Despite being involved in a couple of incidents throughout the night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Danica Patrick would have a solid night en route to finishing ninth. This marks the second top-10 for her of the season, following a seventh place finish at Martinsville Speedway.
“I’m proud of everybody for keeping their heads up and staying positive and these are the things that happen when you work together as a team,” she commented. “Just keep at it. We had some luck on our side and I really feel like that positivity feeds into getting some luck and being at the right place at the right time. We just were. We came out of here with a top 10.”
The weekend didn’t start off as she hoped, qualifying 26th after being in the 30s during practice. With how practice and qualifying went, she said that she was simply hoping for a top 20.
“It was a struggle of a weekend, but by all means you take these weekends because they tell you what you have, a great weekend and you are running well and something happens,” she added. “Either you make a mistake, somebody else takes you out, something breaks and steals you of a great finish so you have to take these that come a little easier in some ways. I promise you it wasn’t easy out there.”
The night wasn’t easy as she fell a lap down early the race. She worked hard, getting herself in the lucky dog position, however, found herself involved when the caution flew at lap 279. Kurt Busch would go around by virtue of getting loose underneath Jimmie Johnson, with Chris Buescher spinning out Patrick in the aftermath. As a result, she wouldn’t get the lucky dog.
“It was a bummer that we got a long run when I got the lucky dog,” she commented. “It was just so frustrating. There was a big accident after the rain. I should have got the lucky dog and I missed it all. I was in control enough to stay on the track instead of take the pit road. So I come around and I got on the apron and it was like it was still wet and the back-end just kind of slid around. I was like ‘ah well just restart it’. They said you are part of the accident you don’t get the lucky dog. I thought that was total crap.”
She would, though, get it with 28 laps to go when Jamie McMurray blew a tire.
“Then another time Jimmie (Johnson) gets the lucky dog and he goes and passes everybody and he is in front of me after getting the lucky dog,” she continued. “And I’m the lucky dog. I know it’s hard because it’s Bristol and everything happens very quickly here, but there were definitely quite a few mistakes by NASCAR just in making sure everything was right before we went green.
“We came out with a top 10 in the GoDaddy car. It looks terrible. I had to walk around it just to see what it looked like, but it’s Bristol baby.”
Just like Dale Jr., multiple pile-ups in the closing laps greatly contributed to where Princess Sparkle Pony finished at Bristol. She did not race her way there.