Danica Patrick capped an interesting week with the best finish of her IndyCar Series career. Verbally sparring all week with Dan Wheldon, Danica used a fast car and some key attrition to finish third in Saturday's race at the Texas Motor Speedway. She also led her first laps of 2007 during a pit stop exchange.

“It was a good day overall,” said Danica. “I thought as a team we were really strong. Tony (Kanaan) did a great job. Dario (Franchitti) did a great job. Problem was it's just hard to pass here.”

Absent from Danica's praise was Marco Andretti who crashed Tomas Scheckter and then broke his gearbox. He has finished just one of seven races this season and appears to be going backwards while the rest of the Andretti Green Racing team is moving forward.

Danica in particular has recently started to fit in with her team, and it is showing on the race track. She has now finished seventh, eighth, eighth, and now third in her last four races. She is seventh in the points.

“We've had fast cars throughout the season, and it was a matter of getting more on the same page with my engineer and just having everything come together. We just didn't have much time before the season started to really mesh together and know exactly – you know he basically couldn't read my mind at the start of the season.”

Besides better work with her engineer, Danica is also starting to fit in to the serious, but fun-loving, environment at AGR. During the post race press conference, Kanaan inadvertently showed off a new team joke about events of the past week.

Danica had been criticized by members of the media (and Wheldon) for taking advantage of her gender. The premise being that a guy could never push or hit a girl, even if she pushed them first. Danica had lightly pushed Wheldon's arm after their discussion at Milwaukee, and Wheldon felt he was in a no-win situation as to how he could react.

Making light of that, Kanaan playfully pushed Danica as soon as she walked in to the media center at Texas Motor Speedway. He has also publically stated plans to shave Danica's head should she actually win a race this season - something they did to Wheldon when he lost an ATV race while with AGR in 2005.

“I think she put in a hell of an effort to fit in with us,” said Kanaan who said of her first win, “It's coming. We all know it and we can't wait to shave her head.”

After a steamy night in Texas, Danica joked that it would be good to have her trademark locks trimmed down. “I said...maybe it's a good idea. It's awfully hot.”

On the track, Danica is driving with more confidence, something she fully recognizes.

“I'm getting more comfortable overall. I really feel like the traffic part of the job and the passing cars has improved. And heck, are you kidding me, I'm taking notes from Tony; he's like the king of it.”

Danica has no issues with the media demands on her. In fact, she seems to relish them and understands her role in promoting not just herself, but the sport in general.

“I can't honestly say it's a distraction really. As far as Dan and I, we handled it like drivers and like people on the track that need to respect each other. It was everything on the outside that seemed very exciting. It's fun though. I like it when we get something going on in the series and people are paying attention. When I turn on SportsCenter or ESPN and see a whole bunch of stuff on our race coming up that day or that night, that's good. That's the stuff we need, so I get a kick out of it.”

Danica mostly avoided controversy in Saturday night's race, though she was annoyed by Wheldon's line at one point. “I'm still loaded and turning and he is just chopping in front of me and that just takes the air away.”

Wheldon would get taken out in a lap 197 crash, taking care of that issue and leaving Danica to race to the front with a key contender out of the way.

Having run well in three races over the past three weekend's it would appear that Danica would be ready to run again for fear of losing her momentum. Instead, she is looking forward to the break.

“It's long overdue. I haven't been home... since the beginning of May at Indy. It will be relaxing. I'll be ready to push again in Iowa.”

Danica's previous career high finish had been fourth, a feat she accomplished four times in 36 races.

In the meantime she will test alongside the rest of her competitors on the Mid-Ohio SportsCar Course June 13th.

ORS / CAPSIS International