Friday, May 20, 2005 | 10:22 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
Danica Patrick has received all the media attention she can handle -- and then some -- surrounding her fourth-fastest qualifying effort for the May 29 Indianapolis 500.
Now she just wants to earn the respect of her fellow drivers.
Although Patrick, 23, conceded that there isn't the resentment among her peers that other female drivers at Indy have experienced in the past, she did hint that there has been some "negativity" directed her way. And that, she said, only makes her drive faster.
"I have a lot of people cheering for me, literally, all the time," Patrick said. "But I'm also one of those people that feeds off of negativity a little bit. If they don't think I should be fast because maybe I'm driving for a good team, forget you; I'm going to go out there and prove to you time and time again that I belong here, that I will race up front and that I'm a great driver -- not just driving for a great team.
"Slowly but surely, I think it's actually kind of getting better. I think as the days roll on and as the weeks and races come on and I do well, I think that the respect from the other drivers is what is helping the most. I think that that is all they need, is to respect you."
Patrick on Sunday qualified fourth for the 89th Indianapolis 500 and will start on the inside of the second row in the No. 16 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda-powered Panoz. She became only the fourth female to qualify for the Indy 500 but missed out on a chance to became the first female to win the pole at Indy when she nearly lost control of here car in the first turn on the first lap of her four-lap qualifying run.
That, Patrick said, was the biggest disappointment of the month of May.
"The hardest (part of the month) was accepting fourth in qualifying," she said. "I had run fastest on Thursday, second on Friday ... with the fastest speed of the month the Sunday morning of qualifying (and) having the fastest speed in qualifying, too, but just not overall. For me, I feel like (the pole) was in my hand and it slipped out.
"But I think that what happened in Turn 1 of almost losing it and hitting the wall, the fact that I caught it might have just done me some good in earning respect from everybody else and seeing that, 'she's got a tough car to drive but she's still driving it fast.' I think it might have actually turned into a positive."
Although she is a rookie with only four Indy Racing League IndyCar Series races under her belt, Patrick isn't discounting her chances of winning the Indy 500 -- although she readily admits she lacks experience at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
"I think I have a great chance of winning this race," said Patrick, who is coming off a fourth-place finish at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan, where she qualified second. "I think we have been very fast all month so far. I probably need as much time as I can on the track in race situations and conditions due to the fact that I am a rookie. The timing of passing cars around here is a little bit different because we're going so much faster.
"There is something I lack, which is why it's going to be a hard race; you need experience. You need to know what the car is going to do, you need to be able to set up traffic, you need to not lose too much time when overtaking. I think that's something that you learn and perfect over time. Experience is really I think what helps the most."
Although surrounded by past Indy 500 winners in team owner Bobby Rahal and teammates Buddy Rice and Kenny Brack, Patrick said she would rely on her racing instincts to get through her first 500-mile race.
"I'm going to talk to Buddy, I'm going to talk to Bobby, I'm going to talk to Kenny," she said. "I'm going to talk to the guys that have won this thing before and I'm going to get their perspective. For the most part, they're all going to tell me that you just need to be smart out there.
"I think that I trust my instincts a lot; I trust what I've learned and my ability. And I think that you have to have intuition as to what's going to happen and how quick you're catching a car, and how your car reacts within traffic -- and a lot of traffic at that because with more cars, it changes even more. I think that everything that I've learned in the previous races (is) what is going to help me the most."
RAIN, RAIN...: Heavy showers forced the cancellation of Thursday's Indy 500 practice session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Practice was scheduled to resume today at 10 a.m. (PDT), weather permitting.
TRUCK QUALIFYING: Las Vegas native Kyle Busch qualified third for tonight's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
Busch will be driving the No. 15 ditech.com Chevrolet fielded by Billy Ballew Motorsports in his first Truck Series start of the season.
Mike Skinner won the pole for the race while Las Vegas-based Orleans Racing drivers Steve Park and Brendan Gaughan will start 20th and 33rd, respectively.
BACK ON TRACK: After a five-week layoff, the Champ Car World Series returns to the track this weekend for the fifth annual Tecate/ Telmex Monterrey Grand Prix in Monterrey, Mexico.
Reigning series champion Sebastien Bourdais also is the defending champion in Monterrey and is coming off a victory in the season-opening Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Bourdais holds a 5-point lead over Las Vegas resident Paul Tracy in the series standings and said he is confident going into the second race of the season.
"After such results at Monterrey (last season), you cannot help but hope to win again," Bourdais said. "It's definitely a track I like very much. The Mexican fans are so enthusiastic about racing, it's amazing."
In addition to Champ Car regular Mario Dominguez, the local fans will have another Mexican driver for which to cheer; PKV Racing announced this week that it has signed Jorge Goeters to drive a third team car in Sunday's race. Goeters won the pole for the NASCAR Busch Series race held in Mexico City in March.
WILBURN STEPS IN: Billy Wilburn, who resigned as crew chief for Brendan Gaughan's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team earlier this month, has been hired as interim crew chief for Dale Jarrett's No. 88 Ford in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series.
Wilburn replaces Mike Ford, who stepped down as Jarrett's crew chief on Tuesday.
"Obviously, we want to take our time in finding a permanent replacement for the role of crew chief," Eddie D'Hondt, general manager for Robert Yates Racing, said. "Billy Wilburn has been nice enough to come on board in an interim role to serve as crew chief, working with the No. 88 team and on race strategy.
"In the meantime, we'll monitor his chemistry with our team and keep our options open for a permanent replacement."
Wilburn, who served as Rusty Wallace's crew chief during the 2003 season, will start his duties with Robert Yates Racing at this weekend's NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway.
'TOWN-HALL' MEETING: Race fans and competitors will have an opportunity to sound off to Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Chris Powell during a town-hall format to be held following Saturday night's NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series racing card at The Bullring.
Powell said he was hoping to address issues of both fans and competitors during the session, which will be held under the track's flag stand and will start approximately 15 minutes after the conclusion of the night's final race.
"We look forward to hearing what the fans have to say," Powell said. "Everyone -- fans, racers and, most especially, our Bullring team -- should come away with a better understanding of short-track racing in general and The Bullring in particular.
"The feedback of the race fans is very important to us as we shape plans for the Bullring for the remainder of 2005 and beyond."
Racing begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
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