The crowd around Danica Patrick swelled as she walked toward her trailer Saturday night after finishing sixth in her stock car debut behind Bobby Gerhart, a six-time winner here.
Although five racers beat Patrick to the finish line at the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, an ARCA Series event in stock car racing’s minor leagues at Daytona International Speedway, none won more respect.
Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar race, kept her cool in a crash-marred race, maneuvering her Chevrolet around dust-ups as if she had been driving stock cars for several years rather than several weeks. One of six women to start the race, she was the first of the three who finished. Alli Owens, who won the outside pole last year, was third late in the race but hit an oil slick, spun out and slipped to 23rd.
On the 54th lap of the 80-lap race, Patrick was involved in a mishap that precipitated the day’s fifth yellow flag. Running on the inside, she was pinched off the track by Nelson Piquet while coming off a turn. Patrick’s car spun and crossed the start-finish line heading in the wrong direction. But she managed to stay clear of the other drivers and straighten her car out.
She worked her way up from 29th to eighth and then, in the final laps, pulled outside and passed two cars.
“I felt pretty good,” Patrick said, adding, “And then at the end I was running eighth and I thought, ‘What the heck?’ so I pulled out of the line and ran high.” New York Times
Bobby Gerhart won the race, followed by Mark Thompson and John Wes Townley.
Even they had to know this race wasn’t about them.
“Be proud of yourself, girl, you learned a lot there at the end,” crew chief Tony Eury Jr. told Patrick after the race.
Her No.7 Chevrolet slid sideways through the grass, but with Eury yelling “stay on it!” on her radio, she recovered to avoid the wall.
“My girl is getting up on it,” Eury recalled his thoughts to Patrick under a caution.
She didn’t turn ARCA into big league, but for a day her white-hot spotlight at least laminated the grass-roots series a bit. News & Observer
Dance Patrick says she’ll announce Monday whether she will enter next Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway, but her crew chief doesn’t want to wait.
“My vote will be go,” Tony Eury Jr. said after the IndyCar Series star finished sixth in her stock-car debut Saturday night in the ARCA series. “I’m all for it. I want her to get as much seat time as she can.”
“I would like to see her do it,” Eury said. “She did great. I couldn’t have asked for too much more. I was impressed.” ESPN
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