Danica Patrick’s hopes for a solid finish in Saturday night’s Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway were dashed when the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet SS was collected in a 22-car incident in turn one at lap 90. The Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) team’s night was further complicated by rear-end issues that sent the team to the garage for repairs and left Patrick with a 27th-place result.
Patrick started the race from the 22nd position and was scored as high as eighth before the team made a scheduled, green-flag pit stop at lap 67. NASCAR officials deemed she had driven through too many pit stalls following the stop and assessed the team a pass-through penalty. Patrick brought the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet back down pit road to serve the penalty at lap 73 and rejoined the field in the 37th position.
As Patrick made her way around the 2.5-mile track without drafting help, the lead pack of cars caught her 12 laps later and put her one lap down. Then at lap 90, Patrick was collected in a 22-car accident that caused significant body damage to the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet. Crew chief Billy Scott called the shots as the team pitted five times during the caution period to make repairs. Patrick rejoined the field for the lap-101 restart but came back to pit road four laps later as smoke emanated from the car.
After initial assessment in the pit stall, Scott sent Patrick back to the garage. Finding that an issue with the car’s rear end had caused it to overheat, the team replaced the entire rear-end housing. Patrick rejoined the field at lap 133, completed the remaining laps and took the checkered flag in the 27th position.
“It’s just unfortunate that we were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Patrick said. “But that’s how it goes with speedway racing. I’m proud of everyone on my Nature’s Bakery team for doing such a good job of getting the car repaired and back on track.”
Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, led the four-car SHR contingent at Daytona by finishing 23rd.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Ducks Unlimited Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 26th after an accident with 13 laps to go.
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Beer Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 39th after being involved in the same multicar accident as Patrick.
Brad Keselowski won the Coke Zero 400 to score his third victory of the season and his 20th in 250 career Sprint Cup starts.
Keselowski finished .159 of a second ahead of runner-up Kyle Busch, while Trevor Bayne, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top-five. Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer and Michael McDowell comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were five caution periods for 28 laps, with nine drivers failing to finish the 161-lap race, which went into overtime and was extended by one lap.
With round 17 of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR and the series in the championship standings. He is first with 565 points, 14 ahead of Keselowski, who moved into second place with his first victory at Daytona. Kurt Busch dropped to third with 545 points, 20 behind leader Harvick. Harvick earned a spot in the Chase via his win March 13 at Phoenix International Raceway, and Busch secured his position via his win June 6 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
Patrick is 26th with 302 points, 93 ahead of 31st-place Brian Scott. Despite his misfortune at Daytona, Stewart moved into the top-30 in the driver standings by a three-point margin over 31st-place Scott. If Stewart can remain in the top-30 through the 26th race of the season, he will secure his spot in the 16-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup playoff by virtue of his victory last week at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Kentucky 400 on Saturday, July 9, at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta. NBCSN will broadcast the race starting at 7 p.m. EDT.
SHR Release.
No comments:
Post a Comment