Prior to her win this year at Twin Ring Motegi, Danica Patrick’s career-best finish had come last season on the 14-turn, 2.07-mile circuit at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park.
After starting 11th, Patrick worked her way into the top 10 and was running fifth late in the race when the drivers in second, third and fourth were involved in an incident with two laps to go. Patrick moved up to earn her third career podium finish.
“It was great to stand next to Tony Kanaan on the podium, first and second,” said Patrick, who has three top-five finishes this season. “Hopefully we can do something similar again.”
Patrick knows another podium finish this weekend at Belle Isle won’t be easy.
“Passing is very difficult here,” she said. “It’s difficult to pass on any road course really, but here it’s not like you drop a wheel off in the gravel and keep going or get pushed wide, you hit a wall. There’s just nowhere to go. I did a couple of them last year, but they weren’t pretty. A lot of crashes end up happening when you try. The only other spot you can make up spots outside of actually passing would be through strategy, through fuel saving, through pit stops. I think a lot of us tend to rely on strategy for the cleanest passing.”
