Danica's day: Patrick spends much of it trying to stay out of trouble
Danica Patrick's effort to earn back-to-back top-10 finishes took a turn for the worse early Sunday in the Toyota Owners 400, as her day was full of drama before the race hit the 150-lap mark at Richmond International Raceway.
Starting from the 21st spot, Patrick was running under Justin Allgaier when Casey Mears had a run from behind and hit her No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in the left rear on Lap 5. The contact sent Patrick's car sliding down the track and back into Mears' right front, allowing her to save the car and avoid a caution flag.
The incident forced Patrick to check up, dropping her deeper in the field and putting her in danger of going a lap down before the competition caution on Lap 50.
Racing hard to stay on the lead lap, Patrick subsequently had a heated battle with Roush Fenway Racing's Trevor Bayne for multiple laps before the caution was finally thrown. The two bumped and banged lap after lap, with Patrick eventually getting the advantage.
Patrick also had a close call on Lap 127 when Aric Almirola grew impatient behind the lapped car of Joey Gase. Almirola got into the back of Gase's No. 32 Ford exiting Turn 2, sending Gase down the track right in front of Patrick, who narrowly missed making contact in her No. 10 Chevy.
After avoiding all that trouble on the track, Patrick found more of it on pit road when she brought her car in for the second time of the day. Entering her pit stall, Patrick was hit in the left rear quarter panel as Clint Bowyer's No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota. The contact sent her sliding sideways into her pit stall, where the crew went to work servicing the car.
By Lap 155, Patrick was running 25th out of 43 cars and remained on the lead lap. The driver of the No. 10 Chevrolet conitnued to battle inside the top 25, finishing the day 21st.
"The race really didn't go our way today," Patrick said. "We struggled with accidents both on track and on pit road that didn't do us any favors. Our team had to dig in and get everything we could out of our GoDaddy Chevrolet. When you have days like this, you just have to be proud of your team for sticking with it and coming out with a top-25 finish."
Patrick finished ninth at Bristol Motor Speedway in the previous week's race, earning her second top-10 finish in three outings after earlier finishing seventh at Martinsville Speedway.
