By Nate Ryan, USA TODAY
CONCORD, N.C. - Danica Patrick was standing in victory lane Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but she still felt a tad upstaged.
Beside her, actress and model Brooklyn Decker was wearing a pair of day-glo yellow shoes that contrasted nicely with a white sundress and a black Chevrolet painted to promote her Battleship movie.
"They're really cute," Patrick said of Decker's shoes with a giggle. "I wish I would have had something so stylish. Instead I just have tennis shoes. Gosh, I just can't compete."
Perhaps Patrick could wear Decker's shoes during Sunday's Coca-Cola 600? "They look like they would melt," she said.
After becoming friends several years ago while posing for Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue, Decker and Patrick were reacquainted for before Sunday's race. Decker was at Charlotte as honorary race director and a guest of Coke Zero, which also has an endorsement deal with Patrick.
In a joint appearance, Patrick explained the nuances of a NASCAR pit stop, and Decker was given the chance to try to jack the car and pack it with fuel.
"Is it magnetized?" Decker asked while trying to insert the gas can into the car. "It doesn't latch? Well, that doesn't seem very smart. There has to be a better way."
Patrick laughed and noted, "Well, there could be a better way, but somewhat of the fun of NASCAR is we keep things a little more do-it-yourself."
"She's a good sport," Patrick added. "I know I wouldn't want to pick up the gas cans. I just like turning left."
"You're really good at turning left," Decker said. "She's so skilled and talented. If I can hold your gas can, I'm honored.
"It's incredible. Anytime a woman can do well in any sport it's to be admired, truly. To see her transcend, go from Indy to this, it's pretty incredible. She's done it seeminglessly. It's fun to watch her."
Patrick is just as big a fan of Decker. "Speaking of transcend, I knew Brooklyn when she was a smoking-hot model," Patrick said. "She still is a smoking-hot model underneath those clothes. Now she's a superstar. I watched her from a distance (and thought), 'How in the world does she go from the cover of Sports Illustrated to three huge movies?' It's pretty amazing. I don't feel like there's many more people that have been able to do that."
A blushing Decker responded, "You, either! Actually, no one has been able to do what you do. She can do my job, she can do her job."
"The only thing is I have to diet for four to six weeks straight, hardcore, to get in shape for it," Patrick said. "She's just like, 'Tomorrow? I'll be there.' "
Decker, a native of nearby Matthews, N.C., was making her first visit to Charlotte Motor Speedway ("I'm a horrible North Carolinian," she joked). After getting a garage tour, she also got a primer from Patrick on a stock-car cockpit.
Patrick told Decker that she uses a paint pen after her first practice at each track to mark where to align the steering wheel because "I'm very picky about where I hold my hands." She also explained how she'd learned to bite her tongue on the team radio.
"Many times I've had the advice of, 'Go ahead and say it and don't key (the mic),' " Patrick said. "Sometimes you get mad and you want everyone to know, but it kind of takes you out of your game. It's good to keep it to yourself. So I have a little inner monologue."
"Extreme road rage," Decker said with a laugh. "Driving in Los Angeles, I can imagine that."
Patrick said her easygoing rapport with Decker was instant from when they met at a Sports Illustrated launch party. Afterward Patrick met Decker's future husband, Andy Roddick, who "was splling his guts about liking her so much and wanting to marry her," Patrick said.
"I remember him telling me at the bar, 'I really like this girl. I think I'm going to marry her, and I've already bought a place in New York.' And I'm like, 'Wow! OK! That's great!'"
