The crowd went wild for her after watching her all month.
And I can say for sure that attention was not all because she is a female. She came back twice from the back of the pack and she lead a bunch of laps, and she got back out there after some damage to her car.
Fans love that stuff.
She also broke a record and when that happens- any record at all, by any driver at the 500, you are going to get a good deal of attention from Indy fans.
The race is about tradition and records and stats for many of the fans. It is about history, and whether some people want to accept it or not- being the first to do anything at Indy is exciting for the fans to see.
I don't think there's the slightest doubt that this weekend's Indy race at Texas will set an attendance record, and it will be entirely due to Danica.
And during that month, she turned in:
I think that alone merited some attention as someone to watch during the race...