Patrick's Daytona pole makes NASCAR history

A day after she notched the fastest overall practice lap, Patrick lapped the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway in 45.817sec, averaging 196.434 miles per hour to seize the pole for the February 24 season-opener of NASCAR's Sprint Cup series.

Patrick, 30, competed in 10 races in the series last year, after making the jump from the IndyCar open-wheel racing series.

Patrick, who spent five seasons on the Andretti team, became one of IndyCar's signature racers after becoming the first woman to win a series race by capturing the 2008 event at Japan's Twin Ring Motegi.

In 2005, she became the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 thanks to a refuel strategy and in 2009 she reached the Indy 500 podium with a third-place showing.

Last season Patrick finished 10th in NASCAR's second-rung Nationwide series, and she won pole for the Nationwide race at Daytona last year.

But the highest a woman had ever qualified for a top-flight NASCAR race was ninth -- achieved by Janet Guthrie at Bristol and Talladega in 1977.

Jeff Gordon will start alongside Patrick on the front row of the grid. Gordon, a three-time winner of the prestigious Daytona race averaged 196.292 mph to claim the fourth front-row spot on the Daytona 500 grid of his career.

Patrick and Gordon are the only drivers who have secured their starting positions.

The rest of the 43-car grid will be set on Thursday.