INDIANAPOLIS - Thirty years ago, Janet Guthrie was IndyCar’s lone ranger — the first woman to qualify at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Now she’s the biggest fan of the growing women’s movement in racing.

She sees Danica Patrick as one of the series’ most marketable faces, Sarah Fisher as one of the circuit’s most popular drivers and Milka Duno as a little-known rookie full of potential. If all goes well this weekend, Guthrie will see that trio start the Indianapolis 500 together.

Guthrie has only one question: What took so long?

“Of course, I would have liked to have seen it happen sooner,” Guthrie said in a telephone interview from her Colorado home. “But I’m pleased, even though it has happened slowly.”

For women drivers, this year’s race could become the next significant milestone in their endless battle for equality in the racing world. Back in 1977, when Guthrie broke the gender barrier at Indy, most considered her more novelty than contender.

Today, the stakes have gotten significantly steeper.

Qualifying for races no longer suffices; it’s all about winning. And questions about whether women can finish a 500-mile race have been replaced by the actual results — just as with the men.

Those who once thought women might never be welcomed in a male-dominated sport can see the changes even in the sport’s old guard.

“I think Danica’s brought a lot to the sport because she’s very pretty and she’s been very fast,” four-time Indy winner A.J. Foyt said. “That’s helped her. Sarah is a great girl, too. Danica’s had a little more success than Sarah, but she’s had better equipment, too. If they had equal equipment, it would be interesting to see who beats who.”

Patrick, whose fourth-place finish in 2005 was the best by a woman at Indy, now drives for one of the series’ top teams, Andretti Green, and is one of the series’ fan favorites. Appearances in stores and at the track frequently include snaking lines that include hours-long waits to meet the 25-year-old racer.

Her four teammates — Michael and Marco Andretti, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan — all have IndyCar victories on their resumes, and they believe Patrick soon will join the club.

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“As they told me, ‘You know, go out there, you have nothing to prove to us. We know you’re fast and it’s going to happen for you, it is. We don’t doubt that at all,”’ Patrick said last week. “That’s coming from the likes of Andretti, Franchitti and Kanaan. If they didn’t believe it, they at least wouldn’t say anything.”

Patrick is at the top of her class. She is eighth fastest so far in qualifying for this year’s race, which means she’s tentatively set to start in the middle of Row 3.

Patrick already owns two Indy distinctions: She produced the best finish of any woman in race history, fourth in 2005, and is the only woman to lead the race, also in 2005.

Fisher has been a trendsetter, too.

She was the first woman to win an IndyCar pole, that coming in 2002 at Kentucky, and was part of the first two-woman tandem to start at Indy along with Lyn St. James, in 2000. And her qualifying average of 229.439 in 2002 still ranks as the fastest by a woman at this track, a number Guthrie still marvels at.