“How many years will it be before another female driver starts from the pole position at Daytona?” Janet Guthrie, the first woman to run both the Indy 500 and the Daytona 500, had once posed that question in a 2013 Washington Post article she had written. Guthrie’s spotlight was on the driver who succeeded her later in becoming only the second-ever female to run races at Indy and Daytona in a single season—Danica Patrick.

In hindsight, it hasn’t been a loose question. Since Patrick’s history-making 2013 Daytona 500 performance, no woman has started from the pole position in a top-3 NASCAR National Series race. One can certainly make a case about how the gender parity ratio for drivers has not been kind to the female drivers to help with that context. But only the people who raised someone like Danica Patrick would truly know how hard it is to watch their daughter constantly battle another very heartbreaking narrative. And T.J. Patrick Jr., Danica’s father, revealed exactly what that is in a recent conversation with Kenny Wallace.

How the women of NASCAR battle the track and their unfair treatment

Contrary to what many would think, the biggest problem bothering female racers, specifically in NASCAR, hasn’t been the selective fan outrage amplified via social media in current times. Instead, for women like Guthrie and Patrick, their battles have often been against questionable sexist bias brought about by the various circumstances surrounding them from an even closer proximity. It sometimes comes in the form of a fellow competitor who wishes to race them a little too hard and is usually a male. Other times, the ladies face even greater adversity, like those involving hefty terms such as ‘sponsorship’ or ‘funding’.

To gain some context into the latter, one must look no further than Janet Guthrie’s era-defining interview with the LA Times in 1987, where she publically chastised the lack of “corporate sponsorships” for women. At the time she had said, “Men are getting sponsorship and women can’t. That sounds unfair. But who cares about unfair? What counts is the bottom line. Sponsors want the publicity that racing brings. But a successful woman driver will get ten times the attention that a man will get. So, now, what really is important?”

A fiery statement, if one must call it such. Regardless, Guthrie brought that same fire to the track, where she holds the record for multiple firsts as a female in motorsports. But what must stand out to NASCAR fans the most is that she is the highest-finishing woman ever in a Cup race. She achieved this feat by finishing P6 at Bristol Motor Speedway in 1977.

It was no simple accomplishment either, as there were even fewer women in motorsports besides her during those earlier days. Over three decades later, in 2014, a certain Danica Patrick tied that record with her own P6 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Danica achieved this accolade in the foreground of the still-existent prejudice Guthrie had once faced with her sponsorships. But in Danica’s case specifically, she battled another problem.

As her father explained to Kenny Wallace in a sit down on the Kenny Conversations, “Everybody that races with Danica, races her harder than they do any other guy. And if you don’t believe it? Ask any of the other girls. They race you harder. And so she never complained about it. She knew it. She told me, ‘Dad,’ she goes, “I get it I don’t want to get beat by a girl either.’ So I think she considered herself more of a guy because she was good, than a girl trying to make it.”

As for the question of the male drivers racing females with just a little bit of an edge, even Kenny Wallace had recently asserted in a recent address across his social media platforms that indeed they do. Kenny used Toni Breidinger’s ARCA wreck at IRP last week as an example of how a fellow male competitor may/may not have wrecked another female intentionally. Lawless Alan’s intentions during the race were highly debatable. But if one had to single out only one incident, it would make little sense in the wider background of countless such moments scattered throughout NASCAR history.

From Janet Guthrie to Shawna Robinson, to Danica Patrick, and now Toni Breidinger & others, it is true that some male racers have just gone out against them. Now, it is important to understand that female drivers are not the only ones who are affected by the hate they receive. More often than not, they are members of a family potentially involving parents, siblings, and probably a husband and children. So, Kenny also asked Danica’s dad how he dealt with all the “horrible comments” usually made online by a few misogynistic “horrible men.”

Only Danica Patrick’s dad knows the struggles of his daughter firsthand

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Kenny Wallace, who has in recent times become a glowering advocate for paying women their ample respect in motorsports, rightfully mentions that “A lot of them (males) are pieces of cr*p.” After all, he is the proud father of three brilliant daughters with his wife Kim. From a fairly neutral perspective, he notices the male demographic’s tendency to scrutinize female drivers and their performances with just a little more enthusiasm than normal.

Nevertheless, NASCAR fans are a passionate bunch. But in his recent address, Kenny emphasized it’s not just the fans, but a few drivers are also playing their due part in helping widen a decades-long pre-existent divide between men and women in NASCAR racing.

Speaking about the Breidinger situation this past week, Wallace explained, “The situation is this: more guys always dump the girls. The girls do not dump the guys. The guys are always dumping the girls.” Once a guy does end up having his hands dirty in a wreck involving a girl, the onus of the blame generally does not go on the wrecker either. Instead, the wrecked female driver faces constant backlash, with comments usually insinuating the distasteful myth that: ‘women can’t drive.‘

But more than just the driver’s tenacity, she also needs a strong support system. Danica’s father appeared to be one of the strongest in front of Kenny Wallace when the latter asked the former how he remained calm through the backlash his daughter faced.

As T.J. Patrick Jr. elaborated, “I mean it goes all the time. Everywhere you look. Do I read them? Now and then I just kind of giggle. But I know and the right people know that if you put her in a race car, she’s going to be almost, if not quicker than any guy. In an Indy car, a stock car. I mean, in the right circumstances she can do it, just like most drivers that make it to the top. You don’t make it to the top level by being average. You don’t. So she’s very driven and determined, and this is my famous quote, and none of the reporters ever said it. They said, ‘What about Danica?’ I said, ‘You know, she’s never had an easy pass in her life.’ Nobody’s let her by.”

It is hard to make one’s name as a high-stakes NASCAR driver. But to do it as a female in a heavily evident man’s world is truly extraordinary. Hence, fans must be mindful of the struggles of drivers like Janet Guthrie and Danica Patrick before mindlessly turning away the future stars of tomorrow by unnecessary heckling. After all, the world indeed is a better place without the hatred.