After a week of buzz created by her light shove of Dan Wheldon during a postrace confrontation, Patrick proved her feistiness where it counts. The much-publicized "Rumble at the Speedway" in Texas ended with Patrick in third place, the best finish of her career.

Patrick, who briefly led her first laps of the season, made a charge in the 23 laps after the final restart — often running the fastest laps at 213-214 mph. A late six-car crash that she avoided knocked Wheldon out of the race.

Driving hard, the Andretti Green newcomer closed within inches of teammate Tony Kanaan. But she just couldn't get that elusive first victory, staying near the front but unable to get past Kanaan or third-time Texas winner Sam Hornish Jr., who led 159 of 228 laps.

"She did what we're supposed to do. She drove a hell of a race," Kanaan said.

"I was pushing, but I was also trying to put myself in a position where I could get up behind Tony and try and pass Sam," Patrick said. "I was doing the best I could to stay up there. I was flying."

On Saturday night in pit row, Patrick was celebrating her best finish in 37 IndyCar Series races with Kanaan and fellow teammate Dario Franchitti, who finished fourth.

It was a much different scene from a week earlier in Milwaukee, when Patrick grabbed Wheldon's arm, voiced her complaint about their on-track collision and pushed him as he started to walk away without responding to her.

Patrick and Wheldon then had pointed words toward each other in Texas before a long talk with IRL president Brian Barnhart.

As for all the attention her feud with Wheldon generated, Patrick insisted she was never distracted by it or bothered by the heavy promotion by Texas Motor Speedway leading up to the Bombardier Learjet 550.

"It just ran its course. As far as Dan and I, we handled it like drivers and like people on the track that need to respect each other and it was everything on the outside that seemed very exciting," Patrick said from the podium after the race.

"It's fun, though. I like it when we get something going on in the series and people are paying attention. That's the stuff we need. So I get a kick out of it."

Following the prerace introduction of drivers, the ding of a bell preceded an announcement asking if everybody was ready for "A Rumble at the Speedway." The theme music from "Rocky" then played.

Within four laps, Patrick and Wheldon were side by side for third place — the same as when their cars made contact in Milwaukee. This time, Patrick was in front and they stayed close for more than 20 laps, only inches apart at times but separated by enough to avoid a repeat mishap.

Still, Patrick complained to her spotter on the radio about some of the moves Wheldon made in front of her once he finally managed to get around her on the 17th lap.

"He was just kind of all over the place. ... When I was on the bottom especially, he would go up mid-corner and then cut down really hard," Patrick said. "Whether that was Dan or whether that was even my own teammate, I would have said, `Hey, can you tell him to be careful because that's not right to do.' So that was a problem."

Once Wheldon passed Patrick, he stayed in front of her most of the race. He even led 52 laps before he got caught up in the chain-reaction wreck with 31 laps left after a tire popped off the car of A.J. Foyt IV on the backstretch.

Patrick, whose lead had come only a few laps earlier when she pitted later than the other front-running cars, avoided the mangled mess. Kanaan somehow squeezed unscathed through a small gap between the bouncing tire and a wrecked car.

Even though she ran as high as second at Indianapolis last month, Patrick's best finish in her Andretti Green debut this season had been seventh. It was as a rookie at Indy in 2005 that she had one of her four fourth-place finishes.