Danica Patrick Shifts Into Victory Mode

10/07/2009 11:16

Danica Patrick has been cruising along in the fast lane since the Indy Racing League got underway.

Of the nine starts she has made on the open wheel race circuit this season, seven have turned into top-10 finishes.

Of those seven finishes, five have been top-five results, including a third-place finish at the prestigious Indianapolis 500.

Close has been good enough to keep her thinking another victory could be around the next corner.

"Running consistently every weekend says you are going to have a chance at that win at some point. If you consistently run in the top five, the odds should be in your favor. You should have that opportunity to come across the line first," said Patrick, who is in Toronto preparing for the first Canadian race of the season.

In two weeks time, she'll be back in River City to challenge the City Centre Airport track at the Rexall Edmonton Indy.

"It is quite rough at Edmonton, so you have to hang on and be on top of that car but it makes for better racing on tracks like that are more open. You have an opportunity to pass," Patrick continued.

"There's somewhere to go if you go into the corner and maybe get sideways. On other tracks, you'll hit the wall."

Last July, in her first go-round in Edmonton, Patrick was 13 laps from the finish line when she was bumped by teammate Marco Andretti. Left with a flat tire and a car in need of a restart, she had to make an unscheduled pit stop, which cost her all the ground she had made up earlier in the race.

She was 18th by day's end. She had started in the 14th spot.

That was then. That was in the midst of a season where Patrick, now 27, had taken the checkered flag in Japan in April 2008, becoming the first woman to win an Indy race. She turned more heads with some of her pit lane arguments--most notably the post-race debate she had with Milka Duno.

This season hasn't been without controversy either. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Patrick was asked if she could take a performance enhancing drug that would enable her to win Indy but not get caught, would she do it.

"Well, then it's not cheating, is it?" she responded. "If nobody finds out? . . . In motorsports we work in the grey areas a lot. You're trying to find where the holes are in the rule book."

She later issued an apology and said again on Thursday used the defence that she was just kidding.

"I know from now on that it's something I won't be joking about," she said.

SWIVEL HIPS SAYS:

It will be great to have Danica in the field for the Edmonton Indy on July 26. Wouldn’t it be great if she made the Edmonton Indy her first victory in 2009?