By PAUL OBERJUERGE

updated 2:46 p.m. ET April 28, 2009

LONG BEACH, Calif. - A year ago, Danica Patrick was in Japan, recording the first victory by a woman in an Indy Racing League event. This weekend, she will be in a seaside suburb of Los Angeles, driving in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. But the question so often on the lips of American motor racing’s chattering classes is, where will she be a year from now?

Patrick is the hard-charging driver/cover girl/swimsuit model who turned the venerable Indianapolis 500 on its ear in 2005, at age 23, by leading the race for 19 laps and finishing fourth, unprecedented achievements by a woman. Since then, she has become the face of the I.R.L., its most marketable asset and a driver for perhaps the best team, Andretti Green.

But her contract with Andretti Green expires after this season, and speculation about Patrick’s next career move is heating up. Will she remain in the open-wheel world of I.R.L.? Is the globetrotting Formula One circuit an option? Or will she jump to the stock cars of Nascar's Sprint Cup series, the richest and most visible racing league in the United States?

“I’m very flattered everyone is curious,” said Patrick, who finished 19th in the I.R.L.’s season-opening race, April 5 in St. Petersburg, Fla. “It’s interesting to me as well. Do I stay where I am? Do I try to change? It’s all about evaluating options, and I think that’s something any good businessperson does.”

The most intriguing option is Nascar, the major leagues of North American motor sports and the citadel of good ol’ boy racing. Not only has a woman not won a Cup race, there has not been a woman who has run a full season. And no Sprint Cup driver has appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, twice, wearing a bikini and heels.

“She would have a huge impact on Nascar,” said Humpy Wheeler, the chairman of the Wheeler Company consulting firm and the former president of Lowe’s Motor Speedway in North Carolina. “Sixty percent of the Nascar crowd is male, and they like the current drivers, but there’s not any pretty ones out there.”

Max Muhleman, the principal of Private Sports Consulting in Charlotte, N.C., agreed.

“She would be a ticket-selling machine, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “She would rock the turnstiles. As a woman and a cute girl, she would be a special kind of sensation.”

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Patrick’s popularity and level of recognition seem suited to Nascar, according to data compiled by Millsport, a sponsorship consulting agency in Charlotte. Ken Cohn, the vice president at Millsport’s Charlotte office, said the agency’s Davie Brown Index, which measures “a celebrity’s ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent,” showed Patrick to be one of only three current drivers who elicits more than 50 percent awareness among the United States population. The others are the Nascar superstars Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“And she’s not only well known; she’s well liked,” Cohn wrote in an e-mail message, adding that Patrick ranked fourth in appeal.

“Danica entering Nascar would certainly provide the sport with a deep level of marketing impact,” Cohn said. “And it would provide Nascar with one of the biggest stories of the year, generating a significant amount of media coverage, consumer and fan engagement, and corporate attention.”

Appeal does not guarantee success. Several top I.R.L. drivers who made the move to Nascar have struggled, including Dario Franchitti, Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr.

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