There’s an old saying in motor sports: “Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?”

That helps explain why Danica Patrick is where she is today – and why it took so long for a female racer to break a NASCAR record I set more than three decades ago.

Patrick will start from the pole position in Sunday’s Daytona 500 – the showpiece of NASCAR’s top-level Sprint Cup series – after setting the fastest qualifying time the previous week (with a top speed of 196.434 mph, for those keeping track). A woman in that spot is a historic first for NASCAR and an achievement that transcends motor sports.