INDIANAPOLIS — Danica Patrick strolled into Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a sunburn, a surprise gift from an afternoon spent in Green Bay, reading books while lying in the grass with boyfriend Aaron Rodgers.

As retirement comes racing toward her, she’s never been more at ease — except for one thing.

Patrick was looking relaxed at the final media day of her racing career, wearing white cutoff shorts and $500 Golden Goose sneakers — with just a touch of gray hair at her temples — as she admitted she has never been as nervous as she is heading into her final Indianapolis 500.

“I’ve been saying the last few days there’s a difference between the beginning, when I signed up for it — I was hopeful it would go well — there’s a difference between where it is now,” Patrick said. “Now it’s not just a hope, it’s more of a reality that I’ve really got a shot at it.”

It, of course, is a win, and it would be a remarkable feat should it come to pass — icing on the cake for a driver for years criticized as not good enough for a resume light on wins.

Her farewell tour ends at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. She led laps and finished fourth as a rookie in 2005, was a career-best third in 2009 and the only time she finished outside the top 10 in seven starts was when she was involved in a crash on pit road.

She moved to NASCAR full-time after the 2011 season, but she never got comfortable in stock cars. She never won a race, never scored a top-five finish.

And just like that, after six full seasons, she was done. Her sponsorship had dried up and Patrick had to figure out her next move. The girl from Illinois, who left home at 16 to move to Europe and chase her dreams of being a professional race car driver, had no more racing ahead of her.

Patrick is not a quitter, though. She lives her life without looking back. So she was determined to go out her own way, which was through a “Danica Double,” the 500-mile showcase races at Daytona and Indianapolis.

Daytona was merely OK. She was in a one-off ride that brought her NASCAR career full circle, and it ended with the kind of crash that happens to everyone at least once in a restrictor-plate race. But Indy? Well, this is where she sparkles, and landing a ride capable of winning the race was important.

She got a fast Chevrolet from Ed Carpenter Racing and qualified seventh, next to teammate Spencer Pigot. Carpenter is on the pole, and three of his entries are a real threat to challenge the quartet of Chevys from Roger Penske.

Patrick has a very real opportunity to put the past six seasons of disappointment behind her, and just maybe have one last 500-mile run for fun.

“There were some high points in NASCAR. It wasn’t a complete failure by any means,” she said. “Coming back and having this be my final race, it wouldn’t have been possible if I would have finished up in a normal way. Normally, usually when you choose your retirement, you finish up at the end of a season. I would have finished up in NASCAR. It kind of felt like it wasn’t really finished properly, that’s what led me to think, ‘What else can I do to finish it up?’

“That brought me back here,” she said. “It wouldn’t be so dramatic if I wasn’t gone for seven years. I can see Indy on the way out the way I saw it on the way in.”

She has impressed her peers at Indy. Although she struggled early with the weight of the Indy car steering wheel, and it took her some time to adapt to racing in traffic again, none of the drivers in the field are surprised to see her starting in the third row.

“She’s done a great job getting up to speed, not making mistakes. She’s got a fast car,” said Penske driver Josef Newgarden, last year’s IndyCar champion. “It’s going to be a matter of how she handles the full pack. And I don’t know, maybe she’s going to be fine. She was always really good here, and in the pack, and she could school many of the IndyCar drivers at their own game back in the day. She’s got a great shot because she has a really good car underneath her and a good team.”

That’s also what makes Patrick nervous. She has the car to win, and wreckers or checkers, this final race might be how she is remembered. But she also knows that nobody can stand in her way but her.

“I just like to know that if I want to do something, that I am brave enough and confident enough to do it,” she said. “It doesn’t mean that I’m not still scared. It’s not easy for me after. I just have a habit for pushing myself to uncomfortable spaces, making them comfortable for me. At least just making them comfortable enough to be able to manage.”