INDIANAPOLIS - When Danica Patrick nearly won the Indianapolis 500 in 2005 as a 23-year-old rookie, an avalanche of predictions were made that her first Indy-car victory was no longer a matter of “if,” but of “when.”

After almost three years of waiting, Patrick’s “when” came in April when she won the 300-miler at Japan’s Twin Ring Motegi circuit. In doing so, she became the first woman to win an Indy-car race.

Because of her immense mainstream popularity that has been helped by photo spreads like the one in this year's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, her victory in Japan is arguably the biggest happenstance for Indy-car racing in years.

The win and resulting publicity was welcome news to Indy officials heading into Sunday's Indy 500. But did it gain her newfound respect among her competitors?

No, say other drivers, because they already had great admiration for Patrick.

“I respect the driver who respects other drivers,” said Helio Castroneves, a two-time Indy 500 winner who finished second behind Patrick in Japan. “Danica is one of those drivers. I told her during the first season that I respected her more than a lot of the male drivers. Winning doesn’t change my respect for her. She just now falls in the category of winning driver.”

Patrick’s former teammate, Buddy Rice, agrees.

“I don’t think her winning a race changes anything,” said Rice, the 2004 Indy 500 winner. “Everybody wants their first win, and it takes longer for some than others. But I don’t think anything has changed for her just because she won.”

Patrick will start fifth in Sunday's race. For the fourth straight year, she will start inside the top 10 of the 33-car grid. She is ranked among the favorites to win, and picking her carries weight, as momentum has often played a role in the victories of a number of Indy 500 winners.

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“I’ve often been asked how I feel about what the other drivers think,” Patrick said Thursday. “I’ve always said that I don’t care what they think. When I first came here, I tried to be very quiet and very respectful. But once I’m in the car, I am focused. I am focused on being tough in competition and not passive.”

Patrick’s meteoric rise was initially greeted as a shot in the arm for American open-wheel racing, which in 2005 was still beset by a battle between the IRL and CART circuits. After qualifying on the front row for the 2005 Motegi race and then passing Indy-car superstar Sam Hornish Jr. for the lead, Patrick brought “Danica-mania” to the Speedway that May.

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She was quick in practice, and despite a bobble on the first lap of her four-lap qualification run, she recovered to start in fourth position. In the race, she became the first woman to lead at Indianapolis, ahead of the pack on Lap 189. Five laps later, eventual winner Dan Wheldon passed her and she ended up fourth after nearly running out of fuel.

Sports Illustrated put her on the cover of its post-500 issue, an honor normally reserved for the Indianapolis winner and no doubt a disappointment to Wheldon, who watched his accomplishment of capturing racing’s biggest prize overshadowed by someone who had finished fourth. Three years later, however, Wheldon says the hoopla over Patrick did not bother him as much as people would think.

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“When you’re involved in a sport like auto racing, a lot of people are motivated,” Wheldon said. “If I achieve what I set out to achieve — like winning the 2005 Indianapolis 500 — then that’s all that matters to me. To see what her doing well has done for her sport is fine with me.”

Of course, there have been occasions when the feeling was not universally harmonious.

There was the autograph session boycott at Milwaukee in 2005 by Andretti Green Racing drivers Wheldon, Tony Kanaan and Dario Franchitti, who believed that Patrick did not merit her own autograph table. Ultimately, the AGR drivers returned to the autograph table having made their point that they were also an important part of the series. (Ironically, by 2007, she would be a member of the AGR team.)

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