ARCA veteran Bobby Gerhart won the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, but all eyes were on Danica Patrick’s stock car debut.
Patrick experienced the full thrust of closed cockpit racing — bumping, grinding and sliding uncontrollably into the grass in the front-stretch on Lap 54 following a nudge from Nelson Piquet Jr. before gathering herself back up for the finish.
And what an effort it was. Patrick restarted 24th after the team made repairs to the No. 7 Chevrolet. While Patrick didn’t use the draft to her best advantage and even seemed uncomfortable by the close-quarter racing at times, she adapted by using the outside line. In the final 32 laps, Patrick was able to pick off cars and climbed as high as fifth-place with five circuits to go before settling into sixth-place.
“That was fun,” Patrick exclaimed over the radio. “This thing will not be pretty when it comes in from the track, but whatever.”
“I think you got (Ricky) Carmichael there at the end,” crew chief Tony Eury replied.
“Oh, yeah,” Patrick said. “I’m starting to see what Dale Jr. sees in that outside line.”
“I’m pretty proud of you, right there girl,” Eury said. “You done good.
"That’s what it’s all about when it gets to the end and they get to rolling. You got to rub every now and then. I understand what happened there with that yellow line deal. You did the right thing in the middle of the race, you probably would have backed out of that but I support you 100 percent on your decision.”
“I’m just standing my ground,” Patrick answered.
Team co-owner Rick Hendrick congratulated Patrick and Eury and echoed the crew chiefs sentiments.
“You drove the wheels off of that thing girl,” Hendrick said. “We’re proud of you.”
For Patrick, it was clearly a learning experience from searching for pit road lights, to pitting during competition in a stock car, saving a car from a spin and finally asking “where should I go” when the race concluded.
"I definitely learned how to use the fenders a little bit," Patrick said. "I think I felt the fenders too, but I’m not 100 percent sure if I got hit in the dogleg and then in 1 and 2. But even if I did, I don’t really care because I know what it feels like now to kinda get pushed up the track.
"I really wanted to be smart and make it to the end and I wanted to learn something in this race .So after we came back — which was really cool to come back in the top five again — I really said 'What the heck, I don’t really care' and I thought I made it this far, let’s see what else we can do.
"I just jumped up high and not many takers came with me up there .But it was a lot of fun, I bumped from the side, I bumped front, I got bumped from the back — I learned a lot and had so much fun in a race car today. So I can’t wait to do it again."
