Danica Patrick Suffers Crashes During Speedweeks, But Continues to Learn
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[/media-credit]Coming into Speedweeks 2012, things were looking up for Danica Patrick as it was supposed to be a weekend of learning and a weekend where she could do well. Instead, the weekend became one that ended in a headach as in each of the three races she ran, she was involved in a wreck.
The crashes began on last Thursday afternoon with the Gatorade Duel. For the majority of the race, Patrick had stayed out of trouble, testing the waters and running as high as sixth at one point.
However, she wouldn’t make it to the finish. On the last lap, she hit the inside wall hard after contact from Aric Almirola on the final lap.
“I got valuable practice time,” she said afterwards. “But it is never a good feeling for me to not be able to drive the car back to the pits and something about me feels guilty when I see that Go Daddy is all broken up along the side.”
Patrick didn’t let that bring her down for long as the next day, she won the pole for the Nationwide Series DRIVE4COPD 300. She wanted to win the pole for crew chief Tony Eury Jr., as it meant the first Nationwide Series Daytona pole for him despite all the success he had with cousin Dale Earnhardt Jr. in that series.
“Tony builds really good cars and the guys that helped him do that, did a really good job,” she says “I’m really thrilled for Tony Jr.; this is something that he wanted. So for me to push the pedal and give that to him, it feels really good.”
The race wouldn’t go as planned as despite leading laps early, she would be taken out on lap 49 after contact from her teammate Cole Whitt.
“I don’t think it’s ever great when teammates come together,” Patrick said. “We’ll have to figure out what happened and move forward.”
Patrick quickly displayed her displeasure with Whitt over the radio, which Whitt responded by saying, “I wouldn’t expect her to be happy about it. I wouldn’t be happy about it either. I don’t know why anyone would expect her to be like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great.’ ”
After her wreck in the Gatorade Duel, she would have to start at the back of the Daytona 500. Her race wouldn’t last long as she would be collected in a second lap incident that started when Elliot Sadler got into Jimmie Johnson. Her team would get the car fixed and she would go back out to run some laps.
“Any lap that I turn is progression,” she said. “That’s why I was proud of them for getting me on the track. Was there much to gain for me to get back on track? No. But there was experience as I got back up in pack.”
Patrick would finish in 38th in her cup debut, but picked up valuable knowledge.
“I honestly I think I picked up a lot of tips and honestly, I wish the race would’ve been a single file line at the beginning like it was when I got back up there,” she said.
As the weekend went, Patrick learned more about the draft and that was most evident in the Nationwide Series. Before the incident with Whitt, she had led a portion of the race, first with help from Earnhardt Jr., and then with help from Tony Stewart.
The success she did have within the wrecks shows that she has picked up lessons since beginning in NASCAR in 2010. When she first started, she was barely running at a competitive pace.
“I’m pleased with some of the stuff that’s gotten better over the year – I can think of the first race here where I was struggling to keep up,” she said. “Then now you can drop the green flag in a Cup race and I’m just hanging out. I know the rules are different, but the level of comfort and proximity of cars next to each other and front and back, and obviously has been improved.”
Her improvement had Elliott Sadler call her the most improved driver in NASCAR’s top three divisions from the beginning of 2011 till now.
“That’s appreciated and I have worked really hard and I’m lucky I drive for a good team that has good resources,” she said when told that. “Tony Jr. is a really, good accomplished crew chief. On the Cup side, we haven’t seen a lot of the great people around me there too, and some really good experience teammates.
“That’s a nice pat on the back; I appreciated that. I still recognize that I have a lot to learn, but I’ve been able to do this in a nice way. I’ve had the backing from the beginning from Go Daddy and it’s been nice because instead of having to go out and show what I’m made of every week, got the most amount spots possible and be desperate. I’ve never had to feel like that. I’ve been able to sit back and observe, not step outside of my comfort zone, because I’ve had a plan since the beginning and so few drivers get that ability to plan long-term and have someone that’s there for them who will follow them wherever they go.”
One of the keys to Patrick being able to pick up as many as lessons as she has is that she doesn’t rest on her laurels. She knows that there is lots that she is going to have to learn.
Going into the Nationwide race, despite winning the pole, she knew it was going to be a challenge.
“It’s going to come down to bump drafting, and being good at that,” she says. “Good at swapping, good at keeping the engine cool, good at keeping in a pack, good at keeping connected, good at strategy so when you pit, you pit with your partner and you don’t get left alone at any point. There’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen during the race that we’re going to have to manage, so it doesn’t change our strategy.”
Next week at Phoenix International Raceway marks her next challenge. She won’t be running the Sprint Cup race, but the Nationwide race will have its own challenges. Patrick has made three starts at Phoenix, with her best finish being 17th, which she scored last spring.
This year is all about learning and getting ready for the full Sprint Cup schedule in 2013. Certainly the tricky oval in the dessert will teach her some more.
Surprising and Not Surprising: The Daytona 500
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[/media-credit]Often called the Great American Race, this year’s 2012 Daytona 500 was most certainly one of the most memorable ones, including buckets of rain, a major conflagration, and even texting direct from the track.
Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the much-delayed, first ever prime time under the lights running of the 2012 Great American Race.
Surprising: While the Daytona 500 has always been unpredictable, it was surprising just how many bizarre occurrences there were during this race, causing many to wonder if this superspeedway now possessed some of its own demons, similar to sister superspeedway Talladega.
The first in the string of strange happenings was the massive amounts of rain that descended on the track on Sunday. This led to the first ever postponement of the Great American Race, which was initially rescheduled until NOON on Monday.
When the rain continued to fall on Monday morning, the next unpredictable moment occurred as NASCAR then rescheduled the race until 7:00 PM on Monday evening. This ensured the 2012 Daytona 500 a place in history as the first ever Great American Race run not only under the lights, but also in a coveted prime-time slot.
The final bizarre event happened on Lap 160, when Juan Pablo Montoya lost control of his No. 42 Target Chevrolet and plowed into a safety jet drier, sending both up in flames. The burning of 200 gallons of jet fuel delayed the race for almost two hours as the track safety crews scrambled to not only to douse the flames but repair the track.
“I have hit a lot of things,” JPM said. “But a jet dryer? I mean, no.”
When all was said and done, this 2012 Daytona 500 will most likely go down in history for its surprising length, taking a day and half to run. This Great American race started on Monday evening and ran into the wee hours of Tuesday morning, capping off a 36 hour delay from its original start time.
Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, summed it up best. “That had to be the craziest Daytona 500 I’ve ever seen.”
Not Surprising: Since the Ford camp had been strong all Speedweeks long, it was no surprise to see one end up in Victory Lane. Matt Kenseth, in his No. 17 Best Buy Ford, took the checkered flag, giving Ford back to back Daytona 500 victories.
This was the 13th overall Daytona 500 win for the manufacturer, Kenseth’s second Daytona 500 victory in a Ford, and the second Daytona 500 win for team owner Jack Roush. Kenseth joined Bill Elliott and Dale Jarrett as the only three Ford drivers to win the Daytona 500 more than once.
“It’s nice to go the whole distance and survive a green, white, checkered because you just don’t know what’s going to happen in these race,” Kenseth said. “I wasn’t expecting to win when I woke up this morning, so it feels good to be sitting here.”
“It’s really hard to win these races,” Kenseth continued. “The older you get and the more you race, you realize how hard it is and you really try to enjoy all those moments.”
Surprising: It was surprising to see just how hard hit the Hendrick Motorsports teams were during this running of the Daytona 500. With the exception of Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who finished second in his No. 88 Diet Mountain Dew/National Guard Chevrolet, the rest of the HMS drivers all finished 29th or worse.
Five time champion Jimmie Johnson’s troubles started early when he crashed out on Lap 2. The driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet sustained a wicked hit to the driver’s door in the early race melee.
“That side hit was hard,” Johnson said. “I could feel help from behind that just turned me around.”
“When I was sitting in the middle of the race track, I knew at some point someone was going to come along,” Johnson continued. “David Ragan had nowhere to go and I unfortunately got drilled by him pretty hard.”
Four time champion Jeff Gordon also had difficulties, but of a different sort. His No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet blew an engine on lap 81 of the race.
“Boy, it’s a shame,” Gordon said. “This just came out of nowhere.”
“First it popped and then it sent up in a big ball of flames,” Gordon continued. “That is never good. So, I knew our night was done.”
This DNF marked the first time that Jeff Gordon failed to compete at least half of a NASCAR race since April 2008 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Not Surprising: With Fords ruling and Matt Kenseth in the winner’s circle, it was no surprise that history was also made for Roush Fenway Racing, scoring the team’s 300th win. Rough Fenway Racing is the first team ever in NASCAR history to achieve such a milestone.
“This is a special night,” team owner Jack Roush said. “Matt is a real champion and he is really good at these restrictor tracks.”
“Our Fords, the guys did a nice job and Ford Motor Company gave us a lot of support over the winter,” Roush continued. “We certainly had several ways to win it tonight and there are always ample ways to lose as well.”
“Matt did a great job tonight,” Roush said. “It’s great to celebrate our 300th win here with the 54th Daytona 500.”
Surprising: While many considered it ‘gimmicky’, it was surprising that the racers seemed to take the halfway bonus pretty seriously. Reminiscent of his lead at the halfway point last year in the Great American Race, Martin Truex, Jr. scored the $200,000 halfway leader bonus, with a little help from ‘friend’ Denny Hamlin.
“We led laps and led at halfway for the bonus,” the driver of the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota said. “It was a good day all in all. We just didn’t lead at the end.”
Truex Jr. finished 12th, right behind Michael Waltrip Racing teammates Mark Martin, who finished tenth in his No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, and Clint Bowyer, who scored the 11th spot in his No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota.
Not Surprising: Given all the machinations NASCAR made in response to the fans’ and drivers’ concerns about tandem racing, it was no surprise that pack racing was back. And the drivers seemed to be please that it was.
“I like the rule changes,” Dale Earnhardt, Jr. said. “It definitely suits my style better and I can do things on my own.”
“In the old package you needed someone else the entire race and that’s not fun.”
Surprising: While most of the NASCAR drivers, teams, and yes even the orange cone have gotten into the use of social media, it was surprising to see it taken to yet another level at this year’s Daytona 500.
Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge apparently had his phone with him during the race and took the opportunity to not only tweet a few pictures when the race was red flagged, but also to check the weather at the request of some of his fellow competitors.
Demonstrating the power of social media, particularly Twitter, Keselowski actually gained more than 130,000 new followers as a result of his connectedness out on the race track and the media attention that garnered.
While Keselowski acknowledged the power of the social media, he would have traded it for one thing.
“I gained a lot of followers but I’ll take the win first,” Keselowski said.
Not Surprising: With all the strange happenings on the race track, it was not surprising that the debut of the third female driver to compete in the Great American Race was somewhat eclipsed. Danica Patrick made her Cup debut in the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet for Tommy Baldwin Racing in cooperation with Stewart Haas Racing.
Patrick ended up finishing 38th after getting collected in the multi-car crash involving Jimmie Johnson and others on lap 2 of the race. She will not race again in the Cup Series until May 12th at Darlington.
“I kind of feel like I almost need to put the whole week in perspective,” Patrick said. “It’s just been up and down, from running good in the Duels to crashing on the last lap, to qualifying on the pole, to running well in the Nationwide race to crashing.”
“A lot of this stuff is obviously out of your control at times,” Patrick continued. “But I learned a lot and I got a lot of great experience.”
Surprising: With the Toyota of Kyle Busch looking strong after a win in the Bud Shootout, it was a bit surprising that teammate Denny Hamlin ended up being the highest Toyota finisher in the Daytona 500.
“We were right where we wanted to be,” Hamlin said of the end of his race, finishing fourth. “But we didn’t have any teammates up there and those two Roush cars up front had a good plan and executed it really well.”
“We had an awesome effort this weekend,” the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Toyota said. “We didn’t qualify well and we didn’t finish that well in the Duel, but we showed that we had one of the best cars today.”
As pleased as Hamlin was, Kyle Busch, who took his No. 88 M&M’s Brown Toyota Camry to a 17th place finish, was most disappointed.
“I thought we were in a good spot late in the race, but a couple of cars got together behind me and I got clipped,” Busch said. “We were in the back of the line and we couldn’t make anything happen.”
“It’s disappointing to be down here for two weeks and have nothing to show for it.”
Not Surprising: Sadly, but not surprisingly, there was no Cinderella winner at this year’s Daytona 500. Defending champ Trevor Bayne’s repeat fairy-tale performance was thwarted by the wreck that swept up Jimmie Johnson in the early laps of the race.
“I have no idea what happened,” the driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion said. “I got low and slowed down and at the last second I think it was the 34 car that hit us in the right side door and put us into the grass.”
“Man, this is tough,” Bayne continued. “I hate this for my Ford Racing team but we’ll be back.”
The Final Word – You would think Phoenix just has to be tamer than Daytona, but…
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[/media-credit]Okay, just what in sam hill was that? In the end, it was Matt Kenseth being chased by Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt Jr coming home, with all appearing to have a shot at the win. In the end, it was Kenseth taking his second Daytona 500, and Junior beating out Biffle to be the runner up. That, my friends, proved to be one of this event’s most boring moments. Really.
Where do you start when reflecting upon the Bizarro 500? The rain that finally managed to wash out a Sunday 500? A Daytona 500 starting under the lights on Monday? Maybe you liked the 1.1 laps put in by Jimmie Johnson before Elliott Sadler tagged his inside back fender. By the time they were done beating the stuffings out of ole Jimmie his Chevy was done for a 42nd place finish and two big points in the standings. It also turned the days of Kurt Busch (39th) , Danica Patrick (38th), and Trevor Bayne (35th) into total crap. That was just the beginning.
Maybe you liked the optics of Ryan Newman’s adventure. Tire goes down, he goes sliding, then comes to the pits for help. Well, there are all kinds of help, but Newman probably wasn’t planning on leaving the pits at the same time his tire was leaving his car, causing A.J. Allmendinger to rear end him. After that, a 21st place finish probably wasn’t all that bad, but others were not so fortunate.
Sometimes you wreck, get things put back together, then pad on a few more laps even after your own race is basically done. Then there are times you just plain blow up. Jeff Gordon was riding around when all of a sudden he waved for folks to go by. Why? Well, the explosion under the hood gave us the answer. Gordon was done on the spot, logging a 40th place result. I mean, the best recovery probably was that of Clint Bowyer, who actually ran out of gas and still managed 11th.
Sometimes no fuel is better than a full tank, like a full tank of jet fuel to run a track dryer. Juan Pablo Montoya left the pits under caution, tried to catch up to the field all the while complaining about his car, which immediately broke in to a high speed sideways slide into the rear of the truck to liven things up just a bit. The FOX folks came out of a commercial break to show Montoya (36th) crawling out of a car that it looked like somebody had stomped it into the ground as a Texas style barbecue shot flames high into the air along the outside fence. The good news is that while some may have taken a bit of a lickin’ on this night they all kept on tickin’.
You would have to think that even with 30 less hours to get set for the race at Phoenix this Sunday, that event should be a much tamer affair from what we had just witnessed. That is, unless you consider events of Phoenix races past. There was that Lap 66 mess last year involving Andy Lally, Bobby Labonte, Brian Vickers, Casey Mears, Clint Bowyer, David Gilliland, David Ragan, David Reutimann, Jamie McMurray, Jeff Burton, Paul Menard, Robby Gordon, and Travis Kvapil. A few laps before that, Carl Edwards found himself heading to the garage in an incident that involved Kyle Busch and eventual race winner Jeff Gordon. Then there was the fall race that saw Vickers ambush Kenseth, never mind the carnage from the two Nationwide races. Oh, this does not bode well for tameness at all.
Back in the day, when I had hair and a higher voice, I loved watching figure eight racing. Sometimes it would feature solo cars, or two cars chained together, or maybe they even trailed a camper trailer. When they met at the intersection it would cause a joyous explosion of sheet metal and wreckage. While it has been years since I’ve seen these races, I understand the world championships still take place in Riverhead, New York, with other events featured across the United States.
Phoenix International Raceway is not amongst them, but you might be hard pressed to notice the difference as NASCAR action resumes this Sunday in the Subway 500. Enjoy the week.
