updated 7:06 p.m. ET July 20, 2006

WEST ALLIS, Wis. - Danica Patrick sounds as if she has already made a decision on her racing future, even if she’s not quite ready to announce it.

Despite recent speculation that she would head to NASCAR after her contract with the Rahal-Letterman IndyCar Series team is up at the end of the season, Patrick said she’s leaning toward staying in the IndyCar Series and is “far down the line” toward getting a deal done with for next season.

Which team? She isn’t saying.

“That would just be giving it all away, wouldn’t it?” said Patrick, in town for Sunday’s ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile.

Patrick said if she did sign a new deal, any announcement would be up to the team she signed with. Such an announcement could be coming soon.

“Negotiations are far down the line, for sure,” Patrick said.

Patrick is coming off a season-best, fourth-place finish at Nashville last Sunday, but she needed a few good breaks to do so. The Rahal team generally hasn’t been competitive this season.

“We are not the fastest car,” Patrick said. “Nobody’s going to disagree with me on that one. So we have to catch a couple breaks. And we did, finally.”

Patrick she didn’t rule out the possibility that she would look to another team for a better chance to win.

“I need to be the best driver I can,” Patrick said. “I need to leave nothing to the (imagination) to what I could have done more.”

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Asked about loyalty to team owner Bobby Rahal, who gave Patrick her first shot at big-time racing, Patrick said, “I would hope that over the course of the last year and a half, and even before that, I would hope that I have brought things to him, too. I would hope that I have helped him in some way.”

Patrick’s father, T.J., caused a stir two weeks ago when he showed up at the Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway and told a Chicago Tribune reporter that Patrick was interested in switching to NASCAR.

But Patrick said she was just exploring every option and was always leaning toward staying in IndyCar.

“I have been leaning that direction, even since my parents went to Chicago and before that,” Patrick said. “That’s no different. For me, it was a matter of looking at all the options. And even though I wasn’t there looking, my parents are just as good as me going there.”

Patrick’s possible next destination could be Andretti-Green Racing.

Asked in an ESPN interview last week what IRL team other than Rahal Letterman could meet or exceed her expectations to field a competitive car, Patrick said Penske and Ganassi are two strong teams.

“Then I think there’s a lot of strength in AGR,” she said, referring to Andretti-Green. “They did very well the last couple years. They have lots of talent there. There are a lot of options out there.”

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Team owner Michael Andretti couldn’t immediately be located at the track on Thursday, but said last weekend that he would be interested in hiring Patrick.

“Would I be interested? Yeah, but I don’t know what her plans are,” Andretti said. “I’m just hearing all the rumors that she’s available and stuff. I didn’t know that Rahal didn’t have her tied up,” Andretti said. “We’ll see.”

A more competitive IndyCar ride might be a palatable alternative to NASCAR for Patrick, who said she likes the intense fan following in NASCAR but doesn’t necessarily like the intense schedule that comes along with it.

The Nextel Cup Series races 38 times a year — 36 points races and two exhibitions — and IndyCar only has 14 races.

“From the outside looking in, it looks like there is not time to go to the bathroom,” Patrick said.

And Patrick said she still has unfinished business in IndyCars — despite her unprecedented success, after all, she still hasn’t won an IndyCar race.

“I want to win in IndyCar. I want to win the Indy 500. I want to do well,” she said. “I want to help the series. I’m not done yet. And so if there’s a team in this series that will give me that opportunity, this is where I’ll be.”

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