LOUDON, N.H. (AP) — IndyCar drivers took laps around New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the first time in 13 years Thursday, with the open-wheel series attempting to attract fans who flock to NASCAR races run at the track.

While the circuit has been here before, most of the drivers haven’t and they were trying to learn the nuances of the 1-mile oval before Sunday’s 225-mile race.

“The only way you’re going to keep people coming back is if the show is really good and if people really enjoy watching the racing,” Danica Patrick said.

With six races left in the season, drivers should get used to learning unfamiliar tracks. Besides New Hampshire, there are new venues on tap in Baltimore and Las Vegas as the IndyCar circuit tries to expand its fan base.

New Hampshire is a regular and popular stop in NASCAR. The state shuts down part of Interstate 93 to reduce some of the congestion as thousands of cars and RVs funnel from the freeway to the two-lane road leading to the track in Loudon, just east of the state capital of Concord.

“I think the goal in coming here would be to attract new fans and attract much more of the New England market and Boston and near cities,” said Patrick, who raced here last summer in a Nationwide

series event.

The last open-wheel race at the track was won by Tony Stewart in June 1998, when IndyCar was known as the Indy Racing League.

NHMS is less than half the size of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of IndyCar’s premier event, but slightly larger than the tiny Iowa Speedway, which is just 7/8 of a mile. It’s also the first IndyCar race on an oval since Iowa at the end of June. The cars have been running road courses since, and drivers are trying to readjust during an unusual race week.

“I always love coming to a new track, learning it. You’ve got to feel out the bumps and the lines,” Ryan Briscoe said. “It’s nice that we’ve got so much time today.”

Thursday was a day of practice, followed by a day off Friday and qualifying Saturday.

“I’m just happy to have the chance to be driving around this place. It’s a lot of fun. We’re still a little ways off, but we’re making the car better,” Ryan Hunter-Reay said. “Hopefully we can get the fans in here and make this thing permanent for us.” Hunter-Reay recalled traveling to several open-wheel races with his father in the mid-90s, including New Hampshire.

The track is such a popular draw for NASCAR, he hopes to see IndyCar come back again.

“It’s beautiful around here. It’s a great place to have a race,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get the fan in here and make this thing permanent

for us.”

Patrick gives no update on future

New track, same questions for Danica Patrick.

Will she still be in IndyCar next year or will she jump to NASCAR and run a full-time schedule?

The answer, she says, also hasn’t changed.

“I’m fortunate that people keep asking. I’m really fortunate that it seems like people care and they want to know and hoping that each time it’s asked that they’ll be the one that gets the breaking news,” Patrick said Thursday. “There’s just nothing to report right now.

“I’m sorry. I feel like a broken record. I feel like really boring. Am I really boring you guys? I feel like that.”

Patrick and the other IndyCar drivers were preparing for Sunday’s 225-mile race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the circuit’s first stop here since 1998.

While Patrick would prefer to talk about racing on the small oval about 75 miles north of Boston, she inevitably ran into another round of questions about her future. Patrick is a draw no matter what kind of car she’s driving.

With six races left in this season, the Andretti Autosport driver is 15th in the standings with 207 points.

The season ends Oct. 16 at Las Vegas, just a little more than two months after Sunday’s run in New Hampshire.

“There’s no timeline. I think everyone is just of the mind-frame we’ll get through it piece by piece, but as I’ve been told, ‘You just go do your job and drive the car and do well,’” Patrick said. “When I do well, everything else takes care of itself. That’s kind of the best thing that I can do and I can focus on.”

Good company

Patrick isn’t the only woman driving in Sunday’s race. There have been other female drivers in the circuit for some time now.

The biggest difference between her and women such as Simona de Silvestro and Ana Beatriz is that Patrick has won a race and has a much higher profile, with her many endorsements making her the most recognizable face, male or female, in IndyCar.

As far as getting more young women interested in the sport, Patrick said that’s been happening for a while.

“I think that’s kind of been happening for a while now. We’ve had a few girls in IndyCar throughout the last few years,” she said.

“I know that when I get the attention it’s when

I’m doing well.”

Just like anybody. But I think that being a girl it’s a little more interesting and different and unique.”

Welcome back

The last time IndyCars ran here was 13 years ago, when Tony Stewart won the 1998 IRL stop at NHMS.

The return to New England is among a slew of changes made by IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard.

IndyCars are running inaugural events in Baltimore and Las Vegas, giving drivers a grand tour of new places and races.

“I think he’s got great ideas. His heart and mind are in the right place — of promoting and growing the series and trying new things,” Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe said. “I think a little bit of it might be trial and error, but I think in the grand spectrum of things he’s doing a great job.”

Fast track

Although the track is small and the turns have banks of 7 degrees or less, it’s still fast.

Gustavo Yacman had the fastest lap of the day in Thursday’s practice session at 147.580 mph.

“It’s a beautiful circuit,” Briscoe said. “There’s a lot of grip where we’re all running, anywhere outside of that seems to be very difficult to get a lap time. “It’s going to be interesting, pretty challenging.”

Not that Pippa

There’s another Pippa from England and this one’s sister is not married to the Prince of Wales.

Pippa Mann, the first British driver to race the Indy 500, will be making her debut for Rahal Letterman racing Sunday.

Mann spun out in her first practice session, but the car was good to go for a second. That one ended with another spin and a run-in with the tire wall outside Turn 2.

Mann, who finished 20th at Indy, is still cleared to race Sunday. Rahal Letterman co-owner Bobby Rahal won the inaugural race at NHMS in 1992.

Behind the wheel

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing says Tomas Scheckter will be taking the wheel for Justin Wilson, who fractured a vertebra during qualifying at Mid-Ohio.

IndyCar medical director Dr. Michael Olinger says Wilson will wear a back brace an