Patrick's Wheel of Fortune

INDIANAPOLIS, May 26 -- The first lap of Danicamania was powered by the twin engines of hype and speed.

As an Indianapolis 500 rookie last year, Danica Patrick was a promotional dream: accessible, witty and, not least, attractive. As a driver, helped by superior Honda motors, she was faster than most of the field in practice sessions, led 19 laps and finished fourth, the best showing by a woman in the race's history.

Patrick's second trip through the month of May has taken a slightly different line. The 24-year-old remains the biggest celebrity in the field: Already this month she's made appearances on "Good Morning America," "Live With Regis and Kelly," "The Today Show," "The Early Show" and "The Late Show," while her image anchors national advertising campaigns, newspaper front pages and billboards on Santa Monica Boulevard and in Times Square.

As a driver, though, last year's Indianapolis superiority has tapered. The top four drivers in the series standings -- Helio Castroneves, Dan Wheldon, Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott Dixon -- drive for either Team Penske or Chip Ganassi Racing, heavyweight teams that have switched from Toyota to Honda engines and passed the rest of the field.

Those drivers will occupy the first four spots in Sunday's starting grid; Patrick qualified 10th. Patrick hasn't finished in the top five since last year's Indy 500, and in recent weeks she has been asked to defend her performance.

"I think she's done a great job under a huge amount of pressure that is being put on her by people who have unrealistic expectations as to how simple it may be to win," team co-owner Bobby Rahal said on Friday. "She's done more to elevate open-wheel racing than anybody's done in decades. You know, some people don't like to admit to that, but that's reality."

Patrick has handled the questions with typical aplomb. When asked about her winless drought, she said she's "flattered that people would talk about it, ask about it, write about it." When asked whether she's worried, she cited open-wheel stars with longer winless streaks: Vitor Meira, for example, has not won in 48 starts. When asked about Anna Kournikova, another female athlete with crossover appeal but limited titles, Patrick rattled off Kournikova's impressive world rankings while dismissing the comparisons as irrelevant.

"Other than that she's really pretty, and I hope that's a similarity," Patrick said of Kournikova. "She did what she loved, and whether that was doing an extra couple of photo shoots, who cares, you know?"

When asked about the latest flap -- Richard Petty's disapproving remarks this week about women driving racecars -- Patrick smiled and said her response should have been, "Who?"

"I would hope that last year I showed that I have speed and I showed that I could race, and so for the most part I'd have to wonder why he said it, but you have to respect a veteran to a certain degree," she said.

And when asked about her chances this weekend, Patrick shook a splash of realism into her enormous ambitions.

"I mean, you can take a great driver and put him in a bad car and they're not going to do well, that's just the way it goes," she said. "I just hope that I have a good car to start with, and then I'm going to be looking to do better than I did last year."