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Mar. 24--After the Danica Patrick media snowball started rolling last year, it was easy to track her whereabouts on a race weekend: Just follow the pack of reporters, photographers and cameramen.
As she walked through it all, though, the 5-foot-1 Patrick never lost sight of where she was going, and she never forgot why the cameras were there. She was the only woman in a man's world of Indy Car racing, and that was why she was the center of attention.
"I never let it get in the way of racing," Patrick said. "I was definitely always to my car on time."
So it will be this weekend when she opens her second Indy Racing League season. She will be in Homestead, Fla., with the other 17 drivers trying to tame the 1.5-mile oval where it started for her a year ago.
"I hope (the attention) gets bigger and better, and that it keeps growing the series and gets everybody's name out there," said Patrick, who turns 24 Saturday. "I can handle it. I'm fine with it.
"It would be bad if I felt the pressure to perform along with it. But I promise you, I want to do well for myself."
All things considered, she did pretty well for herself last year, among other things:
-- Becoming the first woman to lead a lap in the Indianapolis 500.
-- Winning three pole positions, the most ever by a woman in a major racing series.
-- Winning rookie of the year for the Indianapolis 500 and the IRL season.
Oh, and one other thing.
"Outside of racing, I got married," she said. She and physical therapist Paul Hospenthal tied the knot in November in Scottsdale, Ariz., where they live.
"What else do you want, right? Happy wife, happy life."
There's no doubt what else she wants. She wants to win.
She hasn't won since she was 16 and driving go-karts. She raced in the Formula Ford series in England for a few years, then in the Barber-Saab and Atlantic series in this country.
Rahal Letterman team owner Bobby Rahal decided last year that the time was right for her to join the IRL and continue on the learning curve.
She almost won the pole in Motegi, Japan. At Indianapolis, "Danica Mania" was born. When she found herself leading the Indy 500 for a restart late in the race, the cheers from the crowd of more than 300,000 could be heard over the noise of the engines.
Dan Wheldon went on to win, and Patrick finished fourth. But she was the one tabbed for the Sports Illustrated cover. She was the one everyone was watching from then on.
In the midst of it all, engineer and team leader Ray Leto marveled at how she handled the pressure.
"When it came time to get in the car, she showed the ability to shut out all of the distractions and attention," Leto said. "When she got in the car, she was a focused race car driver.
"I think a lot of people almost forgot she was a rookie, that almost every track we went to was her first experience there, and in these highpowered cars. She not only was dealing with all of the stuff going on outside but with a completely different type of racing. I was impressed with her driving ability and car control, and what a quick learner she was.
"I really believe it's because her primary motivation is she wants to beat everybody else."
However, the IRL has plenty of talent, including defending series champion Wheldon, Sam Hornish Jr., Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti, Patrick's Rahal Letterman teammate Buddy Rice, all of whom also have winning on the brain.
So asked what achievements on the track would please her this year, she couched the answer because naming a specific goal would just "set myself up to fail."
"But I'd like to just make sure I run (near) the front all the time. . . . Then I think if that happens and I do run in the front consistently, to win a race. I'd love to win a bunch of races, but I probably would walk away from the season happy if I could win a race."
Walk away? More than likely she'd be swept away if that first win came. Her team and the IRL have plans in place should she become the first woman to win a major auto race other than in drag racing.
"For example, the league will have a private jet right there, ready to take her away to New York, where she'll do all of the major media shows," Rahal Letterman public relations chief Brent Maurer said. "We went through a lot of that last year after Indy through the rest of the season, because not only was the sports media interested but the mainstream media, as well. That was the big difference.
"And it will be a new story when she wins."
Patrick understands that, which is why when it's time to push the gas, she's in her race car.
"The news is what happens on the track," Patrick said. "That's the real news. That's why I'm here."
tmay@dispatch.com
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