Patrick's Indy 500 run harbinger of success to come

	From the moment she arrived in Indianapolis through a frustrating race, Danica Patrick made it clear she was in no mood to do anything but win the 500 this year. Michael Hickey/WireImage.com

Five lingering thoughts from Sunday's soggy Indy 500:

1. Aside from race winner Dario Franchitti, the most impressive driver at the Brickyard was Danica Patrick.

Don't be fooled by Patrick's eighth-place finish: The woman lived up to her considerable hype. I was standing close to her on the starting grid before the race, and she was the picture of a driver who was ready to go. She tapped her right foot on the ground as the pre-race ceremony dragged on. She checked her watch once, then twice. Then, before she climbed into her Honda, Patrick flashed the thumbs-up sign to everyone around her, displaying a strong sense of confidence that she was lacking last year.

Before the first rainstorm rolled over the speedway, Patrick had bolted from the back of the field to third place thanks to timely pit strategy and nearly mistake-free driving -- even though her Honda wasn't handling well. After parking her car on pit road during the red flag, Patrick headed to her pit box, where, tellingly, she absolutely was not satisfied with being in third, even though if the race had ended there it would have been the highest finish of her IndyCar career and the highest finish for a woman at the Indy 500 in the 91 years they've been running the race.

During the deluge I hung out in Patrick's pit. A few days earlier we had a long talk about her chances of winning, and as I got completely soaked on Sunday, we briefly chatted. I joked to Danica that there could be another SI cover in her future if she kept this up. Her response? She just smiled wickedly, as if winning the race wouldn't surprise her at all.

After the nearly three-hour delay, Patrick boldly charged past Marco Andretti to seize second place. She made a few runs at race leader Tony Kanaan, but every time she got close to him, the turbulent air from Kanaan's car pushed Danica toward the wall -- what they call understeer in IndyCar -- forcing her to ease off the throttle and lose valuable RPMs.

Minutes later, the lead pack pitted under caution. If the race would have lasted another 20 minutes or so, that pack of drivers, including Patrick, would have cycled back to the front when the other group of cars -- who were all on a different pit cycle -- would have been forced to pit road for a fuel stop. Under this scenario, Patrick likely would have finished no worse than third, and maybe even higher than that. But then the rain came, which was untimely for Patrick, and she wound up eighth -- same as last year.