Fort Worth, Texas – Dan Wheldon can become the first driver to win four consecutive IndyCar Series races and match the season record for victories less than halfway through the schedule.
Yet, it is the image of Danica Patrick, not the Indianapolis 500 champion, being painted on an 800-square-foot mural over the marquee at Texas Motor Speedway.
Even two-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves showed up wearing a Danica Patrick T-shirt at an autograph session this week in Texas, where some fans waited outside in line more than 10 hours for her signature.
“It’s the best thing that’s happened to this series in a long, long time,” Michael Andretti, the owner of Wheldon’s car, said Thursday. “She’s a great-looking girl, and she’s good at what she does. Whatever attention it brings to the series is good for us.”
Most of the attention has been on Patrick since her sensational showing last month at Indianapolis. The 5-foot-2, 100-pound rookie driver became the first woman to lead at Indy (19 laps) and the highest female finisher (fourth).
On Saturday night, Patrick will start ahead of Wheldon and all but two other drivers. Her qualifying lap of 212.661 mph was good for third, a spot better than her Indianapolis start.
Tomas Scheckter earned the pole with a lap at 213.847 mph, and will start on the front row alongside the Chevrolet of Panther Racing teammate Tomas Enge (182.076 mph). Three of Scheckter’s seven career poles have come at Texas.
Instead of winner Wheldon, who will start eighth, the editors of Sports Illustrated made Patrick the first Indy driver on the magazine’s cover in 20 years.
“If I owned Sports Illustrated, you’ve got 33 drivers in the Indianapolis 500, and one’s female and hot, why wouldn’t you put her on the front page?” Wheldon said. “You’d be stupid not to.”
An artist spent Thursday outside the Texas track working on the gigantic mural of Patrick that hangs more than 50 feet above the ground along busy Interstate 35.
“The biggest thing for me is the self-satisfaction of winning the race,” Wheldon said. “I don’t care about who gets the most attention. I’ve achieved something that’s very special to me.”
Now the focus is getting back on the track, where Wheldon has a chance Saturday night to do something that has never been done.
The win at Indianapolis was Wheldon’s third straight, matching Kenny Brack’s series record set seven years ago. It was also his fourth victory in the five races this season.
Sam Hornish Jr. won a record five races in 2002, including the finale at Texas to clinch his second straight IRL season title.
Wheldon still has 12 of 17 races left.
“I’m not going to get too greedy. I won the one I wanted to win,” Wheldon said. “If I don’t win any more races, but win the championship, I’d be really happy with that. At the same time, that’s not my style. I like to win.”
Wheldon leads in season points by 72 over Tony Kanaan, the defending IRL champion and one of his Andretti Green Racing teammates. Hornish, the Penske driver who won at Phoenix where Wheldon was sixth, is third in points.
The other Andretti Green drivers, Bryan Herta (fourth) and Dario Franchitti (seventh), are also in the top 10, along with Patrick (ninth).
This is the IRL’s only stop this year at the 1 1/2-mile high-banked Texas track, which is known for three-wide racing at close to 200 mph and some of the series’ closest races. Two of the four smallest winning margins have been at Texas, along with three of the five closest 1-2-3 finishes.
Patrick had never driven a lap on the track before practice Thursday. She qualified better than Rahal Letterman teammates Vitor Meira (fifth) and Buddy Rice (seventh).
“She’ll never see a pack tighter than what she’ll see here,” said Buddy Rice, one of her Rahal Letterman Racing teammates who is back in the cockpit after being unable to defend his 2004 Indianapolis 500 title. Rice pulled spinal ligaments and suffered a concussion in a crash during practice at Indy.
