Brian Blanco / REUTERS

Danica Patrick just missed a top-five finish in her ARCA debut last Saturday.

If Patrick doesn’t do well the rest of her career, it won’t be because she lacked opportunity. She’s lucky enough to be racing stock cars as a rookie for JR Motorsports, an offshoot of the Hendrick Motorsports group that has dominated NASCAR for years and grabbed both front row starting spots for Sunday’s Daytona 500.

The Nationwide series event that Patrick will race a day earlier on the same Daytona track is a tier lower. But her handlers say her sixth-place debut in a warmup race last weekend proved she’s already skilled enough to make the jump. Patrick’s finish settled a lot of concerns: Could she draft off the cars running in front of her and make up ground on the crowded track? She did. Could she handle the intentional bumping and sideswiping that’s routine in stock car racing but happens mostly by accident in open wheel, Indy-style drag car racing? Again, the answer was yes.

Patrick spun out once in the crash-filled race, then recovered smoothly and daringly took an aggressive racing line to just miss a top-five finish.

“You drove the wheels off that thing, girl!” team co-owner Rick Hendrick told her after the checkered flag fell.

Patrick’s show of attitude last weekend was reminiscent of when she first hit the IndyCar circuit five years ago. She really, truly didn’t seem interested in mere moral victories then, either. Patrick posted the fastest time in qualifying or practice for her first Indy 500 at 229.880 mph. She nearly became the first woman to win the pole position, too.

Before the race Patrick told reporters, "I'm going to go out there and prove to you time and again that I belong here, that I will race up front, and that I'm a great driver and not just driving for a great team.” Then she led the race for 19 laps, losing the lead for the final time with just seven laps to go. She finished fourth overall — the best showing ever for a woman at Indy. Yet afterward she snapped that it wasn’t good enough.

“I wanted to win,” Patrick seethed.

Thatta girl.