Notebook: Danica Patrick rues the wreck of her pole-winning car

Notebook: Danica Patrick rues the wreck of her pole-winning car

Feb. 25, 2012

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Based on her roller-coaster ride during Speedweeks, Sunday's Daytona 500 ought to be a stellar outing for Danica Patrick.

On Thursday, she wrecked hard on the last lap of the first Gatorade Duel 150 qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway.

On Friday, she won the pole for the Drive4COPD 300 Nationwide Series race.

On Saturday, on Lap 49 of that event, Patrick wrecked in Turn 3 after a hard bump from JR Motorsports teammate Cole Whitt. Patrick fought to regain control of her car but nosed into the outside wall.

"What the (expletive)?" Patrick exclaimed as she drove her crippled No. 7 Chevrolet to pit road. "What the hell is he thinking?"

"Yeah, he (expletive) wrecked the (expletive) out of you," said spotter Mark Robertson.

Patrick's crew rolled the car to the garage to make extensive repairs that included replacing the radiator, the right-front suspension, the nose and the hood.

Doubtless, there will be a conversation between the JR Motorsports teammates before they're on the track together next Saturday at Phoenix.

"I don't think it's ever great when teammates come together," Patrick said after the race. "So we'll have to figure out what happened and move forward."

Patrick's biggest regret was wasting her pole-winning car.

"My car was really, really fast," she said. "Even when guys were tandem racing right in front of me, I was able to hang right with 'em. The bummer of it is that, not only is it the start to the championship -- and now I'm in the championship and every race matters and every point matters, which is why we got out there again -- but there are so many other days when your car isn't perfect or isn't great or isn't super fast and nothing happens to you.

"And you think 'Why on the days when I have a really fast car does it have to happen today?' But it did, and we'll move on."

Specifically, Patrick will move on to the Daytona 500, where she'll start from the rear of the field in her backup car. The way her week has been going, though, Sunday promises to be a better day.

BUILT TO LAST

If durability is a decisive factor in the Daytona 500, the Fords may have an edge. The FR9 engine is generally acknowledged to have a cooling package superior to that under the hoods of other car makers' products.

"It seems like we are definitely doing a better job than our competitors in the cooling area," acknowledged Doug Yates, president of Roush Yates Engines. "We saw last year with this engine that it does a really nice job. In a perfect world, I think we would prefer the weather to be hot like it was earlier in the week.

"Who knows what we will get tomorrow with the rain coming in and everything? Either way, there is kind of a delta there and an offset between us and our competitors right now that we seem to enjoy today and hopefully can keep pressing forward on and keep that for a while."

Sunday's weather is expected to be overcast, with a 50-percent chance of rain and temperatures in the mid-60s.

FORGET PRACTICE -- LET'S RACE

In Saturday morning's Sprint Cup practice session, 36 of 43 drivers performed final shakedowns of their cars. With the notable exception of the Busch brothers, however, no one spent much time on the racetrack.

Approximately 50 minutes into the 90-minute session, Kurt and Kyle Busch hooked up in a two-car draft. Later, both made single-car runs. Kurt's 37 laps run were high for the session, with Kyle second at 34 laps.

The Fords of David Gilliland and defending winner Trevor Bayne teamed up to post the fastest laps during Saturday's practice, with Gilliland topping the speed chart at 200.138 mph and Bayne second at 200.129 mph. They were the only two drivers to post laps at 200 mph or higher.