INDY 500 Patrick's pole dreams on hold after rain delay

She's trying to become the first female driver in the premiere position.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Everyone is going to have to wait another day to see if a woman can win the Indianapolis 500 pole -- including a calm and confident Danica Patrick.
Rain kept the 21/2-mile oval closed Saturday and eventually washed away the first of four scheduled days of time trials for the May 29 race. The start of qualifying was postponed to today.
"It really doesn't matter," said Patrick, a 23-year-old trying to become the fourth female to make the Indy race.
"Everybody's going to get the same shot at it," she added. "Maybe this means the conditions will be more fair for everybody."
In practice, Patrick's lap of 227.633 mph on Thursday was second fastest only to the 227.804 posted Friday by Tomas Scheckter.
The 5-foot-2, 100-pounder from Roscoe, Ill., is a rookie, but Patrick insists she will be disappointed if she doesn't take the top qualifying spot for what is arguably the world's most prestigious race.
"I'm hoping for a pole," she said Saturday, standing amid a sea of media crowded into her Rahal Letterman Racing speedway garage. "I can't believe I'm saying that; it's my first Indy. But I am.
"You have to take advantage of good times when they're there. If you don't expect to go out there and be the fastest, you won't be."
Pressure
Team owner Bobby Rahal, a former Indy 500 winner, understands the pressure on Patrick, a teammate of defending pole and race winner Buddy Rice and two-year Indy veteran Vitor Meira.
"This team has been here before and we've been through things like this [postponement] before," Rahal said. "I sat down with Danica and said, 'I don't want you getting all frustrated and weirded out. Sit and watch a movie or read a book and take it easy.'
"I would have said that to any rookie, especially when everything has been so organized all week. There haven't been any hiccups and I don't want her to start to worry about anything now."
Under the new qualifying format at Indy, 11 drivers were to qualify on each of the first three days of time trials, with drivers having an opportunity to bump out the slowest qualifiers from the 33-car field on the fourth day.
Shortened schedule
Indy Racing League president Brian Barnhart said the rainout would shorten the qualifying to three days, with the top 22 qualifiers being determined today. The final two days of qualifying are still set for May 21-22.
The changes were made in an attempt to make each day of qualifying more exciting for both the fans who show up at the speedway and those watching on TV.
Something not changed by the rain was that each entry will have up to three opportunities to qualify on each of the remaining days of time trials.
Former pole winner Scott Sharp, first in the qualifying line today and also among the fastest drivers in practice, said everyone will be watching his performance on a day when temperatures are not expected to reach above 60 degrees.
"The gauge for everybody will probably be the way we run," Sharp said. "There's a big temperature change expected and the [morning] practice is going to be important. Whoever makes the best adjustments in practice will have the best chance of doing well in qualifying."
As for the new format, Sharp likes the possibilities.
"Before, you had to make a decision whether to take a qualifying run while you were on the track, particularly early in the day," he explained. "Now, you can take it and wait to see what happens. Maybe the other drivers are not as fast as you think they are. You can see what happens when they go out and you can get right back in line and go out again."