Danica Patrick's roller coaster week at the Brickyard started with boos and ended with hugs.
In between IndyCar's most popular - and most polarizing - driver might have grown up a little, too.
Patrick overcame a sometimes ill-handling racecar to finish sixth during Sunday's Indy 500, a remarkable turnaround after the star bashed her Andretti Autosport crew following a poor qualifying effort that left her frustrated and scared.
Her comments drew the ire of fans who are perhaps growing tired of Patrick constantly blaming everyone but herself when things don't go well.
She had a heart-to-heart with teammate Tony Kanaan following the incident, then accepted blame for criticizing her crew. If it rankled her crew, it didn't show.
Thanks to a series of nimble pit stops and some solid if not spectacular driving, Patrick ended up back in her usual spot at the treacherous 2.5-mile oval: inside the top 10.
Afterward she made sure to heap credit upon the same crew members she very publicly chastened during Pole Day.
"What can I say? The pit stops were great," said Patrick after posting her fifth top 10 in six Indy starts. "It was a little tough to pass but between the pit stops and the strategy, this is why we're in the top five."
Make that top-six, actually.
Patrick was bumped from fifth to sixth more than two hours after the race ended when officials ruled she and two other cars illegally passed Marco Andretti under caution in the final yards.
Even with the bump, Patrick's rise personified a resilient performance by Andretti Autosport, and she spent the postrace signing autographs and accepting hugs from fans stacked three-deep outside her garage.
Team owner Michael Andretti brushed aside criticism when none of his five drivers managed to crack the top 15 in qualifying. He knew the cars would be ready by Sunday.
"The whole thing is not to panic over qualifying," Andretti said. "We've been here so many times before. I listen to the drivers. When they say the car feels good, then that makes me feel good for the race, and that's what we had."
Tony Kanaan started last in the 33-car field and made it all the way to second before finishing 11th. Ryan Hunter-Reay ran near the front all day before running out of gas and colliding with Mike Conway with less than two laps to go.
"It was the way I was hoping it was going to go," Andretti said.
Particularly for son Marco.
The 23-year-old has struggled much of the season but put it together on Sunday at a track where grandfather Mario Andretti won 41 years ago. He started 16th but quickly moved through traffic while trying to chase down leader and eventual winner Dario Franchitti.
He almost got there before fuel concerns forced him to ease off the gas in the final laps.
"It's so hard when you're looking at the leader to just disregard racing him even if you feel that you have something," he said. "That's frustrating there."
Even so, the fuel-sipping strategy worked. Barely. Andretti had just enough to get across the finish line under caution to post his third podium finish at the Brickyard in the last five years.
"I never doubted that we would be in the fight," he said. "We would like to have won, but racing from 16th to third is something we can be happy with."
His joy, however, was not shared by teammate Hunter-Reay, who did little to hide his frustration after a late-race gamble to make it on fuel didn't pay off.
Hunter-Reay ran out of gas and was run into by Conway, who soared into the air and nearly came down on top of Hunter-Reay's No. 37 Honda. Hunter-Reay narrowly escaped injury, but his car was totaled. He finished 18th.
"In hindsight we should have stopped for fuel," Hunter-Reay said. "It's dangerous. ... There's no runoff lane. There's no bailout procedure. You've got to slow down or you're going to hit the car in front of you."
Hunter-Reay, who began the day fourth in points but isn't assured of sponsorship beyond next week's race in Texas, will have surgery on Monday after tearing ligaments in his left hand after being bumped by Scott Dixon while leaving the pits earlier in the race.
"It's stupid," he said. "There was no call for that."
