While a fan favorite, Patrick is held to a double personal standard by many. (LAT photo) » More Photos

About the same time, Janet Guthrie became the first woman to compete in NASCAR and the Indy 500, and the door had been kicked open. Lyn St. James was rookie of the year at Indy in 1992. Shawna Robinson won a pole position for a NASCAR Busch Series race at Atlanta in 1994. Sarah Fisher was the first woman to win a pole position for a major American racing series when she was fastest in qualifying for an IndyCar race at Kentucky in 2002. And dozens of women have competed in NHRA events since Muldowney, most notably Melanie Troxel, who led the Top Fuel championship for most of the 2006 season, and Ashley Force, the first woman to reach a Funny Car final.

The post-Motegi news is that women can do more than just compete against men at the top levels of motorsports -- they can win, too. That doesn’t diminish anything. Doesn’t diminish the men, doesn't diminish the sport, doesn’t diminish the integrity of either. If anything, it strengthens all of it. This is the only sport on the planet in which women are capable of beating men at the highest professional levels. That's a positive, not a negative. That makes racing different from every other game out there. It makes it interesting.

If you’re not on board with that notion, you’re about to get left behind. Kart tracks across the country are filled with little Danicas. Within 10 or 20 years, another female racer will surpass her accomplishments. Someone will come along and win championships and Indy 500s and make people set aside the opinion that women can't -- or shouldn't -- compete against men. Patrick’s victory at Motegi should be welcomed, yet a good portion of the viewing public resents it.

That’s where the second part of the dinner inquisition comes into play. What do the other drivers think of her? Honestly, very few of them consider gender in the equation. They’re about 10 or 15 years ahead of the curve on this issue, mostly because they’ve raced against women for some time -- or at the very least were aware that capable female drivers existed before they found themselves racing against Patrick.

Quite plainly, they view her as just another competitor. Some might find fault in certain aspects of her game, just as they would any other driver, and some say the attention helped her into a top-flight car. But none would say she's not talented or not good enough to be where she is. They respect her ability. They don't look at it the way some of the public looks at it, like male drivers should be ashamed to lose to a female driver. They see her simply as the competition.

Apparently that’s not the norm. As soon as she won Sunday’s Indy Japan 300, the e-mails and calls started rolling in. Some were of the “wow” variety, but most were of the “ugh” variety. Ugh, she got lucky. Ugh, this Indy 500 is going to be hell. Ugh, not ready for this.

Yep, some people were ready for this, and some weren’t. The ones who were ready are the ones you see smiling today.

Jeff Olson is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine. For details about the current issue, visit www.racer.com.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, SPEED, or Haymarket Worldwide.