DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Step by step, inch by inch, IndyCar racer Danica Patrick's stock car adventure continued Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, where Patrick's in the middle of a three-day ARCA Series test.

“

Drafting's not something you learn overnight and she's done real good learning how to stay in the pack, learning what the car does in different aero situations, so we're pretty pleased.

”

-- TONY EURY JR.

From her 8 a.m. arrival Friday to attend a mandatory ARCA drivers' meeting, to an educational van ride with an ARCA safety official, to getting paperwork and an obligatory head-and-shoulders photo done before she could get on the race track, Patrick's progress has been slow and steady.

But her education leaped ahead just after 3 p.m. ET Saturday, when the full-time open-wheel pilot engaged in her first drafting practice on the 2.5-mile tri-oval.

In the space of about a half-hour, Patrick made a 40-lap run that ranged from solo laps, to a tight two-car draft for more than 10 laps with Kyle Martel to formations that included as many as four cars in a variety of lanes.

Eight different cars, including those that turned some of the day's fastest laps driven by James Buescher, Brandon McReynolds and Randy Renfro, switched in and out of the draft with Patrick. The result was a lap at 181.554 mph, her fastest of the test. By day's end she'd drafted with both her test cars, after which crew chief Tony Eury Jr. was smiling.

"Overall she's doing real good," Eury Jr. said. "Drafting's not something you learn overnight and she's done real good learning how to stay in the pack, learning what the car does in different aero situations, so we're pretty pleased.

"We told her we were going to do almost a full fuel run, just to let her feel it out; and that's what I told her. The ARCA race is 80 laps and she said 'this ought to just fly by.' So she's in tip-top shape and it's just time [in the cars] -- that's all it is."

Patrick wasn't available to the media Saturday, but a speedway spokesman relayed a couple comments from day's end. (Continued)