All eyes were on her, and Danica Patrick's
nerves were buzzing like a race car engine.
Who could blame her?
She never really played baseball, is not a singer, yet there she
was at Wrigley Field on Thursday bouncing the ceremonial first pitch
and leading the crowd in ``Take Me Out to the Ball Game'' during the
seventh-inning stretch.
``I was more nervous than I thought I'd be,'' Patrick said
Friday. ``I don't usually like to do anything I'm not very good at.
... I was more nervous about the pitch.''
She's nervous about Sunday's PEAK Antifreeze Indy 300 at
Chicagoland Speedway, too. And excited. And a bit emotional.
The race will close a difficult season for Rahal Letterman Racing
and bring Patrick's tenure there to an end. She signed with Andretti
Green Racing in July, and although she's looking forward to joining
her new team, she's grateful for the opportunity Rahal gave her.
``It's something new, and change is good,'' Patrick said. ``But
I'm going to miss not being able to see some of the guys as much as
I do driving for (Rahal). I'll always be grateful for the things
Bobby and everybody at the team has done to help me and my career,
and give me the best car possible.''
She is joining a team that produced the past two series champions
(Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan), and leaving one that is finishing a
difficult season.
After placing fourth in the Indianapolis 500 and earning rookie
of the year honours in 2005, Patrick is ninth in the series
standings with 284 points. The season started on a tragic note when
teammate Paul Dana died during a warmup session for the season
opener at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Patrick was bogged down by mechanical problems, and the team
struggled on ovals with a Panoz chassis.
Meanwhile, her future became the subject of speculation. There
was an uproar after her father T.J. showed up at a Nextel Cup race
and told the Chicago Tribune she was considering a move to NASCAR.
By then, she was closing in on an agreement with Andretti Green.
``I really like her attitude,'' Andretti Green CEO Michael
Andretti said.
Patrick caught his attention during qualifying for last year's
Indy 500, when she overcame a bobble at the beginning of her
qualifying run to earn the fourth position.
``To come back and follow with three spectacular laps blew my
mind,'' Andretti said. ``I thought, 'Man, I'd like to have her on my
team one day.' ... But I never thought the opportunity would come
up.''
Andretti said it amazed him when he learned Patrick was
available. With Patrick, he thinks his team can nudge its way back
to the top, alongside Marlboro Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi
Racing.
Those two teams have combined to win 11 of 13 events this season
while Rahal Letterman has struggled, although a midseason switch to
a Dallara chassis seemed to help. In the fourth race with the new
car, Patrick finished fourth at Nashville and did the same at
Milwaukee a week later.
After placing 17th at Michigan due to mechanical problems, she is
coming off consecutive eighth-place finishes at Kentucky Speedway
and Infineon Raceway.
The new car isn't quite as fast as the old one, but Patrick said
it handles better in traffic and holds up better during the weekend.
Although she has no pole starts after earning three last year,
including one at Chicagoland, she'll take that.
``It's a better race car,'' said Patrick, who finished sixth here
last year. ``I've definitely been able to race closer and more
consistently this year than last year. That's good. That's
important. Qualifying's nice and it's fairly important, otherwise we
wouldn't do it, but it's by no means the most important thing.
``I qualified in the front a lot last year and didn't finish
higher than fourth. But, then again, our race car wasn't very
good.''
