Promising Brickyard run turns brutal for Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick, who drives the No. 10 Chevrolet, is in her second full-time season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and her second with Stewart-Haas Racing and crew chief Tony Gibson. Patrick, who spent seven years driving open-wheel cars in the IndyCar Series (2005-11), has three career top-10 finishes and one career pole in Sprint Cup.
A broken rear gear took Patrick's car out as she exited pit road during an early stop, ending her chances for a top-15 finish Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was the second consecutive disappointing Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis — she finished 30th last year — for the former IndyCar driver, who finished third in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 and fourth in the 2005 race.
WHERE SHE STARTED: Qualified 14th, advancing to the second of three rounds of knockout qualifying.
WHERE SHE FINISHED: Patrick completed just 114 of 160 laps, finishing 42nd out of 43 cars, as her crew tried to repair her car in the garage.
WHAT SHE SAID: "We looked at everything, and it looks like the launch was fine," Patrick said. "It's just one of those things. It's too bad and these things never happen when you're having a bad day (laughs). We were having a good day.
"It's disappointing and the GoDaddy guys built me a really good car. Hendrick gave me great horsepower. We were the fastest car out there at times. We qualified better and had a good car for the race, it just didn't end the way we wanted it to."
HOW IT UNFOLDED: Patrick was running in the top 15 when she entered pit road for a green-flag pit stop on lap 69. After four tires were changed and fuel was added, the jack was dropped and she took off. A cloud of smoke came out from her car immediately, and the crew figured something had broken in the rear of the car.
Gibson attributed the issue to a broken locker spring.
"There is a locker spring and that's what tells the right rear to spin versus the left rear and both of them together," Gibson said. "From what I can see, visually, it looks like the locker spring broke. So nothing would spin other than the right-rear tire.
"You don't see it all that often, but with what we are asking these things to do, dropping off the jack and going at 9,800 rpm, it doesn't take much to break them.
Gibson and the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing crew were able to get Patrick's Chevrolet back on the the track on lap 95 but by By lap 142, Patrick returned the car to the garage and called it a day.
WHAT SHE TWEETED: After congratulating race winner Jeff Gordon and praising the power of Hendrick engines, Patrick wrote that it just wasn't her day but she still loves Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
NEXT RACE: GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway, Sunday, Aug. 3 at 1 p.m. ET (ESPN).
LAST TIME: Started 34th and finished 35th — 50 laps down after being involved in a multicar crash on lap 111 — on Aug. 4, 2013.