Danica Patrick has hit back at claims that she is becoming a 'menace' on the track, insisting that she was trying to find the balance between being passive and aggressive.
The furore blew up when championship leader Scott Dixon slated Patrick for her on-track antics during last Sunday's Iowa Corn 250, but the Kiwi's comments have been echoed up and down pit-lane at various junctures this season.
"She's a menace," the Target Chip Ganassi driver told
The Des Moines Register newspaper, ""It might just be me, but it's tough when you get drivers that don't stay where they should be."
Even though she remains both a media and fan 'darling', Patrick has not made herself popular within the sport, with petulant outbursts and moody behaviour casting a very different picture that often portrayed for the television cameras. Her latest 'party piece' saw her stalking down pit-lane at Indianapolis, apparently bristling for a confrontation with Ryan Briscoe following their coming together in the 500.
Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter has also voiced concerns about Patrick's aggressive style and reluctance to give up track position, while the series' president of competition, Brian Barnhart, has suggested that she needs to treat her fellow competitors with respect.
"I just started working with my car, working towards the front, but Danica was doing her normal supreme block job," Carpenter said, "She is the new Scott Sharp of the series as far as I am concerned."
Patrick could not be reached for comment for the initial article, but spent time with journalists as the series gathered for its annual night race at Richmond in an effort to put her side of the story.
"I don't really know where those comments came from," the Motegi race winner said, "All I can say is with the words you used -- aggressive and giving up spots -- those are things that drivers never do.
"You should never give up spots and you, ideally, don't want to be someone that's just passive out there. As a driver, I'm always trying to be aggressive and I think, if anything, last weekend I maybe wasn't aggressive enough on the restarts. That's where I lost my spots.
