Danica Patrick turned in a lap of 227.633 miles per hour in Thursdays' Indianapolis 500 practice, the fastest lap of session. Donald Miralle/Getty Images

INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) - Danica Patrick is on the verge of making history at the Indianapolis 500.

The 23-year-old Patrick had the fastest lap in Thursday's practice session in preparation for the 89th Indianapolis 500.

Patrick turned a lap of 227.633 miles per hour in a Panoz/Honda, becoming the first female to have the fastest lap of the day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since Janet Guthrie's lap at 185.607 mph on May 7, 1977.

Sarah Fisher was credited with having the fastest lap of the day last year, but rained washed out that practice session after just four minutes and her lap was never at speed.

It's the fastest speed so far this week at Indy. If Patrick is able to keep her perch atop of the speed chart in Saturday's Pole Qualifications, she would become the first female ever to win the pole for the most famous race in the world.

"Five years ago, I didn't envision coming to Indianapolis for the first time and being one of the fastest cars during the week leading up to qualifying," said the Indy Racing League rookie driver. "Knowing now whom I drive for and the quality of this team and with the success we had at Motegi, I did come here thinking there was a realistic chance we would be pretty fast. Driving for a good team will bring out the best in you as a driver."

Patrick drives for Rahal-Letterman Racing the defending Indy 500 winning team - with Buddy Rice as the driver. But Rice is out for this weekend's qualifications because he suffered a concussion and a severe contusion of his back that forced to spend the night at Methodist Hospital in downtown Indianapolis.

"I slept pretty well last night and I had a bunch of the team and some friends in the evening and that was very cool," Rice said. "Overall, yeah, I'm sore but I feel OK. I'm just going to relax today and come to the track on Friday. I'll see if I can help Vitor Meira and Danica if they need any help with the engineers. I plan to see Dr. [Henry] Bock also and see what he says about my condition.

"But right now, I'm anxious to get back in the car."

Patrick was able to give the team something to smile about after it lost Rice for the next week . And, there could be even bigger things ahead for Patrick, who started second and finished fourth in the IRL's last race at Twin Ring Motegi two weeks ago.

"It's such a shame for yesterday with Buddy Rice," team co-owner Bobby Rahal said. "It's certainly something we didn't want, but Vitor and Danica have carried the team as a result. I'm as proud of that as I am of anything. The team is working very well together, very similar to last year. The speeds and the times and the consistencies of them are reflections of that, so I'm pretty happy right now with the exception of what happened to Buddy."

Defending IRL champion Tony Kanaan was second Thursday at 227.525 mph in a Dallara/Honda followed by Kosuke Matsuura's 227.375 mph in a Panoz/Honda.

Dan Wheldon winner of three of the first four IRL races this season was fourth at 227.114 mph in a Dallara/Honda followed by Meira's 227.037 mph in a Panoz/Honda.

There were 37 different cars on the track with 1,717 laps turned in the six hours of practice.

Patrick ran a total of 63 laps, including the fastest of the day on her 57th lap around the 2 1/2-mile oval.

"I think the thing I'm most pleased with is that we've been methodical, and she's been methodically going through it, through the setup changes and been very focused," Rahal said. "I left her a phone message this morning. I had to go to Washington on some business and I said, `Just stay focused, stay quiet, and just keep thinking about what you're doing,' and she's doing that obviously very well."

Patrick pulled off the track with almost two hours of practice left and spent the rest of the day in Gasoline Alley watching the other competitors try to come close to her speed.

"I was happy with the car," she said. "We also ran the first two days of Rookie Orientation doing quite a few laps, and we used up our tires a little bit, and we don't want to short ourselves in the end, so we just stopped. The guys had enough work to do in the garage with just taking notes and making sure that everything is perfect on the car."

With Rice on the sidelines, Rahal is ready to go into Saturday's qualifications with two cars he thinks he can qualify for the front row driven by Patrick and Meira.

"Did I know she would be the fastest? No, but the last couple of days she's been right up where the fast guys are, Rahal said. "I wasn't surprised when [team general manager] Scott Roembke told me as I was getting off the plane that she was the quickest. I think everybody is trying to foresee what might happen this weekend.

"I think we're just going to take it one step at a time just like we've been doing all week."

And, if that plan continues to work, Patrick could make one giant leap into history as the first female driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 pole.

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