Danica Patrick, who competed in NASCAR's fire-and-brimstone Daytona 500 over the weekend, is no shrinking violet, as they say.

She competes — and wins — in a white-knuckle sport that would make most of us pee our pants and cry for mommy. Literally. This shit is scary.

And so, despite capitalizing on her pleasant appearance (to say the least) in ads for web-hosting company Go Daddy, we think Patrick deserves a little respect:

The same, apparently, can't be said for Southern California sports anchor Ross Shimabuku, who over the weekend bought into some bullshit stereotype of what a female athlete is if she's not always acknowledging her attractiveness to men.

On the eve of the 500, Patrick appeared to once again face reporters' questions about her “sexiness.”

Because male athletes who are good looking must always explain their junk to reporters in post-locker-room interviews too (right?).

Yeah, Patrick, a veteran of even harder-core racing (the up-to-225-mile-per IndyCar series) was a little sick of addressing her looks.

Shimabuku, of San Diego's Fox5, introduced the clip of Patrick by saying, “What's not attractive is that she's sexy and she knows it.”

Patrick told reporters:

I don't quite understand why when you're referring to a girl a female athlete in particular that you have to use the word sexy. Is there any other word you can use to describe me?

Shimabuku:

… Oh I got a few words. Starts with a 'b,' and it's not beautiful.

Oops. Over the weekend he admitted he got a lot of emails about the remark. “I truly apologize,” Shimabuku said.

What's kind of funny is that his Fox5 bio says the sportscaster is from Hawaii but that “doesn't even surf!” Yeah, that's like being from Brooklyn and not being able to fight.

Not sure this guy should have anything to say about a woman who makes a living at a 190-miles-per-hour. Instead of apologizing he should go for a ride-along and see how sexy he can be without losing his lunch.

Keep it classy San Diego.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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