NASCAR Cup Series

'Bad luck' ends Danica's day on Lap 64

Published Mar. 24, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

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Danica Patrick’s Nationwide Series race ended on Lap 64 on Saturday after a foot-long piece of flat bar steel punctured her radiator at Auto Club Speedway.

“I got some debris in the front grille at some point in time,” Patrick said. “I didn’t feel it at the time. They said it was very small . . . it was sharp and went right through the radiator and all the water left.”

Patrick dropped from 12th to 17th in the points standings. Joey Logano won the race.

However, her 35th-place finish was not indicative of her performance. Patrick qualified 21st but had gained two positions despite battling a loose condition throughout the first third of the race. Patrick searched for a faster line around the track.

On Lap 33, Patrick was running 20th during the first round of green-flag pit stops and dropped off the lead lap after coming in for service.

She regained her position after the cars cycled through, but before her second stop on Lap 57, she radioed that her water pressure number was flashing.

While her water temperature was 205, Patrick’s oil pressure plummeted to 165.

Crew chief Tony Eury Jr. told his driver to keep an eye on her gauges before the race went green on Lap 63. The team made adjustments on the pit stop, and Patrick had a solid restart, but she immediately lost power coming to the line.

Eury suggested she switch ignition boxes, but Patrick realized the car was terminal and was forced to pit.

After a quick diagnosis, the JR Motorsports crew pushed the GoDaddy car to the garage.

“When I complained earlier in the race that there was a flashing alarm in water pressure with zero on it, that was right,” Patrick said.

“The Hendrick engine guys explained that when the water goes away there’s no steam to heat the engine up . . . so it just seized up. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s not a Chevy issue. It’s not a team issue. It was just a bad-luck issue, and, unfortunately, I feel we’ve been catching a fair amount of it at the beginning of the season.

“What are you going to do, though? You just go on to the next one. The good news about NASCAR is there’s a lot of races. It would have been nice to do well here in California. I always feel like there’s a lot of people that come out to enjoy the race and cheer me on, so I feel their love, but for one reason or another our day got caught short here, and we’ll look to the next one.”

The Nationwide tour returns at Texas Motor Speedway on April 13. Patrick posted an 11th-place finish on the 1.5-mile track in November.

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