IRL savior on board

INDIANAPOLIS -- Danica Patrick barreled down the front straightaway, dipped toward the inside wall and surged past Dan Wheldon to claim the lead at the Indianapolis 500.

The fans -- 300,000 or so -- went into a frenzy. They were on their feet all the way around the massive, venerable track, yelling and waving caps in a stirring reminder of the days when drivers named Mario, A.J. and Emerson ruled this place.

After a decade of strife and waning interest, the Indy 500 couldn't have asked for anything more.

A thrilling race.

A new hero.

And hope for a brighter future in this NASCAR-dominated world.

Wheldon came back to win his first Indy 500 on Sunday, re-passing Patrick with seven laps to go and coasting across the line under yellow after a crash on the next-to-last lap.

The victory ended a frustrating quest for car owner Michael Andretti, who finally got his first sip of milk in Victory Lane after so many close-but-no-cigar calls as a driver.

"It just feels so good," Andretti said. "This place has been tough on me personally. But I just always had the feeling that one day it was going to happen."

Patrick settled for fourth, unable to guard her lead because of a dwindling fuel supply. After all the hubbub over the 5-foot-2, 100-pound driver having an advantage because she's lighter than her male counterparts, she wound up a little too light -- at least in the tank.

Still, Patrick answered those skeptics who wondered if her spot on the powerful Rahal Letterman team had more to do with stunning looks than driving ability.

"Wow, what a day for me," said Patrick, who recovered from two rookie mistakes to lead twice in the closing laps.

Judging from the hoopla that surrounded Patrick this month, and the reaction of the crowd to the first woman ever to lead at Indy, it was quite a day for American open-wheel racing.

This is someone the Indy Racing League should be able to build upon -- an attractive, personable, talented female driver in a male-dominated world. The affection was obvious before the race, when seven shirtless young men lined up against a fence near Patrick's garage. The first six had a letter of her name painted on their chests, and the last one had drawn the number 16 inside a heart.

Patrick, who led one lap early in the race while the field cycled through pit stops, went to the front again with just 28 laps left during a caution period. The fans erupted when they saw the No. 16 car at the head of the pack.

Wheldon took the lead back on the 186th of 200 laps, just as another yellow flag was coming out. That gave Patrick the most favorable position for the restart, and she used it to storm past Wheldon with an inside move on the front straightaway.

At that point, the place went nuts.

"I did notice a few people standing, actually," Patrick said. "I saw some arms waving. But I was very focused on my race."

Her team was more focused on the fuel gauge. They knew Patrick wouldn't make it to the finish without conserving, so they ordered her to cut back on the power and squeeze out every last drop. Her lap speeds dropped from 226 mph to 221, making it impossible to hold off Wheldon on lap 194. Teammate Vitor Meira and Bryan Herta also went by before the checkered flag.

"It was frustrating to be leading the race with so few laps to go and not be able to finish hard," Patrick said. "I'd like to think that maybe we could have won it."

But she had no complaints. Nobody did after a race that featured 27 lead changes among seven drivers, many of them with daring passes that showed the sport at its best.

Open-wheel racing took a major blow 10 years ago when the Indy Racing League broke off from the established CART series. The split brought a backlash from the fans, many of whom switched their loyalty to NASCAR.

Maybe some of them will give the Indy cars another look.

"I think that's what the fans want to see," Patrick said. "The last pass, my restart with Wheldon, stuff like that, they want to see that."

The 26-year-old Wheldon is off to a brilliant start this season, winning for the fourth time in five IRL races. Even so, he was a bit overlooked amid all the attention that went to Patrick and Andretti.

"I don't care one bit," Wheldon insisted, knowing that his face goes on the Borg-Warner Trophy as the first Englishman to win the 500 since Graham Hill in 1966.

The Andrettis had been plagued by bad luck at Indy since Michael's father, Mario, won in 1969. Michael led more laps at Indy than any other non-winner before retiring from the cockpit after the 2003 race. Last year, his first as a full-time car owner, his drivers finished 2-3-4 behind winner Buddy Rice.

The "Andretti Curse" came to mind again when Patrick claimed the lead after recovering from a stalled engine in the pits and a crash that tore off her left front wing and nose cone.

Not to worry. Wheldon averaged 157.603 mph for the victory and stands to get about $1.5 million of the more than $10 million purse at Monday's victory banquet.

"It feels as good as if I won myself," said Michael, who even stole a swig of winner's milk from Wheldon. "That was the sweetest milk I ever drank."

Back in Patrick's hometown of Roscoe, Ill., officials were planning a celebration for the sport's newest icon.

"We've never had anything like this happen before, so we're trying to figure out what to do," Mayor H. Ward Sterett said. "We could have a parade. We have a small main street. We could have a short parade."

Sterett said the tiny village is thankful to Patrick for "putting Roscoe on the map." But that's not the only thing she did.

Patrick put Indy-car racing back on the map, too.