"It goes out and speaks to women and to people breaking the mold and people that are making history," Patrick said Friday at Kansas Speedway, where she will try to make it two wins in a row on Sunday.
"That's why I think it's been a big story is because it's not just about a win in racing in IndyCar or in sports; it's about a bigger thing that happened and that I've been doing through my whole career," she added.
Patrick, who won last Sunday in Motegi, Japan, in her 50th IRL IndyCar Series race, said she never doubted the historic victory would come. And, because of that confidence, she had everything was in place to take full advantage of the moment.
"You want to make the most of this event for everybody: the team, the sponsors, the league and everybody," Patrick said.
Since the emotional first moments in Victory Circle at Motegi, where she surprised herself by shedding tears, Patrick has ridden a whirlwind that has included a series of TV appearances, dozens of interviews, attending a movie premiere and an outpouring of adulation from her fans and the general public.
"Yeah, I worked my butt off for a week," Patrick said, grinning. "I feel pretty good, though. I think that everything happens for a reason and, if this would have come three years ago on the heels of Indy or something like that, maybe I wouldn't have been so calm and prepared."
The then-22-year-old Patrick exploded into the consciousness of the American public as an IRL IndyCar Series rookie in 2005 when she qualified second and finished fourth at a race in Motegi, Japan. She then qualified fourth for the Indianapolis 500 and led the race before finishing fourth
- all firsts for a woman at the famed Brickyard.
All of a sudden, there was "DanicaMania" in the land, with Patrick nearly suffocated by all the attention, offers and requests for a piece of her time.
Once things began to settle down a bit, Patrick was able to think through what had happened and learn some lessons from it.
"It didn't go away after 2005, but we sure learned how to manage it and make the most of it," Patrick said. "And I learned how I like to deal with all these situations best, and we got good people surrounding me over the last couple of years.
"It's not like we couldn't have handled (the aftermath of the first win), but I think, at this point in time, having hired a publicist over the winter and having some time to think about what we wanted to do with the first win, gave us the best opportunity to go out and maybe do our best with the event."
Her best includes having "Danica's First Win" T-shirts readily available at her very popular souvenir trailers here at the track.
