Wheldon Steals the Show at Indy

The drama for Patrick was only beginning. She worked her way back up to eighth, then made a rookie mistake: She spun under caution on Lap 155 and smacked into fellow rookie Tomas Enge, destroying her front wing and bringing out the yellow flag.

Patrick ducked her Panoz-Honda into the pits for a new wing and managed to stay on the lead lap. She came in again four laps later, still under caution, and took on a full tank of fuel. She came out of the pits in 11th place.

But when the leaders pitted on Lap 172, Patrick stayed out, giving her the lead again. Patrick's team owner, Bobby Rahal, gambled that his driver had enough fuel to finish. And she did -- but only by the slightest margin.

Wheldon, in a Dallara-Honda, passed Patrick on Lap 186 before the caution flag came out again. When racing resumed on Lap 190, Patrick zipped past Wheldon, much to the approval of the roaring crowd.

"Wow, what a day for me," Patrick said. "A stall in the pits and a spin and then I was leading the race at the end. We really had to dial back the fuel just to make it to the end. So I was just trying to hang on as long as possible."

But she wasn't able to hold off Wheldon with seven laps left, not with a car that was running on fumes.

"Unfortunately, you're a sitting duck when you start restarts in the lead here," Wheldon said of Patrick's pass with 10 to go. "I knew I could pass her, but it was just a matter of timing. And having done it once, she was obviously aware of where I was good and where I was not. So she made it a little bit more difficult."

Meantime, the heartbreak continued at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. The 2001 and 2002 IRL series champion led the most laps (77) but crashed out of the race on Lap 147. Hornish was uninjured.

Bruno Junqueira, another early challenger, had moved up to sixth when he got tangled with a lapped car on Lap 78. Junqueira suffered a concussion and two back fractures, which will require surgery.

The weekend's feel-good story, Brack, was forced to retire because of a suspension failure on Lap 99. Brack was making his first IndyCar start since nearly being killed in a horrific racing accident at Texas Motor Speedway 19 months ago.

Asked afterward if her performance had proven a point for women, Patrick said: "I made a hell of point for anybody, are you kidding me? I came from the back twice. It was frustrating to be leading the race with so few laps remaining and not be able to finish hard and just hang out up front and win the thing. But I also knew something had to give."