“Gosh, did I make some mistakes,’’ she said later.

Yeah, she made mistakes, rookie mistakes. But she recovered from those errors. And in the final laps, she gave the people at the Speedway the ride of their lives.

“A lot of people think you made a helluva point for the females,’’ somebody suggested. “What’s your take on that?’’

She wasn’t amused.

“I made a hell of a point for anybody, are you kidding me?’’ she said. “I came from the back twice. That sucks back there. It’s hard. I was so much more content running up front; it was much easier. But I think I might have shown the most is that I was able to pass and I was able to learn how to set someone up better.

“Yeah, I definitely got a lot of experience in different situation. It was frustrating to be leading the race with so few laps to go and not be able to finish hard and just hang out up there and win the thing.’’

Patrick might have been The Story Sunday because she was the lone woman, and a major player in the most compelling Indy 500 in many years. Down the road, though, she will alter the sport’s landscape because she’s got the talent to win and the personality to bring marginal fans into the IRL tent.

If Patrick can remain competitive — and her performances in this season’s first five races suggest she will — she has a chance to make the biggest impact in the recent history of the sport.

She will boost TV ratings. She will draw national media attention. And most important, she will attract the notice of the vast number of Americans who know almost nothing about a sport that once seemed to matter, but had fallen on hard times.

Can Patrick do for this sport what Tiger Woods did for golf?

Put it this way.

On Sunday morning, most Americans couldn’t name five drivers in the Indianapolis 500.

Today, almost everybody can name one.

Danica.

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