'Danica Mania' sweeping IRL.

After her stunning Indianapolis 500 debut, Danica Patrick is undoubtedly THE face of the IRL at the moment, with her merchandise sales rocketing to previously unseen levels and her popularity even threatening to rival some of the NASCAR Nextel Cup personalities.

Patrick-branded merchandise flew off the shelves of Indianapolis Motor Speedway retailers throughout the month of May. Patrick's history-making drive in the 2005 Indianapolis 500, which saw her become the first woman to lead the race and then finish fourth, the highest finishing woman ever at the "500" led to a huge spike in retail sales.

Patrick-branded merchandise outsold all other IRL IndyCar Series drivers combined, and IMS retail officials had to reorder merchandise bearing Patrick's name and likeness several times during the month of May.

Two "reorders," for thousands of T-shirts, took place for Miller Lite Carb Day and Indianapolis 500 Race Day. MainGate printed a reorder of Patrick T-shirts overnight on Saturday May 28th so they were available for sale at IMS on Race Day the following day.

By the time track officials closed the public gates at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Race Day evening, the inventory of Danica merchandise still in the gift shops on Speedway grounds consisted of one baseball cap, two T-shirts and one 1/64-scale die-cast Indy car. Online sales of Patrick merchandise remain strong following the race.

Official Patrick merchandise also was popular outside of the Speedway.

Meijer retail and grocery supercentres in the Indianapolis area sold out its stock of Reebok Patrick T-shirts. All but one of the Hat World/Lids retail locations in the Indianapolis market sold out of Patrick hats on race weekend. The Lids on the Road trailer sold out of Patrick hats and T-shirts by Saturday May 28th and the company's Web site also was sold out of Patrick hats.

Sales of Patrick merchandise also increased in Hat World/Lids locations in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Dallas and Chicago.