 "Photo: AP")
Danica Patrick has managed to stay in the news despite staying out of victory lane and the trend continues at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday, where the Bombardier Learjet 550k has already been dubbed "Rumble at the Speedway" due to an off-track incident between Patrick and 13-time winner Dan Wheldon.
Patrick grabbed Wheldon's arm and gave it a shove last week following the ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt 225 at the Milwaukee Mile, blaming him for spinning her out and damaging her suspension as she attempted to pass him.
"I definitely think it was worth some sort of a penalty," Patrick told reporters after the race. "Unless I get a good reason why nothing was done, then I'll be disappointed."
The two meet again at Texas' 1.5-mile oval just north of Fort Worth where they'll be joined by the rest of their Indy Racing League competitors.
"I'm putting my money on Danica in this fight between her and Wheldon," fellow driver Ed Carpenter told indycar.com. "Dan has been pretty good down here in Texas, but I'm going to put my money on Danica."
Neither the on-track incident or the following altercation resulted in punitive action. Instead, it has served to draw attention to the struggling IRL. Texas Motor Speedway even had the drivers don boxing gloves for a promotional photo shoot.
While those two duke it out, there will be a race going on.
Qualifying starts at 6 p.m. Thursday night and Helio Castroneves has won four of the last five poles.
They'll race under the lights at 8:30 p.m. Saturday with current points leader Dario Franchitti trying to maintain his spot in the standings. Currently, Franchitti is only three points ahead of Wheldon and five ahead of Scott Dixon.
The circuit's most recent winner, Tony Kanaan, is fourth in points, fifteen behind Dixon.
Kanaan's win was of the lucky variety as frontrunner Castroneves suffered a collapsed rear wing that sent him spinning with 25 laps to go. Despite the misfortune, he's fifth in points and still in contention.
But he'll have a ways to go to catch Franchitti who clocked the fastest lap in practice with a speed of 214.138 MPH, but right behind him was none other than Kanaan at 214.072 MPH.
Patrick and Wheldon may be in the spotlight this weekend, but with Kanaan and Franchitti running well, they've got their work cut out for them, whether they mix it up with each other or not.
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