Indianapolis, Indiana - It's a year since fashion model and Indianapolis 500 driver Danica Patrick found herself being flashed by photographers for more than her looks - she was the first woman to lead the classic oval-track race.
Today, she's still searching for her first IndyCar victory and her next chance will be on Sunday.
After the 24-year-old took the lead from eventual winner Briton Dan Wheldon (as if a Pom winning the race wasn't bad enough) in 2005 TV viewers changed channels in the hope of seeing history being made - they're still waiting.
Patrick's photogenic and telegenic appearance have forced comparisons with stunning tennis star Anna Kournikova - the latter famous without ever winning a major singles tournament.
Some feel it's not a fair analogy.
"It's really a non-issue," Lyn St James, the second woman at Indy and Rookie of the Year in 1992, told USA Today. "There has been all the hype over Danicamania and never having won a race but this isn't comparable to Anna Kournikova."
Patrick finished in the top 10 seven times in 1995, including two fourth places (including the Indy 500), and took pole position three times. Yet she hasn't taken a podium place, let alone a win.
Her Rahal Letterman Racing team is still using a Panoz chassis which has not been as competitive this year as the rival Italian-made Dallara. And, since Honda agreed to supply engines to the entire field, the team lost its horsepower advantage over rivals such as Penske and Ganassi.
This year Patrick finished sixth in a road race in St Petersburg, Florida, and eighth on the two-mile oval at Motegi, Japan, in fields of 20 or fewer.
"It's tough right now but I don't think anybody thinks I'm a bad driver," Patrick explained. "It's just that we're struggling right now."
Patrick and her crew, finding it too late to switch to a Dallara chassis for this year's Indy 500 and still short of speed, worked hard on their car's set-up and qualified a respectable 10th.
In the harsh world of racing, second place is called "first loser". For Patrick, whose best finish has been fourth, there is constantly the question: "When are you going to win?'"
The average first win for a driver in the Indy Racing League comes with his (or her) 33rd race and that is something on the mind of many despite the fact that Sunday's race will only be Patrick's 20th start in the series.
When asked if she needs a win she retorted: "I promise you, there's not a single time I go out on the track without giving everything I've got." - Reuters