Danica Patrick was not one of the 12 drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship, which began with the Geico 400 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. The 12 drivers 13 drivers are competing in what is essentially the playoffs of NASCAR. Matt Kenseth won tonight.
Danica Patrick finished 20th in the Geico 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday.
Patrick, who started 23rd, drove a smooth, clean race. She ran as high as 16th at one point in the event.
“I thought it was all right,” said Danica Patrick, who made her 37th Sprint Cup start and her second at Chicago. “We weren’t the fastest car out there, but we were decent and relatively consistent. At the beginning of the year, top-20s were the goal based on last year and we had to readjust that a bit, but now that’s kind of where we’re falling in with things.”
Danica Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished 12 spots behind Stenhouse, who placed eighth for his second consecutive top-10 finish. She moved up one spot in the standings and has 497 points, 11 behind 25th-place David Ragan.
This week’s race at Chicagoland was her “Homecoming Game,” as Chicagoland Speedway is about 116 miles south and east of her hometown of Roscoe, Illinois. She will have plenty of friends and family in attendance.
At Hononegah Community High School in Rockton IL, she was a cheerleader on the JV while ESPN auto racing analyst Nicole Briscoe was on the varsity. Briscoe was a couple years older, and they knew each other.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An analyst for 95.7 The Fan, he also writes on Chicago sports media for Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and Facebook.