Darron Cummings / AP

Danica Patrick holds a hat given to her by a fan for her autograph before the traditional drivers meeting for Sunday's Indianapolis 500 on Saturday.

"We have different brands," Fisher said. "My brand is not as publicized as the other brand. I wanted to do girl-next-door type of stuff. But, if she's comfortable with it, that's her brand."

Patrick makes no apologies for, at the very least, stretching the boundaries of good taste.

"Oh, no, I've never done anything I didn't feel very good about," she said. "Those things that push the limit a little bit more, those are things we talk about, as a group, as a family, as a business. But I don't ever do anything I'm uncomfortable with.

"I love doing stuff outside the car that gets across my femininity, that makes women look beautiful," Patrick continued. "To me, that's fun. I'm a very feminine person. I remember when I was a kid. Me, my sister and another girl would play, like, beauty shop. I guess that's what we called it. We would do each other's hair and makeup and take pictures. That's pretty much a photo shoot. I enjoyed doing that even when I wasn't getting anything out of it but a wad of pictures afterward."

She's getting a lot more these days. Although IndyCar is on the upswing after merging with a rival series, there are still plenty of cars longing for stable sponsorship. Not Patrick, whose blue-and-black car is covered in advertising.

"All this stuff enhances the Danica brand," she said, sounding very much like a marketing professor. "Sure, it doesn't appeal to everyone. That's fine. But authenticity is the most important thing."

Authentic is a rather odd word choice. Surely no one believes Patrick normally goes to the beach with her racing gear (she took along her helmet, firesuit and gloves to the SI bikini shoot). But perhaps she's referring to her willingness to do just about anything to enhance the Danica brand. She is authentic in her passion for that pursuit.

Just ask Bobby Rahal, who took a chance on Patrick in 2005. After only one season with the second-tier team, she bolted for a better deal with Andretti Green, one of the series' most successful, well-funded operations.

"She's ruthless," Cheever said, his tone reflecting admiration more than condemnation. "She left the team that brought her here. That was a big thing because she went to a team with better equipment."

As for her driving skills, everyone concedes Patrick has improved steadily during her four years in the IndyCar series, though it's clear she'll never win everyone over. Some columnists and bloggers quickly seized on the fact that her victory in Japan was largely due to fuel strategy, though they blatantly failed to credit her for nursing better mileage out of her car in the waning laps.

Special feature Talking about Danica What people are saying about Danica Patrick

Teammate Tony Kanaan said Patrick was eager to learn when she got to Andretti Green.

"She got the help she needed instead of just putting her in the car and letting her drive," Kanaan said. "I personally helped her with some things. She has talent, there's no doubt about it. It's just a matter of experience. She would be setting up the car in a way she thought was right. But I would say to her, 'Why don't you look at it this other way?'"

Look what happened at Indy. Patrick qualified fifth, putting her in the middle of the second row — ahead of her three teammates. Kanaan will start sixth, Marco Andretti seventh and Hideki Mutoh ninth.

"When you're on a team, the first thing they do is measure you against your teammates," Cheever said. "I'd say she's doing pretty good."