At 23, Danica Patrick the new face of more than just racing

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Danica Patrick wanted to help increase the overnight television ratings for the Indianapolis 500 by just one measly percentage point. By overcoming two mistakes and coming close to winning the race on Sunday, she pushed them up by nearly two points.

The big bump in viewers surprised her. Her historic run did not. And now, her determination may make her appealing in more ways than just as a racer. More visible than ever, Patrick might have moved into corporate America's fast lane.

"I try this hard to do these things, whether everybody's watching or not," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Phoenix.

Patrick, the 23-year-old rookie, said she was not particularly worried about her bank account, her image or her marketability at the end of the Indy 500 or in the days leading up to the race. She wanted to help sell an event and a sport she loves.

"I kept the big picture in my mind," she said. "I never got so mad that I wanted to walk away."

She almost won the race, losing the lead to the eventual winner, Dan Wheldon, with six laps remaining, and apparently became such an appealing story that she gained new fans for herself and open-wheel racing. Now she stands to gain something else.

Patrick said she is interested in a possible career as a corporate pitchwoman, but only for the right products. It is not known exactly how interested corporations are in having her sell their products, but she has caused a stir.

"We'll have to see, to use some music parlance, if she's a one-hit wonder, or if she has legs," said Marc Ganis, the president of SportsCorp, a Chicago-based sports business consulting firm.

Patrick, wearing her fire suit, this week became the first Indy 500 driver to appear as the main photo on the cover of Sports Illustrated since a profile shot of A.J. Foyt appeared on the cover of the May 25, 1981, issue.

TV Guide, People and Us have included features on Patrick, and Time, Newsweek and Glamour have scheduled features on her. She has already appeared on several networks. She did 60 interviews in one 48-hour period last week.

"What is most impressive," Ganis said, "is that she didn't come across as a deer in the headlights."

Ganis says that while Patrick is attractive, which certainly does not hurt her marketability, there are plenty of attractive women available to sell products. But there are not a lot of women who can enter a corner at well over 200 mph.

"The male athletes applauded her because they respect her as a competitor," Ganis said. "She's not a novelty act."

Bobby Rahal, the 1986 Indy 500 winner who co-owns Patrick's car with the late-night talk-show host David Letterman, believes the interest in Patrick will only grow. She has not won an Indy Racing League race, but she has shown that she can compete with men.

"The interest ramped up a lot in May," Rahal said Thursday from his office in Ohio. "As her speeds continued to go up, the interest in her continued to go up."

But Patrick seemed to stay focused, determined and uncomplicated as she chased speed. She said Thursday that one of her best memories from Indianapolis was gathering with her family and fiance, Paul Hospenthal, in her motor home to cook breakfast.

She said she was aware of only some of the offers that had come to Rahal and to her agent, Lynn Roach, and that she would sign only with the company, or companies, whose products she would use anyway.

Patrick posted the fastest practice speeds on two days leading up to the race. Despite a bobble on her first lap, she qualified to start fourth in the race, the best among the four women who have raced in the Indy 500.

Her duel down the stretch with Wheldon, who has won four of the five races in the IRL season, was memorable because she had stalled out during a pit stop and had snapped off the front left wing of her car during her spin.

But Rahal decided to keep her on the track during the last round of pit stops, pushing her to the front of the field, and she raced Wheldon for the victory before falling back to fourth place. The only thing missing from a glorious story line was a victory.

"We were all pulling for her here," said Elliott Sadler, a driver on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. "I think everybody kind of roots for the underdog. She was so nice, so natural. And what people, I think, are forgetting is that she's a woman, yes, but she was also a rookie."

The IRL, long overshadowed by NASCAR, has already begun to pitch Patrick as a reason for fans to buy tickets. But the league is also hawking the talents of Wheldon, a 26-year-old Briton.

"She has a large public presence, and that is great, but we have other stories to tell, too," said Ken Ungar, the senior vice president for business affairs for the IRL.

Patrick said Thursday that a victory, perhaps in the next IRL race, on June 11 in Fort Worth, Texas, would be "an absolutely huge milestone," and that she and her team would continue pushing hard.

"You have to keep trying harder, because everyone else is going to," she said.

Rahal, who brought Patrick to Indianapolis last year so she could see what it was all about there, will try to keep her focused on her day job. Then she can sell soft drinks or clothing or makeup. "She has to be competitive," he said. "If she isn't, she's going to be considered as just another flash in the pan."