Friday, Aug. 19, 2005 | 10:04 a.m.
FOUNTAIN, Colo. -- The Indy Racing League pulls into Pikes Peak International Raceway this weekend for Round 13 of the 17-race IndyCar Series -- or the eighth stop on the "When will Danica Patrick win her first race?" tour.
Patrick has been the IRL's hottest commodity since her breakthrough fourth-place finish in the Indianapolis 500 in May and is a lightning rod for attention from fans and media alike at every stop on the IRL schedule. The most asked question of Patrick, 23, is "when are your results going to match the hype?"
"I feel like as each race goes on, as long as I'm learning and as long as I can say that I've walked away with more experience and have changed something in the past that I'd done wrong ... maybe as a team we've done wrong and improved on it, it was a victory," Patrick said.
"I feel like as long as we keep doing that, we're moving in the right direction, and it's just a matter of time before I'm running in the front more consistently, and the inevitable will happen; hopefully, I'll be in a much more consistent position to win my first race."
Patrick has started on the pole twice this season -- including last Sunday's race at Kentucky Speedway -- but is in something of a slump after posting five top-10 finishes in her first nine races of the season. In her past three outings, Patrick has been involved in an accident, dropped out with a mechanical problem and finished 16 laps off the pace last Sunday with gearbox issues.
Patrick, who drives for Rahal Letterman Racing, stands 12th in IRL points going into Sunday's Honda Indy 225 at PPIR. Although a rookie in the IndyCar Series with only 12 races under her belt, Patrick said she is not satisfied with her season to date.
"Every single race, we are always trying to win the race -- every single one, that's what you're going into it hoping for and trying to do," Patrick said. "Am I happy and comfortable with being 12th (in points)? No, actually I want to be higher than that but everybody has their good runs and bad runs in the duration of the championship and I've had a bad run -- I've basically DNF'd (the past) three races, really."
Not that Patrick is feeling an urgency to win a race before the end of the season.
"Not everybody wins in their first season, that's for sure -- most people don't," she said. "There have only been a few (drivers) in the current series that have.
"I'd love to win a race this season; I would love it. That would be my most recent dream come true ... (but) I'm not going to let that decide whether or not I've had a good season."
While Patrick has enjoyed most of her success on tracks 1 mile in length and larger, she said she is looking forward to her first race at the 1-mile Pikes Peak International Raceway.
"I'm anxious to have a good weekend and I don't really car where it's at," Patrick said. "I think we've been improving on the car at the short ovals so, hopefully, that carries on over and we can have a good race."
Patrick said she is as comfortable on the shorter ovals as she is on the larger superspeedways -- as long as her No. 16 Argent Mortgage Honda/Panoz is handling properly.
"If the car is good, it's a lot of fun and it's much more straightforward," she said. "If the car is going to difficult and if it's going to be a struggle, then it's not as exciting, so, we'll have to wait and see on that one.
"When the car is fast, it's actually really very easy -- believe it or not -- but when the car is bad, that's when you earn your money."
Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon, who won four of the first five races this season, holds the IRL points lead coming into the weekend. Wheldon holds a 90-point edge over Sam Hornish Jr. Reigning series champion Tony Kanaan is third in points and Dario Franchitti, who won last year's race at Pikes Peak, is fourth.
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