02/20/2008 – 09:22 AM

Indianapolis, Ind.

Danica Patrick: ready to get back to work. (LAT photo)

Highlights of a media teleconference with Andretti Green Racing IndyCar driver Danica Patrick. Q: Dario Franchitti said at Daytona that he expects you’re going to win your first race this season. Secondly, on the [Sports Illustrated] swimsuit issue, do you expect to get any criticism on that?

DANICA PATRICK: As far as your first question, sounded more like a statement, didn’t it? Dario (Franchitti) is a great guy. I guess I never thought in my career I’d be toe-to-toe with him at any point and earn those kinds of respectful and honoring words from a guy like Dario Franchitti. He’s a great friend and a great guy. I think that I’ll hope that his words are more of a statement than a question or anything.

Then as far as your other question about the swimsuit issue, you know, I think, I guess I would ask, are you criticizing it or have you heard about anything? Because, to me, the swimsuit issue is beautiful. It’s women looking beautiful. They do a tasteful job.

I am one of a long line of celebrities that have been in that magazine. You know, it’s the biggest issue of the year for magazines. So I am completely honored to be in it. I had a great time. Everybody was very respectful and did a great job of putting together that magazine. I think it’s one of the best swimsuit issues I’ve ever seen. So it was beautiful.

Q: I agree with you that the SI thing looks great. And I have to admit I laughed pretty hard at the GoDaddy commercials.

DP: Good. It was meant to make people laugh.

Q: Well, good. It succeeded with me, anyway. But it was pretty edgy. What’s the line? What would you not do and where is the line between sort of promotion and distraction?

DP: Well, I think that the line for me is my line of how I feel. If I get into a situation that I feel uncomfortable in, if you get that gut feeling of, ‘Yeah, this isn’t right,’ or you feel self-conscious or embarrassed, that’s where I draw the line. So I would never do anything that I feel uncomfortable in.

I’ve had situations where if a photo, somebody wants to take a photo a certain way, I’ll say, ‘Look, I’m not real happy with this idea. But, take a Polaroid. Let me look at it and see what I think.’ Then I can look for myself to see what it looks like as well. So I take very many precautions to make sure that I feel comfortable in every situation, and then I can never really be embarrassed.

It doesn’t matter what people say. I’ve respected my own line. I haven’t crossed it. So, for me, I think that swimsuit issue is probably, obviously, about as far as I’d go with as little clothes. But I have a hard time with never saying never, because I think that that can come to bite you later on. But let’s just say I’m pretty happy with that line right there.

Q: Do you see a correlation between the fact that the [IndyCar] series has lost two champions and two Indy 500 winners, and the fact that all the promotion lately is about a guy who dances and a girl who wears a swimsuit?

DP: No, those are great things. Let’s take Helio [Castroneves] for instance. A lot of people do that show. Twenty million people watch it, which is great. And the things that I’ve done, 97 million people watched the Super Bowl. And the swimsuit issue sells more copies than any other issue of the year. So I think those are amazing things for the Indy Racing League to have as far as marketing tools and personalities.

I’ve always known that the IndyCar Series has great potential for personalities and interests within the media. So I think it’s just great that it’s showing now. You know, I think it’s great for everybody.

Now in her second season with Andretti Green, Patrick is confident of building on momentum. (LAT photo)

Q: What is your take on these open-wheel reunification talks and how it could affect your racing? DP: Well, I would imagine I’m probably speaking for many people when we say it’s about time. You know, it’s been a tough process for everybody. It’s been disappointing for a lot of people. I think it’s distracted and taken away a lot of good sponsors that were discouraged by the split. So I hope this is like a new birth of sponsorship and interests.

I’ve always said that fans need something easy. Fans need something simple that’s easy to understand. When you try to explain it – which, trust me, I barely understood it, initially, about the two series and everything – it’s crap. It makes it difficult. So this is going to make everything so much easier.

We’re going to get great races put together. We’re going to have all the best events put into one series, and more drivers, and that always makes for more passing, more excitement, more interest. So it’s a win, win, win, win situation.

Q: Besides the swimsuit issue and your business and the Super Bowl ads, did you do anything fun during the break? Did you get any vacation time?

DP: I did go on vacation, actually. My husband and myself and another couple, we took a trip back to Fiji. We went there for our honeymoon, so we went back there to a different place. We had met a couple of really nice people at a charity event that let us stay at their house. So not an all-bad situation. So we had a nice time.

We’ve been fairly busy. We’ve had sort of probably two different times during the off-season where we’ve had maybe a week to 10 days of pretty slow. But that’s nice. It helps you get refreshed and get energized and want to get back to work. Because, you know, there’s nothing worse than waking up and not having anything to do and no reason for the day. It’s like, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll work out today for four hours because I’ve got nothing else to do.’ So, yep, we had a good time.

Q: With the season coming up, are there any particular goals you’ve set for yourself?

DP: I’m consistent on this one. I don’t set any goals that I have to achieve or do, and I guess if I had to say one it would be win. But I’m not very much different than every other driver out there and that is their goal as well. Then follow that up by, win with the words ‘as many times as you can.’ I wouldn’t think I’m much different than any other driver out there.

Q: With the second season with Andretti Green, do you feel a lot more comfortable with the team now since you’ve been through it once before?

DP: I do. This is the most excited I’ve been going into a season, the most comfortable I’ve felt. This year I feel like excitement is sort of maybe number one to nervousness. Where normally every other year I was more nervous than anything. So I’m really excited about it.

I feel confident as a driver. I feel like I’ve really come into my own and feel like I’m able to really push those limits to where I need to be. And I’m just really excited.

Danica and Marco Andretti figure to be carrying the torch for American drivers’ win chances this year. (LAT photo)

Q: With Sam Hornish leaving the series this year that, leaves you and Marco [Andretti] as the most significant American drivers of substance. Does that add any pressure to you this year? DP: No, no, I didn’t even know that until you mentioned it. I think we have so many. I guess it’s hard for me to really look at it like American drivers, because there’s a bunch of us. I guess if there were only a couple you’d feel that pressure, excitement to be kind of someone that the home team would cheer for, hopefully.

But not really, you know. I think for me I look at every competitor as being one in their own – a competitor in the IndyCar Series, regardless of their background and where they’re from. I guess you kind of forget all the accents after a while. So, no, I don’t feel anything for that.

Q: With the talks on unification, do you feel all the drivers are eager for that to finally happen? Do you think it would be a smooth process?

DP: I would think all the drivers and probably the owners and the series owners are probably excited. I think there’s been a long string of years that have been financial burdens, probably, for those who own the series and trying to keep them going.

So will it be an easy transition? Absolutely not. It’s going to be probably difficult, it’s probably going to be a little messy. Probably going to be a little bit of that transition of what is going where? Who is doing what? What are the new rules?

But from my standpoint, I think that the IndyCar Series has kind of prevailed as the successful series that’s really made a difference and really come through and brought the fans out.

I think that probably most people recognize that. So I don’t see a lot of things changing as far as the people that are in the IndyCar Series and the people that exist there.

So it will probably be tougher for the drivers and teams coming over from the other series just because it’s going to be, you know, they’re going to be walking into our series. But I think it’s the best thing that we can possibly do.

I think there are so many people that believe it’s long overdue. I’m one of them. I’ve been working really hard since I came to the IndyCar Series to make it bigger, better than ever. And this is one of the things that I had always hoped that would happen so I’m glad to be a part of it.

Danica’s connection with the fans is readily apparent, but she’d like to see the series reach out to a wider potential audience. (LAT photo)

Q: To kind of build upon the merger talk, when you combine that with some of the things you’re doing in the off-season such as the Super Bowl ads, SI swimsuit issue, Castroneves with the dancing, how can the IRL turn all these things and create positive momentum and bring out a larger fan base in 2008? DP: I’m probably not exactly the right person to ask. But I have my own ideas so I’ll give you those. I think that in this, where we’re at right now, we’re kind of at a pivotal stage where we can really make it big and we can really push ourselves out there.

I kind of have a theory that it takes money to make money. I wish there would be more ads. I want to see more commercials. I want to know when our races are on TV because I’m watching the shows that I watch on TV, and I don’t see that. So you watch TV and you see advertisements for every other sporting event, every other big sporting event 10 times during a program. I think that we need that. I think that we need mainstream exposure.

The race fans that are going to watch are going to watch. We need to make sure we reach out to all of those people that are watching House or Desperate Housewives or something. We need to really push and come up with some clever commercials that display some personality and funny is always funny. Funny is always good.

That’s what I’d like to see happen. But I’m not the one with the checkbook, and I’m not the one calling the shots. I’m just a little driver with ideas.

Q: On your first season last year with Andretti Green Racing. Were you pleased with the year or disappointed with seventh in points?

DP: You know, I think that whenever you come to the end of the season you always think this, this, and this could have gone right and I would have been there. I had a chance in the last race to actually finish fifth in the championship. Things needed to play out right, but I was that far into the game. I was close enough in points. So fifth I would have been ecstatic for that.

Given the year and how the previous years had gone, I think that would have been great. But you know, I think that I’m very happy with how the road-course racing progressed through the year. And I think I’m going to be really strong on the ovals and excited. I feel like I’ve got a lot stored up inside me to let out, so I’m excited.

Q: How much pressure do you feel this year to get your first win? Do you feel as much as last year?

DP: You know, I just want to get it done. Is that so bad to say? I feel like there’s been times where I’ve come close. There’s been times where I’ve been maybe more preoccupied being a team player. And I think that I really feel like it’s time. It’s my time to do it. It’s overdue, and it’s going to be a big relief when it finally happens.

I think that I always put so much pressure on myself. I don’t know if anybody ever sees how mean I look at the racetrack on race weekends. But I always put tons of pressure on myself, and I’m always very serious and very focused. I’d be lying if I said that there was more or less pressure from the first year till now.

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