Danica Patrick got up caught in a multi-car accident and finished 16th, after starting 12th in the Sprint Unlimited Saturday night at Daytona. She did run as high as fourth during part of the race, she started 12th, but was involved in a lap 35 accident along with Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, here boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and her SHR teammates Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch.
“I didn’t know how far they (the cars in front) were going to come down or go up,” Danica Patrick said.
“You just don’t know how the accident is going to keep unfolding, so I just went as low as I could. I thought I would end up just going straight through the grass, but I don’t know if it is just a little bit of a dropoff or if it’s wet, but it just hooked on it and spun around. I was sitting there and pretty much just about stopped, and then I got hit and that was it.
“Ricky (Stenhouse) said his hood was up so he couldn’t see anything, which is a bummer because I was pretty much just going to need four tires. It was a real bummer, because I was having fun and I felt like I was really learning a lot.”
The Sprint Unlimited is a non-points exhibition race featuring drivers who won a pole during the 2013 season, as well as past winners of the Sprint Unlimited. Danica Patrick earned her way in by winning the pole for last year’s Daytona 500.
Denny Hamlin won the Sprint Unlimited. It was his second win in the non-points race, with his first victory coming in 2006.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on news talk radio; with regular segments on ESPN,NBC, CBS and Fox. A former NBC Chicago and Washington Times writer, he’s also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)