A piece of trash ruined the race for Danica Patrick, who finished a disappointing 25th in the STP 400 yesterday at Kansas Speedway.
Danica Patrick radioed to crew chief Tony Gibson that her engine was hot. The grille in her Chevy Impala was covered by a piece of trash picked up somewhere along the 1.5-mile track on a windy day. A quick attempt to suck up behind the car of Jeff Gordon (quoting “E.I.” by Nelly, I drive fast-y call me Jeff Gordon, in the black SS with the navigation) to remove the garbage was unsuccessful. Gibson ordered Danica Patrick to pit before the engine overheated and expired.
Removing the trash was easy and painless. But it already ruined her NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race as Danica Patrick returned to racing now in 31st place, two laps behind the leaders.
“We started out pretty good, but we just got tight in the second half of the race,” Danica Patrick said.
“We had a tire rub at one point and issues with the splitter from some contact we made. The trash on the grille was what really hurt us today. The temps went way high, and we had to pit to pull it off. That put us two laps down. It’s disappointing because I think we could have had a much better finish with the Go Daddy Chevy, but it’s one of those things that’s out of our control. The pit crew was awesome, I think they did a 12.1 (second stop), which I didn’t even think was possible. They did great today.”
Matt Kenseth won the STP 400 to score his 26th career Sprint Cup victory, his second of the season and his second at Kansas.
Danica Patrick is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against her boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the man she is rumored to have divorced her husband for. She finished 14 spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 11th.
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