Winless but determined

INDIANAPOLIS -- Questions from reporters have become about as repetitive as autograph requests for Danica Patrick.

So forgive the 24-year-old racer when she was caught somewhat off-guard when she heard a new one: How different would her life have been had she not met Bobby Rahal?

"That's a good one," replied Patrick, who will start 10th in her second Indy 500 on Sunday. "I was always confident something would happen because I had a lot to offer.

"Sometimes you doubt yourself when things aren't going well. You become a pessimist. I sure got nervous. My dad kept telling me, 'You're a good driver, and every time you get into a race car you're fast.' You just need somebody to treat you like that."

That was Rahal, an Indy 500 champ who co-owns a racing team with late-night talk show host David Letterman. Rahal put his public relations team to work to try to find Patrick, who had spent the previous three years racing in Europe, a ride in U.S. open-wheel racing.

Rahal then helped get Patrick into the Toyota Pro/Celebrity at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, where she beat pro driver Tommy Kendall in April 2002.

A couple of months later, Rahal apparently had seen enough. He created a Champ Car Atlantic Series team and signed Patrick to her first contract in U.S. Indy-car racing.

"In every driver's life, there's a moment when you get somebody to believe in you and give you a chance," Rahal says. "(Team owner) Jim Trueman was that for me. Would somebody else have done that for her? I don't know."

But could this union be threatened? Patrick's contract is up at year's end, and the possibility remains -- albeit somewhat remote -- that her days with Rahal Letterman Racing could be numbered.

"We're in the process of discussing that with our sponsors," Rahal says. "We certainly want to keep her. She's a great team player. She's a lot of fun. It's exciting to watch her do her thing, and she's very appreciative. She's genuine about that. We like her on the team.

"She gives us 100% every day, and that's all you can ask for."

Patrick's only qualm with the team recently is the fact that it stuck with the underperforming Panoz chassis a little too long. Rahal Letterman Racing is the only team that runs the full IRL schedule not to use the quicker Dallara.

But that problem gets solved next month when Rahal Letterman switches to the Dallara on ovals.

"I am so happy to be driving with Bobby, so I have to start with that," Patrick said.

Added Rahal: "I don't think she wants to go anywhere, and we don't want her to go anywhere."

One thing Rahal seems to have in perspective is judging Patrick's on-track performance.

"She's done a great job," Rahal says. "Everybody has gotten on her unfairly and wondering when she'll get her first win. Vitor Meira is one of the best guys out there, and he hasn't won yet in five years of IRL racing. She's getting better every race. Her day is going to come. She's doing a heck of a job under a great deal more pressure than any driver out there."

Meira, who wasn't brought back as a driver for Rahal Letterman Racing after last season, has gone 48 races without a win.

"It's hard to get your first win in any form of racing," said Meira, last year's runner-up in the 500 who will start sixth Sunday. "You have to be in the right situation for a win to happen for you."

Open-wheel racing has traditionally been one of the toughest racing disciplines to earn victory No. 1. (Four-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Sr. went 56 races before his first win.)

Patrick had three poles in her rookie season of 2005 and finished fourth twice, including the Indianapolis 500.

She pointed out in a recent interview that it has taken the current crop of IndyCar drivers an average 33 races to win their first race; her second Indianapolis 500 on Sunday will be her 20th start in the IRL IndyCar Series.

"That would be year three for me," Patrick says. "I'm not saying that it takes until year three to win a race, but I am saying, 'Let's not go outside what's normal.'"

A.J. Allmendinger, a third-year driver in the rival Champ Car World Series, would be another apt comparison. Allmendinger, who like Patrick is 24, has gone winless in his first 30 races.

"I haven't done it yet, so it's not easy to do," sniped Allmendinger at a recent race. It was a touchy subject for the driver, who refused to answer any more questions.

Patrick isn't so sensitive about the topic. "That's very positive that people are thinking about it, because it's not, 'When are you going to do something good?' 'When are you going to win the pole (or) lead a race?'" Patrick says. "Those things have happened, so I'm waiting to find out when I'm going to win that first race, too."

Quantifying Patrick's celebrity status is much easier. Take last week's appearance at an autograph session at an area supermarket.

The easy route was to count the autograph seekers who stretched in a line to the back of the store, seeking a slice of Danicamania.

Another measure could be heard well across the store by two shoppers caught in the hoopla.

"Now we have to get past Danica," a woman told her friend as the two looked toward the mass of people that blocked their path to the produce section.

Patrick, with the help of her new husband Paul Hospenthal, has navigated the year's worth of fame.

"The positives outweigh the negatives," Patrick says. "People listen to what you have to say. You get to go on exciting TV shows like Letterman."

And the downsides?

"You don't have as much privacy," Patrick says. "I spend a lot of time at the motor home at the track or I'm inside the trailer talking to my engineer. ... I try to accommodate the fans as best we can. I feel captive a little bit."

Not a bad price to pay for a driver who was an unknown quantity five years ago before Rahal swooped. What about the next five years?

"I don't know what shape or form (the future) will come in," she says. "I don't know if I'll be racing for a championship in Formula One or still racing Indy cars. Maybe it will be one series by then and much different. Times change very quickly."

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