Danica Patrick fond of Indy 500 experience, but not ready to make new ones
— -- In the first 99 years of the Indianapolis 500, only one woman has finished in the top five. Only one has led laps.
Patrick will watch the 100th Indianapolis 500 from afar Sunday as she concentrates on her NASCAR career. She has her place in Indianapolis 500 history, and in many ways the Indianapolis 500 has defined and shaped her career.
"It was always a race that I did really well," said Patrick, who had six top-10s in her seven-race Indianapolis 500 stretch from 2005 to 2011. "I had good cars. I think I had the right approach to it. It suited my style."
The impact of the speedway on her career started even before her first green flag. In 2004, during his media session a few days before the race, car owner Bobby Rahal announced that Patrick would compete in the race in 2005. From that moment on, Patrick knew she would realize her childhood dream of racing in the sport's biggest event.
"He hadn't said a word to me before that," Patrick said. "So I learned I was going to drive in the Indy 500 like everyone else did. That was pretty awesome."
Then came that rookie year at Indy. On her first qualifying lap, the car twitched and Patrick saved it -- earning her incredible respect within the IndyCar community that she could handle the speed. She started fourth in the race, took the lead on lap 190 only to relinquish it four laps later as she eventually dropped to fourth saving fuel all the way to the checkered flag.
"The fact that the first one went like it did, not only was it a big deal to come to IndyCar but then I was so fast all month and then I almost had the pole and then I almost won the race," Patrick said.
"After you are fast, you follow it up with something good and then after you are a favorite to win, then you almost do, you follow it up instead of it just being hype."
Patrick led 19 laps in her first Indianapolis 500 but would lead only 10 more after that. She didn't lead any when she finished third in 2009, the highest finish of a female in race history. She led 10 in the 2011 race, where she finished 10th.
The only time she didn't finish came in 2008, when Ryan Briscoe collided with her as he came out of the pits, knocking her out of the race. Patrick had entered the pits seventh.
"I do [have a place in its history] because I am the highest-finishing female," Patrick said. "Of the drivers who have raced in the Indy 500, I have a pretty decent average. Other than when Briscoe took me out on pit lane coming out of the last pit stop, ... it would have been all top-10s."
She never says never to a return but she isn't looking toward one. In her fifth full season of NASCAR racing and fourth of her Sprint Cup career, the 34-year-old Patrick doesn't have that incredible yearning that she must go back and give it another shot.
"I'm good," she said. "I had great runs at Indy. I had great, great success ... and great memories."
Patrick takes a philosophical approach to her Indianapolis career. There certainly are a bunch of "what-ifs" she could look at and wonder how Indianapolis could shape her career even more. She likely would have been on the pole if the car didn't wiggle on that first qualifying lap of her rookie year.
"I think that's the blessings in disguise -- I would have had the pole if it wasn't for that, I'm pretty confident, but if I would have had the pole, then I wouldn't have been able to show that [ability to save the car]," she said. "People would have been like, 'Well you just had a fast car.'
"I did but I was able to show more than just the fact that the car was fast, I was hanging on to something that was on the edge. So that's why when you look back, I wouldn't change anything."
That is the way Patrick tries to look back on her entire Indy career. But she does wish she had used more of the gas that was left in her car as she saved fuel in that 2005 Indianapolis 500, won by Dan Wheldon, who would win again in 2011 prior to dying in a crash at Las Vegas later that year.
"I had my time," she said. "I have no regrets -- except for maybe that I ended [with] two-and-a half-gallons that first year. I probably should have pushed it a little bit more.
"And you know what? I always think everything happens for a reason and I never overlook the fact that the winner was Dan Wheldon and he's not here anymore. Everything happens for a reason. He has two baby Borgs [trophies] for his kids."
