INDIANAPOLIS -- The first time Bobby Rahal saw Danica Patrick race, he recognized talent, not gender.

"She was in a race car with a helmet on and all I knew was that she could drive that car real well," said Rahal, a former Indianapolis 500 winner and three-time series champion who first spotted Patrick during the Formula Ford Festival in England in 2000.

The Roscoe, Ill., native was 18 and the only female racing that year at Brands Hatch, showing plenty of potential by finishing second to current Formula One test driver Anthony Davidson of England.

Rahal quickly signed Patrick to a contract, bringing her back to the United States and providing her with first-class equipment and a stepladder of developmental series to reach the top -- the Indy Racing League's IndyCar Series.

Now, Rahal's vision is paying off, with Patrick, the only woman in the 33-car field, by far the fastest rookie and -- more than a bit surprising -- among the favorites to win Sunday's Indy 500.

But Rahal believes this is only the beginning for his 5-foot-2, 100-pound bundle of promise. And he is quick to react if someone suggests Patrick is simply a gimmick for finding more team sponsorship or publicizing Rahal Letterman Racing team, which he co-owns with television talk show host David Letterman.

"She couldn't have this team behind her if she didn't deserve it," said Rahal, who won here last year with driver Buddy Rice and will also have 1999 winner Kenny Brack and Vitor Meira racing Sunday.

And he takes exception to those who say Patrick is only fast on Indy's 2 1/2-mile oval because she has far better equipment than was given to Janet Guthrie, Lyn St. James or Sarah Fisher, the three women who preceded her here.

"I take offense at that," Rahal said. "Not to take anything away from them but, if those other women had been that good, I think they would have had opportunities with better teams."

Patrick says the negative response of some people is a motivational tool for her.

"If you don't think I should be fast because maybe I'm driving for a good team, forget you," she said. "I'm going to go out there and prove to you time and time again that I belong here, that I will race up front, and that I'm a great driver, not just driving for a great team. Everything has to come together."

That feisty attitude is the thing that seems to set the now 23-year-old Patrick apart from the other women who have raced here, as well as many of Indy's male rookies.

"There is something in her eyes," said three-time Indy winner Johnny Rutherford, now a driver coach and pace car driver for the IRL. "She has a focus that you can't learn. And she has an intensity when she's in and around the race cars that you usually only see in the great drivers."

The tiny Patrick has needed every bit of that focus and intensity this month.

At times, it's been hard to see her for all the media or fans swirling around her at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

She had a legitimate shot at winning the pole for the world's most prestigious open-wheel event, winding up fourth -- the best for a woman at Indy -- after a scary bobble on the first turn of her first of four laps of qualifying. It was her only mistake since she drove onto the Speedway oval for the start of the Rookie Orientation Program on May 8.

The bitterly disappointed Patrick, who recovered to qualify at over 227 mph, stood for several minutes slumped over the pit wall, leaning on her helmet, her long black hair draped over her face, hiding her anguish.

But Patrick bounced back quickly, reminded by Rahal -- who took the checkered flag himself in 1986 -- that it is how a driver fares in the 500-mile race that really counts.

"I think that what happened in turn one, almost losing it and hitting the wall, the fact that I caught it might have just done me some good in earning respect from everybody else," Patrick said. "I think it might have actually turned into a positive."

Tony Kanaan, who will start from the pole Sunday, agrees.

"That was one heck of a save," the reigning IRL champion said. "A lot of drivers would have wound up in the wall on that one. It was pretty impressive. She's got a lot of talent."

Rahal didn't want to ask too much of his rookie this season. He told her before the schedule began to simply try to finish races and get as much seat time as possible.

"I told her, 'I really don't care where you finish. I don't care if you finish last. Just finish.' She's been better than anybody could have anticipated up to this point. But I'm only surprised that it has happened so quickly."

So far in her first full season in the IRL, Patrick has improved every race. Before coming to Indy for the first time, she impressed everyone with a front-row start and a fourth-place finish last month in Motegi, Japan.

Meira, who will start seventh on Sunday in his third 500, laughed when he heard Rahal say Patrick is a good student and is learning something new about driving the race car each day.

"If she is only a student, I can't imagine when she graduates," he said.