Sunday's Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway was another character-building exercise for NASCAR's hot young power couple, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Danica Patrick.
On Lap 71 of the 200-lap race, Stenhouse pancaked the Turn 2 wall with his No. 17 Fifth Third Ford, forcing him down pit road so his Roush Fenway Racing crew could scramble to make repairs. He hung tough the rest of the race and managed a 19th-place finish. Not great, certainly, but it could have been worse.
As for Patrick, stop us if you've heard this one before: A poor qualifying effort meant she spent virtually the entire race buried deep in the field, where passing is nigh unto impossible. She finished 23rd, the fifth race in a row in which she finished 20th or worse.
Danica had a new teammate this weekend, rookie Austin Dillon, who was subbing for the injured Tony Stewart. Dillon spun out on Lap 13, yet still rallied to finish 14th, nine positions ahead of Danica.
Still, Danica tried to be positive afterwards.
"We're making progress and getting better each weekend," she said.
That's debatable.
What isn't debatable is the Ricky finished ahead of Danica for the 19th time in 23 races this season.
So while Ricky's 19th-place finish wasn't exactly cause for celebration, it was still a better performance than his GF had. So as our lovebirds head to Bristol, Ricky is back on top.
Scoreboard after 23 races:
Ricky - 21st in points, 0 top fives or top 10s, best finish of 11th.
Danica - 27th in points, 0 top fives, 1 top 10, best finish of 8th.
Better race finish - Ricky 19-4 over Danica.
