhouse in the Lake Norman area about 20 miles north of Charlotte at a house where her boyfriend rents a bedroom from his accountant, Ehren Hull.
She keeps her belongings on the floor of a spare room that holds Stenhouse's racing simulator, which serves as a hanger for some of her clothes.
"See, that's how much this is true love," Patrick laughs.
PHOTOS: Danica Patrick's NASCAR career
She doesn't seem to be bothered that Stenhouse, who has been looking to buy a large tract of land for a cattle ranch and motocross track, also shares a residence with a family of four (including two young children).
"It's fun with a whole bunch of people," Patrick says.
The scene is markedly different when they stay at Patrick's River North condo in Chicago. Stenhouse, 25, accompanies his girlfriend on shopping trips to Barneys New York, Lululemon Athletica and other Magnificent Mile stores.
Her favorite? "All of them," says Stenhouse, sitting patiently at dinner while Patrick giggles her way through sharing an email meme about being a young woman in Chicago: "Show the world you're a girl who's self-worthy of $80 yoga pants."
Shortly after ordering (one-pound king baked stuffed lobsters for each, with glazed carrots for Patrick and potato wedges for Stenhouse), Patrick frets about asking for a black napkin.
"Let's keep that in my inner monologue," she says. "What's that Will Ferrell skit about how to train a dog? The dog won't eat his food, and he's like, 'Oh, I'm sorry, The Palm was full tonight. It's going to be the Alpo.'"
"She knows all of Will Ferrell's Saturday Night Live lines," says Stenhouse, noting the couple gave two thumbs up to a screening of Grown Ups 2 a night earlier.
DEAL MAKING
The topic switches to their mismatched sense of fashion and Patrick's high-falutin tastes. "I'm pretty sure that 80% of the time he looks at my outfit and goes, 'I don't get it,'" she laughs. Stenhouse is slightly embarrassed to be wearing a $75 James Perse T-shirt bought for him by Patrick.
are you kidding me? I grew up wearing free racing T-shirts," Stenhouse says. "What's wrong with still wearing them?"
There's a similar kind of deal making when it comes to wine. Stenhouse grudgingly imbibes to keep his significant other happy during wine pairings of 15-course meals, such as her birthday dinner at Providence restraurant in Los Angeles.
"I can drink some white now and then, but I don't really like it," Stenhouse says. "I just drink it more so that when I kiss her, it's not that bad."
These seem like major concessions for a native of Olive Branch, Miss., who "can live on Sweet Tarts. I'm pretty sure my body turns them into protein."
But aside from attending fewer dirt-track races, Stenhouse says life with Patrick hasn't changed too much.
"I hang out with a bunch of girls now, but other than that," he laughs, then pauses. "No, I don't really think there's anything different."
"So I'm awesome?" Patrick asks.
"Pretty much," he says.
MEETING THE PARENTS
She isn't very good at golf, which she is trying to master so she can join her guy (who has played regularly since his freshman year of high school) more often on the links.
Stenhouse's handicap is about 8. Patrick's? "My temper."
That doesn't stop her from vowing to take a round off Stenhouse "in a couple of years," particularly when he agrees to let her shoot from the women's tees.
"Baby, if it means winning, I'll take it," she says. "You want to handicap me in the car and give me 20 extra horsepower because I'm a girl, that's fine, too."
Competitive spirit is a cornerstone of the relationship, as Patrick also brags about making up a 20-second deficit to finish 45 seconds ahead of Stenhouse in a four-round CrossFit workout.
But there also are signs of yielding by Patrick, who wears cowboy boots and hats and has learned to cook liver mush for Stenhouse.
"I drink a lot less wine, and I don't swear as much," she says.
"Yeah, my mom doesn't like it," says Stenhouse, who warned Patrick before their first trip to Mississippi.
There was another family outing last month with both sets of parents at Kentucky Speedway, where the drivers made use of the extra space in two motor homes to house their relatives for cookouts and golf.
"Meeting the parents is the easiest," Stenhouse jokes. "Let's be honest: Parents like me."
Says Patrick: "Parents are worried about me and wonder, 'What's she really like?' Then they realize I'm sweet. I take care of you."
That was evident as the couple strode out of the empty restaurant in New Hampshire, and an employee called out, "Good luck racing this weekend, Danica!"
"You know Ricky's racing Sunday, too," she counters. "You can root for him!"
Stenhouse smiles sheepishly, but the support is something he appreciates, particularly after qualifying.
"Either she's trying to get me to laugh, or I'm trying to get her to laugh," he says. "Generally, it seems like one of us has a good mood or a bad mood."
"What am I like in a bad mood?" Patrick asks.
"Wonderful," Stenhouse replies without missing a beat.
"That's why we're going to make it, honey," Patrick says with a smile.
Follow Nate Ryan on Twitter @nateryan
PHOTOS: Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment