Danica Patrick would be ecstatic with another strong run at the Detroit Indy Grand Prix.

After starting 11th last year at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park, Patrick worked her way up to fifth late in the race when the cars running second, third and fourth were involved in an incident with two laps to go. Patrick sped past the wreckage and held on for a second-place finish behind Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Patrick, fifth-fastest in practice on Friday with a lap at 100.100 mph (161 kph). “I’m very fortunate that I didn’t get caught up in it. It was great to stand next to Tony Kanaan on the podium, first and second. Hopefully we can do something similar again.”

Despite winning her first IndyCar race this season in Japan, nothing has come easy this year for Patrick. She has finished in the top 10 in nine of 15 races this year, but only three times in the top five, including a fifth-place showing last weekend in Sonoma, California.

“It’s been a year of ups and downs, and drama,” Patrick said. “It’s either been something on the track drawing attention or something off the track. It’s just been like that this year.

“(Winning) hasn’t lessened the pressure to win again. We’re shooting for No. 1 every week. It’s the other drivers who are making it hard on me. The competition is very deep out there, especially on the road courses. It’s tough every single weekend.”

The success has been accompanied by some distractions. The most notable one occurred during practice for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio when Patrick marched over to driver Milka Duno’s pit box to complain to her and Dreyer & Reinbold crew members that Duno was too slow on the course and blocking faster drivers. Duno responded by twice snapping a white towel at Patrick before telling her to leave.

Still, Patrick has been able to continue to focus on her driving. She’s sixth in the Indy Racing League driver standings, 45 points behind fifth-place Ryan Briscoe of Australia.

“Every year at the end you think if it wouldn’t have been for that one thing,” Patrick said. “That’s just the way it goes. But you can’t control it. Everybody has their bad races. Everybody has their throwaways. That’s what makes a season.

“Obviously Scott Dixon is kicking everybody’s butt and doing a good job this year.”

Patrick admitted that a repeat of her last performance at Detroit is going to be difficult on the 14-turn, 2-mile (3.3-kilometer) circuit.

“Passing is very difficult here,” she said. “It’s difficult to pass on any road course, really, but here it’s not like you drop a wheel off in the gravel and keep going or get pushed wide. You hit a wall.

“There’s just nowhere to go. I did a couple of them last year, but they weren’t pretty. A lot of crashes end up happening when you try. The only other spot you can make up spots outside of actually passing would be through strategy, through fuel saving, through pit stops. I think a lot of us tend to rely on strategy for the cleanest passing.”

Plus, Patrick noted that this year’s race field was expanded from 17 to 26 with IndyCar’s merger with the Champ Car World Series.

“We’ve got 10 or 11 new entries and that definitely gets into the mix. It fogs it up,” she said. “Last year there were a lot of top fives and running up front a lot. This year it’s just not been quite the same. There’s just too many drivers out there.”

Danica Patrick is sure to revisit the cover of Sports Illustrated, only this time as a champion driver and not a swimsuit model. The stunning 26-year-old has been voted the most popular driver for three years running and now she has proved that she can hold her own against the men.

Danica Patrick will be among the early favorites to win the Indianapolis 500 when practice begins next week.

That’s not so much because of her historic first victory two weeks ago in the IRL IndyCar Series race in Japan as it is due to her feeling at home at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s a place where Patrick has felt welcome since she first arrived there as a 23-year-old rookie three years ago.

“I like Indy a lot,” Patrick said. “I feel very confident there.

“But, at the same time, the place demands a little respect. It’s never easy and you can’t take speed for granted there. You have to really stay with the car and push it to its limit.”

She became an instant sensation at the Brickyard, and from the moment she put a wheel onto the 2.5-mile Indy oval, she was quick.

There was a second round of “DanicaMania” this year following her win in Japan. Now, she’s setting her sights on Indy, but she’ll have to contend with a group of additional challengers arriving at Indy in the wake of the open-wheel merger.

She is particularly proud of her drive in last May’s rain-shortened race.

“I feel like (Indy) was probably some of the best driving I’ve done,” Patrick said of the 2007 race. “There’s just a little bit of bravery that maybe I lacked a little in the beginning years. It’s just having the confidence that you’re going to go into the corner and make it out and beat the (other) drivers.”

She has also gone a long way towards sweeping away the denigrating attitude she has faced as a woman in a so-called man’s sport. But Danica couldn’t care less. “I really don’t pay much attention to the sexist remarks,” she said.

An icon for women, Danica believes she can pave the way for women in the Middle East to take up the sport. “I would hope so, I believe I have shown that women can be as good drivers as men. I think they should at least have the opportunity,” she said.

So, where does she hope to go from here, a career in NASCAR or Formula One maybe?

“As of now I am happy with IndyCar. I guess we will see what the future brings. I have always said never say never. I always leave my options open,” she said.

IndyCar race winner Danica Patrick has set her sights on a Formula One test, with Honda Racing confirming they would be interested in running the Andretti-Green Racing driver.

Patrick’s maiden victory at Motegi has prompted fresh speculation about her future, with Honda being an obvious candidate to consider her because the Japanese manufacturer supply her engines.

Speaking to this week’s Autosport, Patrick confirmed that she was interested in a run in an F1 car, but only if it was a serious test.

“Every driver would love to drive a Formula One car at some point in their life, so yeah,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a real, proper test.

“I was asked to do a demonstration lap at Indy in 2005, and I said, ‘No way. You’re making me a show. That’s embarrassing.’ But I would say that a real test is absolutely something I would do.”

Honda Racing F1 CEO Nick Fry has admitted that his team would seriously consider running Patrick for a test, although made it clear no discussions have taken place about the matter.

“We haven’t instigated anything, but if Danica wanted to be test driver then we’d be more than happy to talk about it,” he explained.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Danica Patrick’s visit to the Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway two weeks ago was more about seeing friends than putting out feelers.

But aside from renewing ties with former Indy Racing League peers Dario Franchitti and Sam Hornish Jr., Patrick’s Phoenix appearance as a guest of Roush Fenway Racing also could mark a step toward establishing new relationships in stock-car racing — perhaps with Jack Roush, who admitted officials from his powerhouse Cup team spoke to Patrick at Phoenix.

NASCAR still remains a possibility for Patrick in the wake of becoming the first woman to win a major-league open-wheel event.

“The door has never been shut,” she said Friday at Kansas Speedway. “I’ve learned too well over the last six to eight years, you can’t say anything is a never. Saying never is a very strong word, and if you do enough interviews and say that word, it really lives.”

Patrick, 26, had a brief flirtation with leaving Indy cars to race NASCAR in the summer of 2006 while in the final season of her contract with Rahal Letterman Racing.

She signed with Andretti Green Racing for the 2007 season in a multiyear deal whose terms weren’t disclosed. But SPEEDTV.com reported that Patrick’s primary sponsor, Motorola, signed a contract for 2007-09, and driver contracts often run concurrently with their sponsors.

That could put the IRL’s most popular star up for bidding again in 2010, and Patrick won’t rule out considering NASCAR again.

“Yes, I’m knee deep in Indy car,” she said. “But when your contract time comes, anyone would be foolish not to explore options that are relevant. You have to go where you feel you have the best chance to win and the most opportunities and where you feel your heart is.”

Patrick’s heart currently is firmly in the IRL, where she’s been the face of the series for three years since becoming the first female driver to lead the Indianapolis 500 in 2005.

Her victory in last Sunday’s Indy 300 at Twin Ring Motegi has prompted questions about whether she’s emerged as a championship contender (she’s 14 points behind leader Helio Castroneves). After Sunday’s Road Runner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas, where Patrick qualfied third Saturday behind the Chip Ganassi Racing duo of Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon, the circuit heads to Indy for a month.

Patrick, who hasn’t finished outside the top 10 at the 2.5-mile track, figures to remain the dominant story in May.

“I’m really happy in Indy car,” she said. “It’s going well, obviously, but you never know what’s going to happen in the future. Every contract has an expiration date, and you always need to assess what’s going on.

“I’m not looking for rides out there, but I’m also a racing fan and also have friends in NASCAR.”

That’s the primary reason she was in the pits at PIR, a track nearby her year-round home with husband Paul Hospenthal.

Hornish, a three-time IRL champion and 2006 Indy 500 winner who is in his rookie Cup season with Penske Racing, stayed at Patrick’s house during the NASCAR weekend at Phoenix.

Patrick also spent quality time with Franchitti, who is in his first season at Ganassi Racing after winning the IRL title and Indianapolis 500 last season as Patrick’s teammate at AGR.

“I really wanted to say hi to both of them because of all the people in Indy car, those were the two people I spent the most time with,” said Patrick, who has known Hornish since her teenage years in go-karts and befriended Franchitti while racing in Europe from 1998-2001. “It was sad to see them go.”

It’s probably been as difficult to watch Hornish and Franchitti during their debuts in NASCAR’s premier series. Hornish is ranked 33rd in points with two top-20 finishes. Franchitti is mired in 38th and hasn’t cracked the top 20, failing to qualify at Texas last month.

Patrick said she peppered Franchitti and Hornish with questions about NASCAR and is mindful of their struggles.

“I’m always asking people what (NASCAR) is like, just as a fellow racer,” she said. “There’s such perception but what’s the reality? You can’t ever know too much.

“I don’t know what their support system is like and their learning curve, but I know they said it’s hard, and I think that proves how hard it is.”

The most daunting element of NASCAR for Patrick, whose charisma and marketability brings enormous media and sponsor demands, likely would be a 36-race schedule that’s twice as long as the IRL’s

“We look at going to Japan, and it’s race three and they’re done with eight or nine already,” she said. “Just knowing how my schedule goes and to add on top of that 20 more races. That’s something that’s very much a lifestyle change and would take some adjusting.

Patrick tested a Ford for a now-defunct team in the Nationwide series several years ago, and she now is drawing interest from Ford’s top team owner in NASCAR.

In confirming Patrick as a guest of his team at Phoenix, Roush told reporters at Talladega Superspeedway on Friday that he could “lay out a program” to sell her on making the switch to NASCAR, which he said would need to be a staggered development and not a direct leap to Cup.

“It’s not clear that because she won an open-wheel race that it would be a straightforward thing for her to step into a stock car,” Roush said. “Quite to the contrary. I think she’d have to get comfortable with it.”

However, there are others, such as Sprint Cup points leader Jeff Burton, who believe Patrick’s win proves she has the talent.

“I was really impressed,” Burton said. “Every week when you watch the race she runs in the top 10.”

But he cautions success in Indy cars hasn’t translated historically into success in stock cars, which are twice as heavy and lack the precision braking and handling of an Indy car. Hornish and Franchitti are the latest on a long list of open-wheel crossovers who have attempted the switch with little success.

“It’s a harder transition than people think,” Burton said. “I’m not saying that we’re the best drivers. What I’m saying is it takes a different driving style to run well in these cars than it does in a high downforce, high-grip type of race car. I don’t know if she could do it. I don’t have a clue. I do believe that it would be a hard transition.

“These cars don’t make grip, and when you watch those (Indy cars) race, they’re great drivers but it’s a different type of racing. I’m not saying it’s worse. It is different and I don’t know that the same style works from that car to this car.”

Burton believes Patrick’s gender wouldn’t be a factor in tackling NASCAR’s marathon schedule, which also includes races that are as much as 200-300 miles longer than IRL events.

“There’s not one reason in the world that a woman driver cannot be successful in all forms of motorsports,” Burton said. “A woman can be successful, but it’s going to take a high talent level. You can’t be average. You’ve got to be really good.”

Patrick always has believed she’s good enough even if others don’t.

During her a New York media blitz this week, she was caught off guard by a question about whether her win was historic.

“I expect people to think that I can’t drive still because I’m different,” she said. “I’m in a boys sport, so you get the good old boys and people that aren’t open to change. You get people that don’t want to embrace it.”

Among the many questions Patrick said she didn’t field while barnstroming national talk shows was whether she still was interested in NASCAR.

“It’s a clue that IndyCar is definitely getting stronger,” she said. “It has for the last couple of years, but the things that have happened over the last six months have been the strongest yet.”

The recently unified IRL has ridden a wave of momentum this year.

In addition to absorbing rival series Champ Car and ending a bitter and confusing 14-year split, the circuit also has celebrated a Dancing With The Stars champion in Castroneves, its youngest winner (Graham Rahal, 19, triumphed at St. Petersburg) and the perpetual headlines generated by Patrick, who already had created a stir this year by appearing in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue a few weeks before the Japan win.

“I hope people make money off me and get sponsors because of what’s happened,” she said. “I hope good things come from it. It’s not like a solo effort of me and the race car. You’ve got teams and support from people and the league, these are things that have been there for years.

“I hope that everyone benefits from it.”

MOTEGI, Japan – Since exploding into the consciousness of an international audience at the 2005 Indianapolis 500, Danica Patrick has answered incessant questions of when she would win an IndyCar Series race.

Next question, please.

Patrick, competing in her 50th IndyCar Series race, became the first female to win a major auto racing event on a closed-course circuit. The designation is because Jutta Kleinschmidt of Germany won the Paris to Dakar Rally in 2001.

? The setting: The Indy Japan 300 on the Twin Ring Motegi oval.
? The scenario: Moving from ninth place on Lap 189, seeing leaders pit for a splash of fuel a few laps later and overtaking Helio Castroneves on Lap 198.
? The post-race scene: The sun broke through for the first time all weekend as Patrick made her way through a sea of well-wishers to the victory stage. Today, the diminutive Patrick stood 7 feet tall.

“Finally,” Patrick said through tears before a victory lap to compose her thoughts. “This is a long time coming. It was a fuel strategy race, but my team called it perfectly for me. I know I was on the same strategy as Helio, and when I passed him for the lead I couldn’t believe it. This is fabulous.”

A few minutes later, fans streamed down the frontstretch grandstand to get a closer glimpse (and hopefully a snapshot) of the winner – proof they were witness to history and had the ability to return to the venue after the sixth annual race was postponed 22 hours because of rain.

“I’ve always said that I wouldn’t do this, but on my last lap I was kind of just excited,” said Patrick, 26. “And when I actually had to talk on my radio, finally the emotion came out. I really couldn’t manage any other words than ‘thank you.’ And then I was as relieved as I expected I would be years ago, how I knew I would feel when I won my first race.”

Patrick has come close before, including after starting on the front row at Twin Ring Motegi in her fourth IndyCar Series race in ‘05. She finished fourth and really captured the public’s attention a month later by becoming the first female to lead the Indianapolis 500. Patrick finished fourth again, and over the next two-plus seasons (with Rahal Letterman Racing and now Andretti Green Racing) second place (at Belle Isle last September) had been the high-water mark.

“I’ve been asked so many times when I’m going to win my first race, and finally, no more of those questions.”

No, they will turn to ‘When can you win another?’ starting with the RoadRunner Turbo Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway in a week.

“It feels like it’s taken a long time,” she continued. “I had a lot of opportunities last year that were missed due to bad luck. I can only say I’m just glad it’s over.”

Castroneves finished 5.8594 seconds behind and Scott Dixon was third. Dixon’s Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Dan Wheldon, finished fourth and Tony Kanaan was fifth. Vision Racing’s Ed Carpenter, staring at a career-best finish, also had to pit and wound up sixth. Rahal Letterman Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay was a season-best seventh and A.J. Foyt Racing’s Darren Manning advanced four positions to eighth.

Patrick, who competed in European junior formulas seeking her open-wheel racing break, returned to the States to compete in the Toyota Atlantic series in 2003 for Team Rahal. Co-owner Bobby Rahal gave her the opportunity in 2005. The move was met with some questions about a relatively inexperienced driver – and a female – competing in the premier North American open-wheel racing series.

“I think that the disadvantage to overcome was just that I hadn’t won,” Patrick said. “A lot of women hadn’t really proved on a consistent basis that they could be a good driver and always run up front. I think there had been times when they had done well but not consistently.

“I can’t tell you that I blame them for not believing that we could do it. But when you have 100 guys come through, finding one good one, the odds are a lot better than 100 girls since it takes a lot longer for 100 to come through. The odds are against us. But I grew up with never really using guys as a reference, using drivers as a reference, and if I wasn’t fast enough, I wasn’t fast enough. That was the most important thing.”

The car was plenty fast enough at Twin Ring Motegi. Her team calculated the fuel mileage to the liter. And Patrick drove into history.

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Miami (March 30, 2008) – Milka Duno, IndyCar Series driver with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, finished early in the lap 125 of 200 at the IndyCar Series season kickoff GAINSCO Auto Insurance Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Saturday, March 29.

She was forced to exit as a result of an incident caused by the car #34 driven by Franck Perera of Conquest Racing. The Frenchman unexpectedly changed lanes between turns one and two as Duno was setting up to pass inside and took away the air from Duno’s front wing causing her to spin and make contact with the outside wall.

Duno, who started the race from the 16th position, drove a flawless first half of the race, climbing as high as 12th position out of the 25-car field. After two pit stops, Duno was comfortably running in 15th before the incident with Perera.

“I am very disappointed with the result of last night’s race, especially after a good practice and qualifying,” said Duno. “I was running hard on the track, until I went inside to pass and #34 crossed inside. I did not have a choice to what happened next. The team had all done a fantastic job preparing the car to make a consistent race and I really want to thank them all. I have a lot of confidence in the team behind me.”

“Milka was doing a good job before losing air and getting forced to leave the track,” said team co-owner, Robbie Buhl. “It would have been nice to keep the momentum she was building during the first half of the race. We did well during practice, made some adjustments to the car and felt we had a strong contention to finish strong.”
Duno’s next scheduled race is at Kansas Speedway, Sunday, April 27.

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An Indy Racing League rule change has Danica Patrick feeling as if she’ll be penalized for being petite — which the popular driver said wouldn’t happen in other sports.

Starting this season, the minimum weight for IRL cars will include the driver, and Patrick is the series’ lightest at 100 pounds according to the 2007 media guide (which lists other female drivers Milka Duno and Sarah Fisher at 120 pounds apiece; Ed Carpenter is the heaviest at 165).

“If someone’s going to take the hit it’s going to be me,” Patrick said Thursday. “It’s disappointing the league decided to do that. In so many other sports, athletes don’t get penalized for being too strong, or too tall or too fast.

“(It’s) just your God-given stature is being penalized. What am I going to do, though? It’s not my decision. That’s the people higher up (who) made their bed, and they’ve got to lay in it.”

Patrick said she asked IRL officials about the reason for the change but said “they didn’t really have one.

“I just follow the rules,” she said. “Maybe I’ll get more specific reasons somewhere down the line …”

IRL spokesman John Griffin said the rule was intended to reduce the difference between the lightest and heaviest drivers, which is a gap that can range from 75 to 100 pounds.

“We want to make absolutely clear this is not a Danica rule,” Griffin said. “You look at guys like Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti, and they’re light guys.”

Griffin wouldn’t disclose the cars’ minimum weight but said drivers are broken into three weight classifications. The heaviest would have weight reduced from its car while the lightest would have a maximum 35 pounds of ballast added.

“It’s something that had been looked at and was in the back of our minds every year,” Griffin said.

Patrick admits to having had a slight speed edge from weighing less in a sport where lighter means faster. An Associated Press story in 2005 reported rival teams estimated Patrick might gain nearly 1 mph because of her weight, and Sprint Cup driver Robby Gordon said he wouldn’t race Patrick in the IRL until the series equalized weights as NASCAR’s premier circuit does.

Patrick hopes to put the issue behind her by winning the season-opening Gainsco 300 at Homestead Miami Speedway on Saturday.

“Let’s just do that,” she said with a laugh, “and then I’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you guys do this years ago?’ “

Gracious offer:

David Reutimann would give up running for a Nationwide Series championship — and a larger share of each race’s purse — if the result was more money and exposure for the series’ teams without Sprint Cup ties.

“The only way to truly help is to give them more money so they can hire engineers and pay for wind tunnel time,” Reutimann said during a Nationwide test at Richmond International Raceway.

Reutimann, who is running both the Cup and Nationwide circuits for the second consecutive season for Michael Waltrip Racing, believes NASCAR should redistribute its prize money to Nationwide-only teams and perhaps limit Cup drivers from earning points.

“If that takes me out of a seat and gives someone else an opportunity, maybe that’s not a bad thing because I needed an opportunity one time,” he said. “My first race was here in Richmond with one car, one motor and barely enough money for a set of tires.” Jason Keller, the career Nationwide leader in starts (428), has “mixed emotions” about points restrictions.

“The series needs Cup flavor,” he said. “But David hit the nail on the head … We do need more money.”

[Source]

ACROSS America, little girls dream of growing up to be Danica Patrick, 25, the Indy-car driver who in 2005 became only the fourth woman ever to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Ms. Patrick, however, has fantasies of her own.

“I’m not tall enough to be a model, but I wish I was 6-foot, because I love it,” explained the 5-foot-2 Ms. Patrick over a recent dinner in TriBeCa, adding: “It’s kind of artsy, and I’m artsy. And I love clothes.”

On a recent Monday in New York, Ms. Patrick got to live her dreams, at least for one evening. She had flown in from her home in Arizona with her husband, Paul Hospenthal, a physical therapist, for a party celebrating the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Alongside pictorials of models like Ana Beatriz Barros, Ms. Patrick is featured in a four-page spread of her own, cavorting in the South Florida surf wearing a skimpy bikini.

For a woman who spends most days with the boys in the oil-stained pits, Ms. Patrick said she enjoyed rare opportunities like this one to slip into a slinky Herve Leger dress, drape herself in diamonds, and just act like a girl for a change. She has made peace with her dual image — tomboy and siren.

“I was very against pink and purple when I was young, because they were girls’ colors,” she explained over dinner at the moodily lit Devin Tavern in TriBeCa, where the couple started the evening. “But that was only because I didn’t want people to write me off for what I can do. When I got into my 20s, I decided that was stupid. God gave me gifts. Some of them have to do with beauty, some of them have to do with talent.”

Those gifts hardly went unnoticed at the Sports Illustrated party, held high atop 7 World Trade Center, where Ms. Patrick received the treatment of a star at a Hollywood premiere. Cameras flashed from all directions. Cheerleaders from professional football teams, also featured in the issue, crowded in on Ms. Patrick, who teetered on four-inch Christian Louboutin heels. Looking on proudly, Diane Smith, the editor for the swimsuit issue, called Ms. Patrick “a natural — as good as any model I’ve ever worked with.”

As Champagne flowed and dance beats pounded, Ms. Patrick seemed a bit awed by the flashy scene. “The vibe is so glamorous here,” she said. “At the after-party of the Indy 500, I’m usually wearing jeans and a tank top.”

Apparently, people who drive automobiles 220 miles an hour for a living have a special sense of what is scary. Peering out the 52nd-story window, Ms. Patrick confessed that heights give her the jitters. And don’t get her started on dentists: “I had my wisdom teeth pulled a few weeks ago, and it was petrifying.”

But experiences that might terrify other women — say, showing off her contours against a backdrop of swimsuit models — seem manageable.

“I never do anything out of my comfort zone,” she explained.

At that, Mr. Hospenthal laughed. “She’s just very comfortable driving ludicrous speeds, one-inch from someone’s bumper,” he said.

“Well,” she responded, “that’s my comfort zone.”

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