Danica Patrick enjoyed a career weekend at Daytona International Speedway.
The JR Motorsports driver started from a career-best NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying position of fourth, raced to the front of the pack to lead a lap and finished a career-best 14th on Saturday.
She was legitimately among the lead groups for most of the race and even worked with some drafting partners in the two-car tandems that Daytona requires these days.
In only her second year of part-time competition, and her 14th career NASCAR Nationwide start, Patrick enjoyed a stellar outing. FOXSports.com
“I pushed a little bit at the end, a little too late,” Patrick said. “But it was really cool when Clint (Bowyer) was pushing me and they told me that I did lead a lap, at least. That was really cool. But that just showed me that that’s what you’ve got to do, and that’s what they were doing up front today.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose JR Motorsports team fields cars for Patrick, praised her run. And if Patrick wasn’t fully engaged in tandem drafting all day, Earnhardt said it wasn’t because she was reluctant to do so.
“I think she was just doing whatever she felt was necessary to get to the end of the race and see if she had a shot at it,” Earnhardt said. “I think she did a good job.” The Canadian Press
Bowyer blamed Patrick’s spotter for getting disconnected and said he had no worries about teaming up with the Izod IndyCar Series’ most popular driver.
“I mean, she was running up there,” Bowyer said. “Why not put her in the show, you know? I was going to push her up to the front. I did until (the engine) got hot, and I had to switch. I was yelling at my spotter, ‘Find her spotter!” I guess he didn’t think she needed to be doing that. He wouldn’t pay attention. I told him to throw him off the roof, get a new spotter.”
Told Patrick had finished 14th, Bowyer said she “certainly did a good job. Heck, (she) was fast enough to be up there. You look for fast cars. I knew she had a fast car and we’d go to the front.
“Once I did get to her bumper, she did fine. When we switched, we run into a little bit of a communication problem.”
Patrick had led four laps in last year’s season finale at Homestead, but she inherited first by staying out under caution.
“It was fun,” Patrick told her team on the radio. “I just needed to stay in touch with that lead pack. I needed to learn how to push better is what it comes down to.” USA Today
“It was a good experience, there was a lot to learn and I did learn a lot,” she said. “It was cool to finish all the laps. There were definitely some accidents that … I was more in the top 12 or so at that point, if I was where I was last year I’d have been collected. So I’m further up and I’m missing the accidents and that’s what you want.”
While there’s not much that can transfer from this race into her next segment of them, Patrick says that Saturday’s performance could still pay dividends at upcoming tracks. And that could help her continue to compete at this level.
“All you can do at a race like this going into … anywhere else after this, is make some friends and try to get people to believe in you and trust in you and see that you’re a fast car because people want to follow fast cars,” she said. FOXSports.com
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