Danica Patrick Revved Up for Indy 500
May 27, 2006 — -- With a top speed more than 220 miles per hour, Danica Patrick is one of the fastest race car drivers in the world -- and with all her magazine covers and commercial endorsements, her life is just as fast off the race course.
At five-foot-one and 100 pounds, Patrick is in control of a car that costs $8 million a season to race and weighs 1,550 pounds.
It's been a year since Patrick burst onto the speedway scene, a rookie driver hailed as much for her glamorous looks as her skill behind the wheel. Sunday, in front of a quarter million people at the Indianapolis 500 "brickyard" and millions more watching on TV, she will try to do what she could not last year -- win.
There have been other women Indy drivers, but Patrick is the first female to be given a legitimate chance at winning.
At last year's Indy 500, she placed fourth and led the race for 19 laps -- a never-before-accomplished feat that had the quarter million race fans standing and screaming. For the first time in race history, fourth was first. In fact, it was her picture on Sports Illustrated, not the winner's.
"She electrified this event," said Bobby Rahal, co-owner of Patrick's racing team. "And here the guy who won the race, nobody even knew who it was -- and that's unfortunate for him."
Since Patrick came on the scene, ratings for Indy racing have gone up almost 60 percent.
