INDIANAPOLIS – Danica Patrick, the most successful female driver in Indianapolis 500 history, will be back at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s telecast on NBC.

Ironically, this will be the first Indianapolis 500 in 20 years without a female driver in the field of 33.

Because of COVID-19 limiting sponsorship opportunities, female drivers such as Pippa Mann were unable to put a deal together this year.

Patrick, who will serve as the host of NBC’s Indianapolis 500 coverage along with Mike Tirico, was asked about the fact no female drivers are in this year’s field for the first time in two decades.

“That it’s a story that there isn’t one is more surprising because the story always used to be that there is one, that there is a female in the race,” Patrick said Wednesday. “I think the story is actually that there’s a story there isn’t one, if that makes sense.

“It’s much more normal, obviously, to have females in the race, plural or singular, so I think that we’re taking score too soon. We need to look at the macro of it and instead of looking at this year compared to last year or the last 10. Let’s just look at the arc of it over the last 50 years, and then you’ll see that.

“My goodness, just because there’s one that doesn’t go so well, just because 2020 is not going so well, it doesn’t mean this whole decade is garbage. So, we need to look at the bigger version to understand that it’s far, far more normal now to have females in the race and that the fact that there is a story about there not being one is the story.”

Patrick was the most successful female driver in IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 history. She remains the only female driver ever to win an IndyCar race when she won at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan in April 2008. Patrick was the 2005 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year when she started fourth and finished fourth. She led 19 laps in that race, becoming the first female driver to lead the Indianapolis 500.

In eight Indianapolis 500 starts, Patrick finished in the top-10 six times. She is the highest finishing female driver in the Indianapolis 500, earning a third-place finish in 2009.

SPEED SPORT had a chance to ask Patrick two questions on Wednesday, including her thoughts on her former Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti winning the Indy 500 pole.

Patrick and Andretti were teammates from 2007 until she left IndyCar after the 2011 season.

“I’m super happy for Marco,” Patrick said. “He has had his ups and downs, but there’s one place that he’s generally been up, and I know he had a struggle last year, but that’s at Indy. There’s barely a year that goes by that he isn’t in the mix, that he isn’t fast at least some points during the month, or the shortened abbreviated month or the month that’s not May anymore, so he always does really well.

“What that shows is that his confidence at the Speedway kind of transcends a little bit the car and what happens. That’s hard. It’s hard to be confident all the time, but I think it really comes through for him at Indy, and he does have a little something special.

“Maybe the Andretti name sort of transitions into good luck with him, I don’t know. Maybe we look at it different after this year, who knows. It’s obviously going well for him so far.”

SPEED SPORT also asked Patrick her thoughts on IndyCar’s aeroscreen, and if she would have liked to have that during her time in IndyCar.

“From the time I started racing at 10 years old, my dad always made sure that he got me the safest helmet possible, the safest gear,” Patrick explained. “It didn’t matter how much it was. It didn’t matter what it looked like. It was all about having the best equipment that was the safest.

“So, at any point in my career, absolutely, if I could go back and put something on that was safer, I would have taken it. But that’s the nature of the sport is it’s always evolving, and I’m glad that I came out unscathed and was safe in my career, but for me it’s just good to see that the sport is still evolving and still adapting to things as important, of course, as safety.

“So yes, I would have taken it.”