Like her or not, Danica Patrick has been the fresh face and voice of Indy car racing since she burst onto the scene with last year's dramatic showing at Indianapolis.

Not only has Patrick taken open-wheel racing to Hollywood premieres and to the talk-show scene in New York, she has gone mainstream in most points in between.

Lately, in the midst of settling her next contract, things have gotten challenging for Patrick and her relationships with others. Through May she had to hide her professional courtship with Andretti Green Racing, and her ability to communicate with Rahal Letterman Racing recently has suffered. Then her father T.J. went public at a NASCAR race at Chicagoland Speed-way with his desire to see her switch to stock cars.

All of those emotions came to a head at June's race in Milwaukee when she frankly got curt with reporters.

"I just don't have anything new to say, and I like to say new things," Patrick said in a huff after another disappointing qualifying run. "Unfortunately, my lips are sealed."

An electronically transmitted press release July 25 changed all that. AGR issued a statement that freed Patrick of her secret: She indeed will be going to the IRL's winningest team in a deal--we've confirmed it is three years at approximately $3 million per--that renewed her spirit and calmed the nerves of the Indy Racing League from its NASCAR jitters.

"It would have been a terrible loss to lose her [to NASCAR]," AGR co-owner Michael Andretti said.

Some of the details of Patrick's next ride remain unsettled and/or unknown, but signs point to her driving Bryan Herta's No. 7 car. The four-time race winner (two in CART, two in the IRL) has asked to drive AGR's new Acura in the American Le Mans Series, and there is reason to believe he will get the job. Herta is, after all, one of Andretti's best friends and one of America's top road racers.

Patrick also has been rumored to be getting XM Satellite radio for her car, perhaps even with a show on its dial. Think of that: All Danica, all the time.

Bobby Rahal's team didn't have much warning of Patrick's signing, though it certainly saw the same signs everyone did. It heard Patrick made public comments about a lack of leadership on the team, an inference that Rahal was spending too much time with the promising career of his 17-year-old son, Graham. (Patrick insisted people took that the wrong way.)

By the Nashville race July 15, team general manager Scott Roembke was pretty sure Patrick wouldn't return to the team for a fifth full season. The words and body language from Patrick and her father were different. There wasn't the sense of togetherness they had known in two years of Atlantic and a year and a half in Indy cars.

"I guess that's when I unofficially knew," Roembke said.

Ironically, Rahal wasn't around for any of it. He had been with Graham in Edmonton when the IRL went to Milwaukee and when the issue of a recent Patrick/AGR partnership was hashed and rehashed by the media. The electronic press release came midweek when Patrick was in Chicago promoting next month's race at Chicagoland. This past weekend Rahal was in San Jose with Graham, when Patrick showed her relief with a relaxing though unproductive result (17th place) at Michigan International Speedway.

"This just feels better," Patrick said prior to the race, a reference to the lack of tension surrounding her next move. "Now we can get back to racing and enjoying each other."

Patrick said it is too early to start feeling sentimental about leaving the team that gave her her first big break. "I'm still pretty focused," she said. "Right now I know I'll see these guys again."

They still have three races together. We'll see how it goes.