Trailblazer: Danica Patrick at the Brickyard

Danica Patrick's breakthrough victory at Motegi was a momentous occasion for the IRL IndyCar Series and the wider motorsport world.

But for this historic event to happen at a flyaway race that was already delayed by a day due to rain and finally finished just before 1:00am Indianapolis time was perhaps less than ideal from a marketing perspective.

What would really send the series' profile skyrocketing would be for Danica to win the Indy 500 - as she looked set to on her debut in 2005 until being edged down to fourth in the final laps. And this weekend is her best chance since then to take that Indy victory.

Fifth on the grid isn't actually Patrick's strongest Indy qualifying position (she started fourth in 2005), but she has out-qualified teammates Tony Kanaan, Marco Andretti and Hideki Mutoh and was beaten only by the Ganassi and Penske drivers, who have dominated much of the month.

Andretti Green currently look to be a step behind their two main rivals. They couldn't quite muster the speed for a pole challenge, and their drivers have continued to chase a set-up in the subsequent practice sessions, without great success.

However, Patrick has been consistently the most optimistic of Michael Andretti and Kim Green's quartet in recent weeks, and she is more aware than most that qualifying and pre-race speed can be utterly irrelevant, for her finest hours have come on days when she initially looked unlikely to feature.

Danica Patrick leading the 2005 Indianapolis 500 for Rahal-Letterman © LAT

Back in 2005, she ironically capitalised on the after-effects of an error to thrust herself into the lead at Indianapolis. Her spin on a late restart caused a messy chain reaction and broke her Rahal Letterman Dallara's front wing, but the subsequent pitstop to repair the damage allowed her to fill up with fuel and emerge in the lead when the rest of the front-runners had to stop under yellow a dozen laps later.

And before anyone accuses her of 'lucking in' to that position, remember that she put up a gallant fight once at the front - managing to re-pass Dan Wheldon after initially losing the lead.

Only at the second attempt did the eventual winner succeed in shaking Patrick off, as her strategy meant she had to throttle back and save fuel. It still took until the penultimate lap before she was edged out of the podium places.

Fuel conservation also played the critical role in her Motegi win, as she steadily climbed the field by using her tank of Ethanol more prudently than those ahead after an awkwardly timed final yellow forced everyone to stretch their last stint beyond what was normally practical.

Afterwards, she was deeply unimpressed by any attempt to denigrate her victory because it had been achieved strategically rather than in a wheel to wheel race to the line.

"I would never take anything away from any other driver that won on fuel strategy, so how can I look at it in a negative way from my standpoint?" she said.

"I feel like there have been so many great races over the past three years when I drove the heck out of the car and have done a great job and either caught bad luck or maybe I ended up having to come from the back, and maybe only got a third-place finish or something.

"The win is rewarding for all those times that you really, really drove well. Some of our wins weren't our hardest races. You take every win you can possibly get."

It was a very fair point. Good timing and good fortune played a big part in Dario Franchitti's Indy 500 victory for Andretti Green last year, and like Danica at Motegi, he only emerged as a serious candidate for victory as circumstances turned his way in the closing stages. It's not only female drivers who win in this manner.

Surprise yellows and dramatic incidents are a certainty at Indianapolis, and rain interruptions are quite likely, so being in the right place at the right time is all-important. Patrick and her strategist Kyle Moyer's knack for doing just that could pay massive dividends this weekend.

And canny strategies only result in victories if you're fast enough to stay amongst the leaders and take advantage - and Danica's raw speed is rarely questioned these days.

Andretti-Green drivers Hideki Mutoh, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, and Tony Kanaan © LAT

It took her some time to settle in at AGR last year and there were early blips, but she still compared well to illustrious teammates Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti, and put herself on the front row of the grid for the road course races at Lexington and Sears Point. Even more impressively, this year she has been AGR's fastest qualifier in all three oval sessions (Motegi qualifying having been rained off).

Not that Patrick is bothered when critics intimate that her publicity value, not her speed, is keeping her in the field.

"I believe that if I didn't prove that over the last three-and-a-bit years then they won't ever think that I belong here, so they'll find some way to brush off any successes," she shrugs.

"I believe that I have the respect of my team-mates, and hopefully others, too, and that's what matters most to me."

It's her consistent front-running performances that have made Patrick a trailblazer. Janet Guthrie, Lyn St James and Sarah Fisher had shown speed in Indycars before her, and it was Fisher who became the series' first female pole-sitter and podium finisher, albeit in a far less competitive era.

However Patrick - partly because she has been given better opportunities than her predecessors - has proved that female drivers can be more than short-lived novelties.

That's also helped erase the often sceptical motorsport world's memories of female racing calamities such as the 2000 Indy 500 - when St James and Fisher became the first women to share the grid at the Speedway, and then the race's first retirements when they crashed into each other ...

It's not so much in the IndyCar Series, where Fisher is plugging on with her own underfunded team and Milka Duno is struggling to justify her place on the grid, that Patrick's influence is being felt, but in Indy Lights, where Cyndie Allemann and particularly Ana Beatriz are making a name for themselves, and other junior series.

"There might be girls that come along that start just blowing me out of the water, I don't know," Patrick says.

"I hope not, but I think that's what's going to show in 20 years from now when I look back and say, 'wow, that was the start of a major wave'. At this point it's the record that it is and the history-making moment that it was."

Danica is headline news whether she's winning races or having disasters (had Dale Coyne's crew member Chuck Buckman been hit by any other car in the Indy pit lane, the story would have been far smaller).

That situation might never change, but she believes she is now much better prepared for the media maelstrom than she was when she first starred at Indy.

Danica Patrick speaks to the media at Indianapolis © LAT

"The spotlight didn't go away after 2005, but we sure learned how to manage it and make the most of it," she says. "I learned how I like to deal with all these situations best, and we've got good people surrounding me over the last couple of years.

"The reason why I did all those interviews is because I did well in a race and did my job well. I understand what fuels this whole machine."

This composed approach to her status as a media property also shows in her blunt response to criticism of her appearance in photo shoots such as Sports Illustrated's 'swimsuit issue'.

"Being a female and doing photo shoots and things like that, people are quick to criticise. I think it's all part of it; the more popular you get, the more good and bad press you get.

"I would hope that over time they would give me credit for the good things that happen along the way, but that's one of those things that's totally out of my control.

"I can be as nice to everyone as I possibly can be, but I can't write stories for them or put words in their mouth or on their paper. The best thing I can do is just put my head down as a driver, and if I can walk away at the end of the day pleased with my performance, that's really all that matters."

She openly admits that she knows her promotional value to the series - it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge it - but also seems to have worked out how to healthily separate her media identity from her racing persona.

Patrick knows that she could never be 'just another driver' after the events of recent years but while 'public Danica' is aware that for her to become Indianapolis' first ever female winner would be a stratospheric moment for the IndyCar Series, 'racing Danica' is trying to see it simply as 50 championship points that would keep her in title contention, as she starts the weekend fifth in the standings, 34 points off the lead.

She wants the Motegi win to be just the start of an even greater story:

"I don't think any pressure is going to compare to what it was like to get a win in. So it's nice to do that and it's nice to not have to answer any questions about when and how and why it hasn't happened

Danica Patrick at speed during practice for the 2008 Indianapolis 500 © LAT

"But you know, our attitude really is just that we'll now start thinking about the championship. It's even more realistic now with having a win and in turn, hopefully more will come and come more easily.

"I've always thought that I was somebody that could compete for a championship, because I'm a consistent driver, and hopefully I'm smart out there. But what I had not done yet was win races, and it really does take wins to win championships.

"It's nice to have that win. It's nice to answer new questions now. That's kind of what that does. But really, it's just good championship points. We, unfortunately, fell out with a mechanical problem at Kansas, so we've got some ground to make up at Indy ..."

The last three Indy winners have used that success as a springboard to the title. It would be a seismic event for motorsport, not just American single seater racing, if Danica Patrick could follow in Wheldon, Sam Hornish and Franchitti's footsteps. This weekend will reveal if she can.