Danica Patrick finishes frustrating 31st as NASCAR learning process continues
Danica Patrick gets ready to race at Auto Club Speedway in California.
// LaDon George, NASCAR Illustrated
FONTANA, Calif. – Danica Patrick not only learned about the difficulties of driving a stock car Saturday, she learned about the frustration of finishing 31st as well.
Even though the IndyCar Series driver knows she has a learning curve as she dabbles in stock cars, never getting the handle on the 2-mile Auto Club Speedway circuit during the Stater Bros. 300 Nationwide Series race left her knowing she has a long way to go in her development after just two career NASCAR starts.
“It’s like starting from zero again,” Patrick said after the 31st-place finish at the California track, which followed a 35th-place finish after an accident at Daytona a week earlier. “I need to set goals at the beginning of the race, and if I meet them, then I need to be happy. As long as I’ve learned, too, then what can I be mad about?
“These drivers, they all know what they’re doing out there for the most part. And I don’t. I don’t know what the car feels like.”
Patrick has one more stock-car race (next week at Las Vegas) before spending about four months dedicated to her full-time IndyCar ride and then mixing both series the rest of the season. She is scheduled to drive 13 Nationwide races for JR Motorsports this year.
“I’m a competitor and I’m used to running up front,” Patrick said. “It’s shocking when you get that far back. You know what, this is a whole new ball of wax for me, and it’s all different.
“I have to disconnect from the results for quite some time, I think, because they’re probably not going to be what I’m used to.”
Starting the race in 36th, Patrick ran in the rear of the field the entire event, running as far back as 41st before moving up as cars dropped out or were involved in accidents.
“I was hoping [we] could finish in the top 20,” crew chief Tony Eury Jr. said. “So we finished 31st. … I’ve seen a lot of people a lot worse. So I’m proud of her. She learned a lot. She did really well.”
Patrick is the only woman to win an IndyCar Series race and her third-place finish in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 is the highest of any female driver.
“Results are everything for her,” Eury Jr. said. “So we’ve just got to keep that calm on her and let it comes as it needs to come. She’s a great race-car driver. We picked her for a reason. So we’re going to keep her strong, keep her head up.”
Unlike Daytona, Patrick didn’t have testing or quality practice time to get the car dialed in at California.
“I don’t know what it takes to make a good car at this point,” Patrick said. “I don’t know what to ask Tony to do to fix the car. That’s just going to take experience.”
Patrick told the team that her competitors could drive the car deeper into the corners than she could throughout the event.
“It wasn’t so pretty to start, but I came in here and did what I wanted [in finishing],” Patrick said. “I learned what happens with the track through the coming and going of the race. The track tightening up and [it] picks up a lot of grip, so you’ve got to prepare for that. Basically, I went back on all the changes by the end of the race.
“That’s just what happens. I learned what the car feels like and what lane it needs by whether it’s pushing or whether it’s loose. And just more miles under my belt, getting comfortable with the limits of the car.”
Patrick was also penalized twice for speeding on pit road and said she had trouble hearing her spotter.
Those issues can be fixed easier than getting her more comfortable in the car.
“Our whole problem here all weekend has been loose [entering the corner] and just trying to get the movement of the back of the car,” Eury Jr. said. “She’s run 150 laps today and she felt tight at the end of the race and she felt good about her entry.
“So hopefully we can go in here and discuss it right now and make a plan and go to Vegas and be a little stronger.”
