ESPN IndyCar

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – It couldn't have been set up any better.

Through a blind draw, Danica Patrick was the last driver to make a qualification attempt Saturday at Kansas Speedway, and she rose to the dramatic occasion by claiming pole position for the Argent Mortgage 300.

In doing so, she completed a 1-2-3 qualifying sweep for Rahal Letterman Racing.

For weeks if not months, veteran IndyCar Series observers predicted that Kansas, where RLR finished a dominant 1-2 with incumbent drivers Buddy Rice and Vitor Meira in 2004, would be the track where Danica would rise to the top of the field. She duly delivered with a 214.668-mph qualifying lap, barely edging Rice (214.650 mph) and Meira (214.548).

	“	I've been waiting 14 years and trying my whole life to get to this point. You arrive in IndyCar as a good driver, but everyone wants to be great. Yeah, let's do it. ”
		— Danica Patrick

"It feels very good," said Patrick, the second woman driver to claim an IndyCar Series pole, following Sarah Fisher's breakthrough at Kentucky Speedway in 2002. "I'm very proud of how hard the team has worked and how hard I have worked. I'm a little bit relieved, actually. The pole means a lot and I felt as nervous today as I did at Indy.

"Sarah's had a pole before, so this is not untouched territory," Patrick added. "What will make a difference is staying up there tomorrow and competing with my teammates who were so strong here last year."

Of course, not running up front on race day was a shortcoming for Fisher in the latter part of her IndyCar Series career, which is why she's now racing in the NASCAR Southwest Series. Patrick, after showing she's capable of running in the lead group in races earlier this year at Indianapolis and Motegi, Japan, now gets to publicly answer the question of whether she is ready and able to win over the course of 200 laps on Sunday afternoon.

"That's a good question," she replied. "I think about that. It's early in my IndyCar career; have I learned enough to win? I hope so.

"I've been waiting 14 years and trying my whole life to get to this point. You arrive in IndyCar as a good driver, but everyone wants to be great. Yeah, let's do it."

To win, she'll have to beat her more experienced teammates, not to mention 19 other drivers. Patrick's stablemates, often in her shadow this year, expressed happiness for the occasion.

"I think it's very special for her to get her first pole here at an Argent-sponsored weekend," said Rice, referring to the mortgage company that sponsors two of the three RLR cars. "The first one is always a memorable one."

"We're repeating last year's story again," Meira said. "We went from 1-2 to 1-2-3 and it just doesn't get any better than that for a team."

The last time a single team swept the top three grid spots in an IndyCar race came in 2002, when Tomas Scheckter, Rice and Eddie Cheever ran 1-2-3 for Cheever Racing.

There were no great surprises in the qualifying session. Scheckter in his resurgent Chevrolet-powered Panther Racing entry claimed best-of-the-rest honors ahead of Darren Manning and Dario Franchitti. Manning led Ganassi Racing's best qualifying effort in some time, with Scott Dixon seventh and Ryan Briscoe 11th.

But the story on Saturday was the same as it has been for the last two months in the IndyCar Series: Danica, Danica, Danica.

"I don't think now it's so much a girl doing well as much as it is a rookie having a great run," Patrick said. "Look at what's happening: A young person who has never driven an IndyCar before is out there performing and handling the pressure. But I won't deny that it started out as a story about a chick in a race car."

Now she has the opportunity to orchestrate an even more significant story Sunday. A victory would cap an often difficult 30-year journey for woman drivers in American open-wheel racing. Arlene Hiss, Janet Guthrie, Desire Wilson, Lyn St. James and Fisher all tried to beat the boys at their own game, with Fisher sporadically throwing a scare into the establishment. With the backing of one of open-wheel racing's top teams, only Danica has done it on a regular basis.

"Hopefully the three of us will take off into a country mile lead, but it won't happen like that," she said. "It's definitely helpful to have friends around, but at the end of the day, we're all individuals trying to win the race for ourselves."

She's got an equal opportunity on Sunday. And that's all anyone can ask for.

John Oreovicz covers open-wheel racing for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.