RICHMOND, Va. - Danica Patrick was starting to squirm as she sat on the “hot seat.”

The IndyCar driver was answering a variety of questions, but the subject kept coming back to the criticism she received from Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon and fellow IndyCar driver Ed Carpenter after the June 22 race at Iowa Speedway, when both accused her of blocking.

Finally, it was time to ask “the” question.

Which was a bigger insult — to be called a “menace” by Dixon or the “new Scott Sharp of the IndyCar Series” by Carpenter?

“They're both bad,” Patrick said. “Neither of them is good. Anybody will agree with that. So, again, I don't know where the comments came from. I really don't. I mean, sure, I don't know where they came from, that's really all I can say.”

Sharp was a long-time IndyCar driver known for blocking on the race track.

Once the “Poster Girl of IndyCar Racing,” Patrick has become the lightning rod of the sport.

After the race in Iowa, Scott Dixon called her "a menace," and Ed Carpenter referred to her "normal supreme block job" in suggesting that Patrick's blocking style hampered his finish.

Patrick's style was further brought under scrutiny when Brian Barnhart, the IndyCar Series' president of competition and operations, said she needs to continue treating her fellow competitors with respect or risk losing their respect because of her driving style.

Usually polished and professional, Patrick was at a loss for how she became involved in her latest controversy.

In fact, the level of scrutiny has increased since she became the first female driver ever to win in a major closed-course auto racing series with her breakthrough win at Japan on April 20.

When Patrick arrived in the series as a rookie in 2005, she was the pretty girl who had high hopes of making a mark in the sport. By the time she made it through her first Indianapolis 500 that year, she had become a phenomenon, leading the world’s biggest race before being passed by eventual winner Dan Wheldon with seven laps to go.

Ever since, the focus of the sport has been on Patrick, who seemed a cinch to win a race.

It would take three years before Patrick got to victory lane, and during that time she was heavily scrutinized by those who wondered if she ever would win a race.

Ironically, after she finally drove to victory in an IndyCar race, the scrutiny, pressure and criticism has increased among the fans, the media and her fellow competitors.

“I've never been different my whole career,” Patrick said. “I've always been the same person. So I just try and be consistent and follow the weekend as it goes. And so I really try not to pay too much attention to what goes on around me and focus on myself, because ultimately at the end of the day there's nothing I can do about those emotions and there's nothing I can do about negative comments.

“Really, the ideal thing is to never hear about them or never know about them. So it's not really my center of focus, that's for sure.”

Her team owner, Michael Andretti, even finds a certain level of hypocrisy in the most Patrick’s most recent controversy.

“It makes me laugh to be honest,” Andretti said. “A lot of those guys need to look in the mirror before they make a comment. What was Dixon thinking before that restart at Iowa? He just about crashed her and put her in a position where she was between Marco (Andretti) and Scott. It’s people stirring stuff up for no reason.

“Everybody is always trying to come up with something. She needs to stay focused and win more races again. She has run into a slump where she isn’t getting the car right and having some bad luck. My feelings haven’t changed about her at all. She is a real talent and will win some races.”

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Patrick obviously has talent because she is generally racing near the top five in nearly every IndyCar race. But some drivers continue to question the level of attention she gets based on her results.

“Ever since Danica got into this sport she has brought a lot of news to the series, whether it is something she says or does on the track or something they say about her,” Carpenter said. “In the end, I guess it’s a good thing.

“I had an issue on track for the past two races and at Iowa I was angry and felt I needed to say something. It was more of an on-track problem and when it comes to blocking it’s a safety problem. I think she is by far the bad guy in this. It’s always good for someone to be the bad guy in this sport.”

Graham Rahal is one of the bright young talents in the sport. The 19-year-old became the youngest driver in history to win an IndyCar race with his victory in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 6.

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