NASCAR Cup Series

Danica Patrick needed X-rays after hard contact with wall

Published May. 1, 2016 1:42 p.m. ET

foxsports

Danica Patrick’s day started off bad in the GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. And then it got a whole lot worse, ending with a hard crash on the backstretch wall that required X-rays.

The troubles began on the first round of green-flag pit stops in the 188-lap race.

Patrick was one of a group of drivers to pit under green on Lap 40, when she had contact with both Bobby Labonte and Paul Menard as she attempted to get the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet into her stall.

The issue was track position -- as the three drivers started to pit, Patrick was on the outside of both drivers and had to cut across two lanes of traffic to make it into her stall. Instead, she hit the other cars, with her SHR Chevy picking up a significant amount of body damage.

At the Lap 45 mark, Patrick was listed as last in the 40-car field. But using pit strategy, Patrick was able to get all the way back and in fact led the race from Lap 97-99.

But late in the race, she got hit from behind by Michael McDowell, who turned her car into Matt Kenseth’s. Kenseth went upside down, and Patrick went hard into the inside wall on the backstretch. Afterwards, she required X-rays.

“I mean I'm okay. I got an X-ray so that was a concern,” said Patrick, who finished 24th. “Just taking a deep breath. I hit my foot pretty hard and hit my arm pretty hard. I have hit the inside wall at a superspeedway I think like four times how, and that was the hardest.”

Patrick was understandably not happy about being turned and hitting the wall.

“I'm all about bumping, and pushing and being close but when you hit people with a certain amount of momentum, it is a problem,” said Patrick. “I can't quite remember exactly what started it. I know I got drilled from behind and turned sideways and hello wall.”