Tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, Detroit Shock forward Cheryl Ford and race-car driver Danica Patrick all have trophy cases filled with championship paraphernalia.

But on Saturday, March 29, only Danica added a Favorite Female Athlete trophy as part of the 2008 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards (otherwise known as KCA).

She joined Johnny Depp, Jessica Alba, Miley Cyrus, Tony Hawk, Cameron Diaz and many more by scoring big at the slime fest. The winners clinched coveted orange Blimps during the live telecast hosted by Jack Black and spotlighting the hottest stars of TV, movies, music and sports.

'A lot of adults still don’t know who Danica Patrick is but kids are obviously paying attention'


More than doubling last year’s record-breaking record, 86,708,020 million votes were cast by kids in 18 categories to honor their favorites (that’s more votes than American Idol!). A lot of adults still don’t know who Danica Patrick is but kids are obviously paying attention.

For the uninitiated, Favorite Female Athlete winner Danica Sue Patrick (born March 25, 1982) is an American race car driver who competes in the IndyCar Series. She was named Rookie of the Year for both the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and the 2005 IndyCar Series season.

In 2005 Danica became the fourth woman (following Janet Guthrie, Lyn St. James and Sarah Fisher) to drive in the Indianapolis 500 auto race. She led the race for 19 laps and finished in fourth place, the best ever result for a female driver.

Last year she was voted INDY Series “Most Popular Driver” for her third consecutive award. There was speculation that she’d move over to NASCAR but she declined several team offers and elected to sign with Andretti Green Racing and continue to race INDY cars.

In 2007, Forbes Magazine ranked her at 97 in the top 100 most powerful athletes in the world. This was her third year in a row within the Forbes top 100. She also earned approximately $5m in endorsements during the 2007 INDY Car Series campaign. Not bad for a girl who started out racing go Karts.

While she has yet to earn a victory in her short IRL career, Danica has won the respect and admiration of fans, as well as her fellow drivers. She has also brought new fan interest to IRL racing.

Obviously kids want to know what life is like in the fast lane (e.g. racing around the track at speeds up to 229 mph) – and Danica can certainly show them!