DAYTONA BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Danica Patrick, who inspired millions of young women to aspire to become motor racing drivers in an overwhelmingly male sport, will make her final NASCAR start at the Daytona 500 this week.

"Not only is it the biggest (NASCAR) race of the year, it's wide open from a performance standpoint," Patrick said on Tuesday at the Daytona 500 media day. "It's exciting. Anything can happen."

Patrick's start on Sunday at the Speedway in the Great American Race will be followed by a final run in her home state at the Indianapolis 500 in May before hanging up her helmet as a full-time driver.

Although Patrick has yet to win a NASCAR race in 190 Cup starts, she is the only female to win the Daytona 500 pole position in 2013 and went on to a career-best eighth place finish at the race that year. She finished 28th in last year's NASCAR Cup standings.

She said she came to NASCAR with high aspirations and it has not gone according to plan but she has no regrets about how her career has panned out.

"I'm not one of those people that looks back on anything and says, I wish this would have been different. I am happy with where I am now," she said.

While her marks don't compare with former seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, her legacy could be greater for the next generation.

"Danica has been someone for my daughters to look up to," Johnson said to reporters at the Daytona International Speedway.

"That's the impact she's had in sports and women in sports."

Patrick, 35, used her stunning debut in the 2005 Indy 500 to build a career where she was the star of the show at first.

She qualified fourth, led laps and finished fourth that year at the then record speed for women. Although she was competitive in open-wheel cars, Patrick only won once at Indy Car in seven years where she had 117 starts.

'LASTING IMPACT'

Double Daytona 500 and 16-times Indy 500 winning team owner Roger Penske told Reuters in an email: "Danica Patrick has really made a lasting impact on racing. Her success, both on the race track and the way she has helped grow the fan base in both Indy Car and NASCAR, has been remarkable.

"She then (after Indy Car) brought new energy and new fans to NASCAR while continuing to help create even more opportunities for women in motorsports."

Bobby Rahal, an Indy 500 winner himself and Patrick's team owner at her Indy debut, said her move into Indy Car was comparable to the famous 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King.

"I don't want to say she was bigger than the sport," Rahal told Reuters. "Her story was so unique in the sense that she was the first woman, particularly at Indy, who was competitive against the men."

Her performances led to sponsorship from internet domain name company GoDaddy, which was then known for highly popular Super Bowl commercials featuring Patrick. As the big money was leaving Indy Car for NASCAR, she brought GoDaddy to the American stock car series.

"At the time she moved to NASCAR she was riding the wave of something new to NASCAR and to a female demographic," Andrew Campagnone, founder of Sports Marketing Consultants, told Reuters. "The marketing reach that her sponsor, GoDaddy, put behind her was enormous and much credit goes to them as to her. She did shed light for young girls around the globe, not (just the) U.S. on making it in a male dominated lifestyle of motorsports. She'll be relevant even out of the car, as she has transcended the sport like Dale Earnhardt Jr."

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