FORT WORTH, Texas — Danica Patrick battled her car all night, which only made losing a duel with Marco Andretti with five laps to go and missing a chance to secure a fifth consecutive top-five finish all the more aggravating.

The always-animated Patrick popped out of her black No. 7 car, unfurled her long, dark hair, slapped her hands on her hips and stared at the jumbo video screen behind pit road flashing instant highlights of Saturday night’s Bombardier Learjet 550.
The video board didn’t reveal anything she didn’t already know.
“Marco passed me fair and square. He passed me around the outside. He was just faster, you know,” Patrick said. “We went from a car in the first day of practice that was really fast, and I was doing 212 (mph) by myself with a gear that wasn’t ideal. So then we come out here for the race and for some reason the steering was really heavy and, you know, it just wasn’t the car we had.
“It was slow. I mean, it was just not fast. I couldn’t even keep up with that lead pack at the end.”
However, Patrick fought to the end, trying to become the IndyCar Racing Series’ first driver this season to post five top-five finishes. She came to North Texas with four consecutive top-fives, including a third-place finish two weeks ago at the Indianapolis 500, the best finish for a female driver in that event’s storied history.
Looking for her first win at Texas and the second of her career, she found herself hunkered in the seventh spot for a large chunk of the 228-lap race. At lap 190, she finally found a way to get below Dan Wheldon and moved into sixth. Then she made another pass to get into the fifth spot with about 20 laps to go.
Her surge was quickly short-circuited.
“Fifth, sixth, it’s nice to say top five, but it’s just one position,” Patrick said. “If I would have (expletive) up, that would have been one thing, but Marco passed me totally fair and square and it was a good pass.”
In the midst of her best season on the circuit, Patrick isn’t into moral victories. She’s easily become the most dominant of the three female drivers in the series and is a legitimate contender for the championship.
She entered the race fourth in the points standings, but slipped to sixth after race winner Helio Castroneves passed her for fifth. She stands 32 points behind series leader Ryan Briscoe, who dominated Saturday’s race, but ultimately lost to his Penske Racing teammate.
Considering her car had let her down, perhaps Patrick could chalk up her fifth consecutive top-six finish and be pleased.
“Not when you’re trying to win it,” Patrick said.