NSCS: Danica Patrick Scores First Top 10 of Season at Martinsville

Martinsville Speedway can be known as a tough track for drivers. However, for Danica Patrick, it seems to be a track that she can get around well. For the second time in five starts at the paperclip, she finished in the top 12, crossing the finish line in the eighth spot.

The race didn’t start off as well as she hoped as starting in the 16th starting spot, she fought a tight condition in the center of the corner, which resulted in her also being loose off of the corner. Daniel Knost tried to get her position mid-race, staying out under a caution while the leaders pitted, however she would quickly fall back through the field.

“I bet I looked like an idiot out there.  I spun the wheels on the start and hung on a little bit, but then ended up going backwards in a hurry,” she commented. “You can’t stay out if your car is not good.  So if the car is good, you’ll be lucky if you don’t end up further back than where you were or where you would have been if you would have just pitted.  It’s just that kind of track.  The tires mean a lot, and they keep falling off.  It just happens, but that’s also what makes the racing better here than some places.”

It would result in her going a lap down, but she didn’t let that stop her from fighting as she recalled back in her rookie year when she fell two laps down and still finished 12th. She would get the lucky dog, and from there, she made her move back towards the front of the field. It wasn’t without close calls, though, as she about wrecked on a couple of different incidents throughout the race.

“I think all four corners are banged up, but there was the one with Larson where I got drilled, but it spun him — not Larson, of course, which I hope Larson is okay.  I was shocked to hear him not be in the car.  But that was Regan,” she said. “And then the other one where the 27 spun.  I can’t remember who got into — maybe the 19?  I can’t remember, I don’t want to be wrong and call out the wrong person, but 27 got sideways and he was just completely sideways in front of my car, and luckily I had slowed down enough and swerved to the right. 

“It’s all a matter of luck, too.  I could have got drilled from the back and hit into the car.  I could have swerved to the right and had somebody clip my right rear and spun, somebody could have been out there.  Crashes are about observing where you’re at and making a good decision about where to go, but they’re also about luck.  I got lucky that there was nothing in my way to get around that one. That would have probably wrecked my day.”

For Patrick, it marks the second best finish of the year, and her first top-10 of the season.

“I’m proud of everyone for not giving up and for keeping their head in the game, and the pit crew did a good job,” she said. “They were frustrated last weekend after making a mistake on the last stop, and it’s team effort, you know.  I’m going to make mistakes at the very end, too.  I’m not going to lie, I was glad there was not a yellow at the very end coming to the white.  I was glad for that.”

Beyond a positive finish, the race represented the growth of her relationship with crew chief Daniel Knost in their eighth race working together. Rather than getting worse and not making the adjustments as the day went on, the pair were able to communicate well and got the No. 10 Chevrolet stronger throughout.

“I was proud that today while we didn’t start off quite as well, I would take this transition any day to end up with a top 10 than start off all right and struggle in the middle,” she commented. “The middle of the race was where we started improving, so I think this is a step in the right direction of a better trend of our communication and what we’re doing, and we still learned out there.  At one point in time I said that that change didn’t — the changes didn’t work, and I was like, I think maybe we should go this direction, and after the stop I said, did you take that change out of the right front that I asked for, and he said no, and I said, when I say it’s not better, take it all out.  You dial yourself out very fast in these cars.

“We’re still learning, but it wasn’t too big of a problem, and once we got that out, that’s actually our best run, I think, was that one.”

She added that she’d call their relationship a “very good business relationship” that allows them to laugh, hang out and make jokes, while moving in the right direction as they’re working together.

“We get along great and we have a lot of fun,” she continued. “I think that the balance in the front of the hauler with all the engineers, I think it’s really good, and I think we have a lot of fun, but we also do good work.  I’m lucky I have three really, really, really smart engineers on my car, and I think that that shows because every weekend when we arrive we’re in the ballpark.  We’re not starting off and rolling off and being 36th on the board and trying to figure it out.”