Somewhere, even Ray Harroun has to be on the edge of his seat. Not since the Chicago engineer-turned-daredevil won the first “500-Mile Race” in 1911 has a driver stood so near a threshold of American history as Danica Patrick does.
She could–she really could–become the first woman to win the Indianapolis 500.
Patrick, a 23-year-old rookie from Roscoe, Ill., was fastest of all drivers in the final practice on Friday at 225.597 m.p.h. By then she surprised no one. She had been at or near the top of the electronic speed charts all month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
In the best car a woman ever has had here–a powerful Panoz-Honda from the Rahal Letterman team that won this race last year–Patrick has roared so far, so fast in the estimation of her competitors that they are considering how to deal with her in a shootout for the victory.
“She will do whatever she can to win the race,” reckons rival owner Michael Andretti, whose four-driver team in Sunday’s race includes pole-sitter Tony Kanaan. Andretti figures Patrick would rather lose big than settle for a conservative second or third.
Even at the risk of wrecking?
“I think so,” Andretti says. “I believe so.”
Unblinking, Patrick replies: “There is nothing I want to do more than win this race. And I will do what it takes. I will be fair, but I will do what it takes.”
Her father, T.J. Patrick, who put her in go-karts at age 10 and sent her off to England at 16 into the ruthless schooling formulas of Europe, knows that attitude.
“She’d rather [wreck in a shootout] than just sit back and wait for something to happen,” he says.
In two weeks’ time she has become the darling of the national media, from network news to New York talk shows to major newspapers. “I didn’t come here to become famous,” she says. “I’d try the same, whether nobody was watching or everybody’s watching.”
Helio Castroneves has won two 500s, one as a rookie in 2001, by being smart enough, patient enough, to be there at the end. This time, he wouldn’t be surprised to have company up front in Patrick. “Keep her nose clean, she’ll be in fantastic shape at the end,” he says.
“Keep my nose clean” is Patrick’s own blunt racers’ criterion for getting into position to win.
That’s oversimplification of getting through the first 490 miles of the oldest, fastest, ficklest race in the world.
“She’s doing an excellent job,” four-time Indy winner Rick Mears says. “She’s very smooth. She has taken her time.
“Her big learning curve is going to be the race. It is for any new driver, not just her. All the different things you deal with–the difference in turbulence, four cars in front of you vs. two cars in front of you, temperature change, fuel load, tire wear. There are so many more variables [than in practice and qualifying].”
“The biggest thing is turbulence,” says Andretti, who drove in this race 14 times. “It’s a way easy track, if you’re out there by yourself. When you’re out there with 33 cars, it just feels totally different. The car does totally different things and you have to drive it differently. That’s where she’s going to have to learn fast.”
She is as prepared for all of that as any rookie can be, says team manager Scott Roembke, who supervised her through days on days of practice in traffic here, simulating race conditions.
“At the beginning of the week, she ran where she could just see the pack,” Roembke says. “The next day she’s in the middle of the pack. The next day she’s toward the front of the pack.
“Now nothing can prepare her for what it’s going to be like with 33 cars. Her biggest advantage is–and I’m not saying this to be cute–she’s going to be in front of most of them.”
The best way to deal with turbulence here is, simply, to be in front of it. After a tiny bobble in qualifying she will start fourth, best of any woman ever here.
“I think she’ll try to lead [immediately], and I think she will lead,” her father says.
That won’t be easy, starting from inside the second row, directly behind Kanaan.
“[But] she’ll hold the white line (the inside boundary of the track),” T.J. Patrick predicts. “If somebody wants to come down, they’ll have to go through her. She’s not going to back off. I would think she’ll want to come out of that [first] corner second or third, and then go to the lead and run away from the turbulence.”
Roembke agrees.
“She is an aggressive driver, so if the car is right, she’s not going to wait for them,” Roembke says, referring to the front-row starters–Kanaan, Sam Hornish Jr. and Scott Sharp. “Now if they’re faster than her, or get a better start, she’ll follow them. But if they leave the door open, she’ll kick it down.”
“Then the next big hurdle is her first pit stop. She’s coming down the pit lane and all the teams are out there waving, and all the uniforms, and that’s a big thing. Just get that out of the way. Then everything settles in, and I think she’ll be just fine.”
Patrick has this mental checklist of what she must do to be in contention at the finish:
“No. 1, you have to get through traffic without losing time–it’s so easy to get checked up (lose momentum by backing off at 225 m.p.h. and then have to rebuild speed) and lose seconds a lap because you couldn’t pass somebody.
“No. 2 is going to be pit stops, the timing of them . . . after that, you just have to make sure you have enough [physically and mentally] for the end and you’re not so drained.”
Pacing, pit stops, working traffic–she’s still learning all these fundamentals, but, says Roembke, “I think she does them well enough to win.”
Indy 500 lineup
At Indianapolis Motor Speedway,
Sunday, 11 a.m., WLS-Ch. 7
DH–Dallara-HondaPH–Panoz-Honda
DT–Dallara-Toyota PT–Panoz-Toyota
DC–Dallara-Chevrolet PC–Panoz-Chevrolet
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SP CAR DRIVER CAR SPEED
ROW 1
1. 11 Tony Kanaan DH 227.566
2. 6 Sam Hornish Jr. DT 227.273
3. 8 Scott Sharp PH 227.126
ROW 2
4. 16 Danica Patrick-r PH 227.004
5. 3 H. Castroneves-x DT 226.927
6. 27 Dario Franchitti DH 226.873
ROW 3
7. 17 Vitor Meira PH 226.848
8. 55 Kosuke Matsuura PH 226.397
9. 95 Buddy Lazier-x DC 226.353
ROW 4
10. 2 Tomas Enge-r DC 226.107
11. 4 Tomas Scheckter DC 226.031
12. 36 Bruno Junqueira PH 225.704
ROW 5
13. 9T Scott Dixon PT 225.215
14. 5 A. Fernandez PH 225.120
15. 37 S. Bourdais-r PH 224.955
ROW 6
16. 26 Dan Wheldon DH 224.308
17. 24 Roger Yasukawa DH 224.131
18. 7 Bryan Herta DH 223.972
ROW 7
19. 10 Darren Manning PT 223.943
20. 70 Richie Hearn PC 222.707
21. 44 Jeff Bucknum-r DH 221.521
ROW 8
22. 51 Alex Barron DT 221.053
23. 15 Kenny Brack-x PH 227.598
24. 33T Ryan Briscoe-r PT 224.080
ROW 9
25. 83 P. Carpentier-r DT 222.803
26. 20 Ed Carpenter DT 221.439
27. 21 Jaques Lazier PT 221.228
ROW 10
28. 14 A.J. Foyt IV DT 220.442
29. 25 Marty Roth DC 219.497
30. 41 Larry Foyt DT 219.396
ROW 11
31. 22 Jeff Ward DT 218.714
32. 91 Jimmy Kite DT 218.565
33. 48 Felipe Giaffone PT 217.645
*–rookie; x–former winner
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