2006 Grand Prix

Hype is back; victory awaits

Danica Patrick, in her second IndyCar season, is the first to say that she needs results now.

By BRANT JAMES
Published March 26, 2006

HOMESTEAD - Danica Patrick's biggest critic thinks it's put-up or shut-up time.

Sure, the Indy Racing League rookie of the year has magazine cover good looks, a personality made to move merchandise, and the boundless energy to promote a series searching for a face the public will remember.

But it's time for her to win. Two top-fives and three poles in a season won't cut it anymore. Whatever history she made at the Indianapolis 500 last year was one day in time. Her career is about now, or all this attention will soon turn negative. Or she will be discarded. Yesterday's story. Style, no substance, they'll say; fairly or not, Anna Kournikova in a helmet.

So says Danica Patrick.

"I would imagine that sometime in the future I am going to have to win a race," said Patrick, who turned 24 Saturday. "And I've said that - everybody's said that."

A year ago, Patrick came to the season opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway a relative unknown, familiar more for her gentlemen's magazine spreads and television appearances than her burgeoning race career. By midseason she was a standard bearer for her gender, becoming the first woman to lead a lap in the Indianapolis 500 and setting records for highest start and finish by a woman, both fourth.

Aside from that, she had some respectable runs, and earned the respect of her peers with her ability, but had scant statistics to justify her immense media presence. In racing, performance matters, and she wasn't producing enough to quell mounting criticism - read: jealousy - from some competitors. Patrick had more magazine covers last season - 12, if you're counting - than many IRL drivers have in a career, and her post-Indy talk show tour was as extensive as that of 500 winner Dan Wheldon.

Patrick also smiled from the Sports Illustrated cover while Wheldon's win was relegated to a small headline in the corner.

"I think what happened last year was very much something that nobody really expected," she said. "And to be honest, I didn't really expect some of that so quickly."

Entering today's Indy 300, the first race of her second IRL season, Patrick brings all the hype again, and knows she needs to win to "keep you guys interested."

"I'm not going to fault anyone for asking that question, because I'm asking, too," she said of when she will win. "So I think that's the next thing that needs to happen, but in the meantime, I just have to keep trying for that. But if I keep trucking along, running in the back of the pack this year, or for the next three years, then I'm not going to really be a super-exciting story."

"There's only so much outside media and endorsement stuff that can keep the fire fueled."

But the fire is just fine right now. When Patrick held the pole for much of qualifying on Saturday, she was swarmed on pit road. Sam Hornish later earned the pole - Patrick starts third - and received less enthusiasm.

Patrick said she was not surprised when the inevitable backlash occurred among drivers last season. During an autograph session in Milwaukee - within 100 miles of her hometown of Roscoe, Ill. - a misunderstanding led several drivers to criticize her when they thought she had her own autograph line at a fan event. Turns out, hers was just at the front of the room and the line nearly lapped the field. And no matter how much other drivers objected, there was no denying that her merchandise sales dwarfed all others, and television ratings spiked when she was made the story.

Still, she empathized.

"I don't know what it's like to be asked a whole of bunch of questions all the time about someone (else)," she said. "I think that for someone to not just blow up and explode in an interview one time about not wanting to hear about Danica Patrick, I think that everybody did a great job, you know? I thank them for their patience and I just hope we can all benefit from it and we can all use it to an advantage instead of seeing it as a negative or a jealous sort of thing and I really think everybody handled it pretty good."

Rusty Wallace, Patrick's teammate in the 24-hour Grand Am race in January at Daytona, doesn't understand why her counterparts were taken by surprise when Patrick became a sensation.

"She's pretty and she's the only gal around and she gets all the attention and that's just the way it is," he said. "I don't think she meant to come in and say, "I'm going to steal everyone's attention. I'm going to make everybody mad. I'm just going to do this.' It's just how it ended."

As much as Patrick said she understands the feelings of her peers, she's quick to assert that her notoriety has side benefits for all.

"I think there is some responsibility that should be put on the shoulders of drivers to make sure they get themselves out there as best as they can," she said. "Sometimes there are limited opportunities, but, you know, it really will help the series, too. I can't imagine that it's going to harm it in any way that I'm doing four or five commercials out there and I'm endorsing these products and if they wonder, "Who's that? Oh, it's an IndyCar driver,' and that helps."

Helio Castroneves said he understood that the novelty of Patrick's endeavor would generate a certain amount of media attention. The trick was coming to terms with it and Castroneves found that easier with her performance at Indy, Motegi, Japan (fourth) and Chicago (sixth).

"Inside the car she is like us, but outside she is not," he said. "She's a female and that's what people probably focus on more, not about the result, which she also got results."

Castroneves said she already has earned respect in the garage - at least his - with the way she conducts herself on the track. Regardless of gender, rookies struggle to find a niche, learning to race aggressively without rankling the veterans. Ryan Briscoe, a former Formula One test driver in Patrick's rookie class, didn't do that well enough and is currently looking for work.

"She has a good knowledge about racing, lifting when the car wasn't good," Castroneves said, "going for it when the car was good, so for me that's good enough."

Patrick earned Wallace's respect at Daytona. A notorious gearhead and tinkerer, Wallace was astounded by Patrick's level of interest and expertise in helping set up their car, especially considering she was moonlighting.

"She is definitely the real deal," he said. "She is not just a chick that gets in there and drives."

Patrick knows that. But she also knows she needs to prove it. And soon.

[Last modified March 27, 2006, 13:29:44]