Danica Patrick, the sport’s glamour girl, saw her day ended when Ryan Briscoe pulled out of his pit box too quickly and skidded into the back of her car, wrecking the suspension. After climbing out, a steamed Patrick began striding purposefully down the lane, yanked off her gloves and looked ready for a second collision with Briscoe - this time between her fist and his face.
But after she brushed past one uniformed speedway official, a plainclothes security officer persuaded Patrick to climb over the pit wall and back in the direction of the garage. She stormed past a few waiting TV cameras and into a sponsor’s hut but eventually cooled off and reappeared later.
“I was going down pit lane, and as people pull out of their pit boxes, if you are in the outside lane, then they have to wait to blend in,” said Patrick, who drives for Andretti Green Racing. “From what I know, it looked like it was pretty obvious what happened. What are you going to do? The guys worked so hard today. You just don’t come out of your pit box and swing three lanes out. That why there’s a ‘get up to speed’ lane and an ‘at speed’ lane. I was at speed.”
Did Patrick want to say something to Briscoe?
“We will see if he can find me first,” she said.
Up to that point, Patrick was creeping toward the front, but it was clear that her No. 7 Andretti Green Racing machine simply didn’t have the speed to battle with eventual winner and polesitter Scott Dixon and the other front-runners. She ran as high as sixth during the 200-lap contest but couldn’t advance from there, and she let her team know her displeasure.
“I am slow,” an angry Patrick said over the radio with about 60 laps left. “I am damn slow!”
Patrick’s lack of speed was a sore point for her throughout the day as she complained repeatedly over the matter before rising to her best position of the race.
When she came into the pits for what would be her final stop, her chances of winning were slim. After running into Briscoe, they were zero. Her anger boiled over.
Patrick’s car owner, Michael Andretti of Andretti-Green Racing, felt all the blame was on Briscoe.
“Briscoe lit it up coming out,” Andretti said. “He tried to swerve and got the back end and nailed Danica in the rear. It’s his fault. It wasn’t her fault, she was doing a good job.”
It’s likely Patrick will be criticized today for acting exactly the way her male counterparts act. When Foyt used to flash his temper, he was hailed as a tough competitor. When Patrick threatens bodily harm, she’s viewed as being petulant.
Asked later what she would have said to Briscoe, Patrick answered, “It’s probably best I didn’t get down there anyway, isn’t it?”
“It’s a real shame. I just saw the replay, and it confirmed my thoughts. We were both out there trying to win the Indy 500 today, and when it’s time to go, we have to go. But from what I can see, there was still plenty of room on the right side for her to get around and there are people pointing fingers, but that’s not the way we are. We both have a brake pedal in our cars, and from what I can tell, there was still plenty of room for her to get around me. I was trying to get around (Dan) Wheldon, and I was staying in the middle lane. I got ran up in the back, and it’s a shame.”
