From Roscoe with love: Catching up with a hometown icon

It’s not a bold statement to say that Danica Patrick is one of the most polarizing figures in racing these days.

Some admire her for her trailblazing accomplishments and attitude, while her detractors claim she hasn’t earned what she currently has. For me, none of that ever really mattered. I’ve been a Danica Patrick supporter from the start because of one big reason — we’re from the same hometown.

Yeah, that’s right. The once-small town of Roscoe, Ill. (it has actually more than doubled in population since I graduated from high school) produced a professional racecar driver. Until last weekend’s U.S. Cellular 250, my only prior contact with Patrick was when she asked me about cantaloupes while I was working at a grocery store in high school.

I was granted a few one-on-one minutes with Patrick for an interview before her joint press conference with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. the Friday before the race. And while I prepared for it much like any other driver interview I’ve done, the discussion quickly veered towards us reminiscing about Roscoe.

“I think it tends to happen like that a lot of the time. People come from small towns and end up doing big things,” Patrick said. “In big cities, there’s tons of stuff to do. But in the smaller towns, you can focus on something, or at least have fewer options for entertainment outside of what’s provided for you in school.”

She started by saying her friends’ hangout used to be the Mobil gas station near McDonald’s, to which I replied the streets that intersect near there. I then learned that we both frequently used the town’s bike path, albeit in different directions. She and her best friend, who was the sister of my driver’s ed teacher, would stop by the now-defunct Big Apple Bagels, while I would use the path to get to my friend’s house to play Wiffle Ball.

“I liked growing up there because it was a good way to grow up, especially in the Midwest,” Patrick said. “In my travels, I feel like wherever I’m at when I come across someone from the Midwest, I can almost tell right off the bat. They’re friendly, easygoing and I’m glad I’m from there. You could get into just enough trouble, but not too much.”

Easygoing was the perfect way to describe our interview, which took place in an office inside Iowa Speedway’s media center. After stating that I was a Roscoe native myself, Patrick’s already casual tone became even more so. And while most of her ties to Roscoe are now gone, as her family and friends have moved elsewhere, she was still able to talk about over-using the town’s first tanning beds and how she was glad to move to England to escape them.

If it wasn’t coincidental enough that a big-name driver came from a town of Roscoe’s former size, another more prominent member of the NASCAR community also claims it as her hometown — Nicole Briscoe, or Nicole Manske as I still think of her. She’s known to the world as the host of NASCAR Countdown on ESPN, but I primarily know of her because I graduated from high school with her little brother.

Briscoe also made waves in Roscoe by first becoming Miss Illinois Teen USA and landing a TV job in nearby Rockford, which was our gateway to the outside world. After landing a hosting gig with the TV network Speed, Briscoe eventually took her last name when she married IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe. Patrick admitted that she and Briscoe weren’t best friends by any means, but they do find a way to stay in touch every so often.

“Well yeah, absolutely, when I do interviews with her,” Patrick said with a laugh. “We never had each other’s cell phone numbers, or beeper numbers back in that day, but it is ironic. I’d tell people, especially early on when I was in IndyCar, that we were in the same high school. I don’t think they got how bizarre it was, and then she married a racecar driver.”

I found it difficult to write this column without it sounding like I was bragging or gushing about my obscure ties to Danica Patrick, but it is a neat thing when someone of her stature comes from a town of that size. My older sister, much like the rest of the town that had no previous interest in racing, took to her racing career immediately. And I’ll admit, I was a little antagonistic of Patrick early on, but that was mainly just to get a rise out of my sister, who was a high school cheerleader with Patrick’s little sister.

However, I’ll also admit that when I attended my first Indy 500 two years ago and heard the words, “From Roscoe, Ill.,” during her introduction, I felt a sense of pride. I spent the rest of the race quietly cheering her on, and have since become more interested in her career, and not just because I have to for my job.

I offered to cut the interview short because Patrick was being summoned for her press conference, but she told me to ask one more question. Scrambling, I asked if she had any regrets moving from northern Illinois to England to further her racing career, even though I already knew the answer.

Our conversation then wrapped up with a short discussion of Rockford Speedway, a quarter-mile asphalt track that I only recently learned is actually the only NASCAR-sanctioned track in the state. Known more for its late model races and one famous alumnus, Jimmy Johnson crew chief Chad Knaus, Rockford Speedway isn’t widely considered to be a NASCAR stepping stone for drivers.

“So it’s probably a good thing I left,” Patrick joked. “But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t going to be one that comes from Rockford Speedway.”