Driver gets caught up in pileup, finishes 35th

Feb 15, 2010 09:40 GMT  ·  By

Danica Patrick made her NASCAR debut over the weekend, at Saturday’s Nationwide Series but, despite the preceding hype and expectations pinned on the race, it did not end well for the driver and occasional (glamour) model. Her car was caught up in a 12-vehicle pileup and she finished only 35th, as the Bleacher Report informs.

Some commentators have already rushed to write off Danika’s NASCAR aspirations because of the crash, but it could very well be that she was aware from the start that she was not yet ready for a competition of this magnitude and was therefore simply there to learn how to prepare, as winner Stewart also said after the crash. On the bright side, her making her NASCAR debut and the crash, which set her back but has not defeated her spirit, have made of her the most talked about topic, up to the point of overshadowing Tony Stewart’s win.

“The real story behind that race was not Stewart however – it was Danica Patrick’s NASCAR debut. If you don’t believe me, believe the newspaper. In today’s sports section, they had the 2010 NASCAR preview. The #1 story they mentioned was not Jimmie Johnson’s pursuit of an unprecedented 5th championship in a row (his current streak of 4 in a row is already a record). It wasn’t about Hendrick Motorsports trying to continue its domination of the Sprint Cup Series. It wasn’t about Carl Edwards, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Juan Pablo Montoya, or any of the other extremely talented drivers trying to end Jimmie Johnson’s record run. It was about none of those things. The #1 headline in the NASCAR preview section today read, ‘Danica Patrick can compete with the big boys’,” the aforementioned publication says.

Patrick was on the outside of the top 20 when the crash occurred, though it was already clear that she was having trouble controlling the car and could not go farther than the ‘20s, some say. The accident was not her fault and her attempts at avoiding it were visible. Luckily, she walked away unharmed but the car received plenty of damage in the front side. All in all, her purpose there was served: that of learning and getting the hand of the experience.

“It’s important to have realistic expectations. There’s going to be spikes in performance, I don’t doubt that. But there’s also going to be tough days. And today, I would say, was more of a tough day,” Patrick said after the race. “Just getting the experience in the car, learning what changes to make, how it makes the car react, that’s what this week was about. It wasn’t about where is she going to finish, where is she going to end up. This week was a learning week, plain and simple. That’s what she was here for: to learn,” Tony Stewart, the winner, added.