Patrick hoping for good fortune at Indy

By RANDY COVITZ

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — While dining recently at Stix Restaurant near Kansas Speedway, Danica Patrick cracked open her fortune cookie, and the message gave her pause.

“A Four-Wheel Adventure Will Soon Bring You Happiness.”

The cookie didn’t exactly presage Patrick’s IndyCar Series race at Kansas Speedway, where she finished fifth. So maybe it had happiness at another race in mind.

Like the Indianapolis 500.

It’s why Patrick kept the sliver of paper and hung it in her transporter upon arrival at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where practice for the May 24 Indianapolis 500 began Wednesday.

“I don’t think it quite lived up to the fortune cookie yet,” Patrick said of her race at Kansas, “so I think there’s more to come. But we had a good race at Kansas, and so much of the time you really see the cars that are up front at the beginning of the season carry on into Indy and do well there.

“So let’s hope we can keep that trend going.”

Indeed, Patrick heads into practice and qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 on somewhat of a roll, ranking sixth in the points standings and one of only four drivers with at least two top-five finishes in the first three races of the season.

And Patrick has enjoyed some success — if not complete happiness — in her four previous races at Indianapolis. She had that memorable race as a rookie in 2005 when she started fourth and finished fourth, the best start and finish by a woman ever at the Indianapolis 500. She led 19 laps, becoming the first woman to ever lead a lap at Indy.

Patrick has started in the top 10 in all four of her Indy 500 races. She finished eighth in both 2006 and 2007 and started fifth last year before a collision sent her off in 22nd place. But by then, she was still riding the emotions from becoming the first woman ever to win an IndyCar Series race earlier in the year in Japan.

She hasn’t won a race since Japan, but Patrick feels comfortable and confident at Indianapolis.

“I like it here, I enjoy it, I embrace the month, I have a lot of fun,” she said during a teleconference from Indianapolis. “The first year I came here I took the advice from all the people around me who have been here the most, and the advice was to respect the track. It’s different from every other track because, if the car isn’t right, you cannot make it go fast. You can’t hustle it around . . . if you do, the car quickly gets out of control, and the track bites you because we’re going faster here than anywhere else.

“It’s the one place we go that the track is bigger and more powerful than you are. It’s something you have to respect. If the car isn’t good, don’t think you can be better than that.”

The other key to Indianapolis, she learned, was patience.

The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.