NASCAR Cup Series

Bad luck for Danica seems to be becoming a pattern

Published Mar. 2, 2014 9:28 p.m. ET

Tom Jensen

While the Stewart-Haas Racing team members were understandably jubilant about Kevin Harvick's dominant victory in The Profit of CNBC 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Sunday's race was another brutal outing for Danica Patrick.

After getting crashed out of the season-opening Daytona 500, where she finished 40th, Patrick qualified 33rd at Phoenix. She had worked her way up to 24th place when she crashed with Justin Allgaier and Travis Kvapil in Turn 1 on Lap 172.

Just 13 laps after some emergency repair work from her SHR crew to her No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, a damaged left-rear fender rubbed her tire. Patrick's left-rear tire went flat and she spun out in Turn 3. After extensive repairs by her SHR crew Patrick rejoined the race four laps down and restarted in 39th. She eventually finished 36th.

"It's tough," Patrick said. "That's two weeks in a row we've had good cars and nothing to show for it. The car was good all day, we just needed track position. I'm starting to think if we didn't have bad luck, we'd have no luck at all. The GoDaddy guys built me a great car for the second week in a row. I hate it for them, and I hate it for GoDaddy. This is obviously an important race for them. Hopefully things turn around in Las Vegas."