Danica Patrick's Twitter Tops 1 Million Followers

By Emma Koonse, Christian Post Reporter Monday, February 24, 2014

Danica Patrick surpassed another NASCAR milestone this week, but the accomplishment has nothing to do with the racetrack.

Patrick became the first female driver in history to lead the green flag lap at the Daytona 500 in February 2013, and over the weekend, she reached over one million Twitter followers on her account- the first NASCAR driver to ever garner so many followers. The feat puts Patrick among other top female athletes such as Serena Williams.

"It just shows what incredible and loyal fans I have," Patrick said of her Twitter followers while speaking to the Associated Press ahead of Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500. "It's pretty humbling that 1 million people are curious about what I have to say and what I'm doing. I really can't thank everyone enough for their passion and interest."

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Although Patrick is the most-followed NASCAR driver, her Twitter following pales in comparison to the current Twitter topper,s whose following exceeds 50 million users. Today, Katy Perry has the most followers on the micro blogging site, clocking in at 50,783,327. Trailing closely behind is Justin Bieber who has almost 50,000,000 followers, while President Obama comes in third on Twitter with over 41,000,000 followers.

Meanwhile, Patrick's latest Twitter feat comes just after NASCAR legend Richard Petty's disparaging comments about her. The Hall of Famer said that Patrick would win the Sprint Cup Series only "if everybody else stayed home," ESPN reported. The Sprint Cup Series kicked off on Feb. 15. Petty went on to point out that Patrick is one of very few females associated with NASCAR and attributed that to her success.

"If she'd have been a male, nobody would ever know if she'd showed up at a racetrack," said the 76-year-old. "This is a female deal that's driving her. There's nothing wrong with that, because that's good PR for me. More fans come out, people are more interested in it. She has helped to draw attention to the sport, which helps everybody in the sport."

Nevertheless, Patrick shrugged off Petty's comments, saying, "Everyone is entitled to their opinion."