ltc

Curious to see how the critics grade her season going forward. Certainly not off to a great start.

Danica Patrick's Daytona 500 Debut A Dud

Danica Patrick's Daytona Speedweeks featured a historic pole position in the Nationwide Series, but the Go Daddy Girl's overall Daytona results were a disappointment.

The most-hyped new driver in years crashed in all three races she entered during Speedweeks, deflating the anticipation that had ballooned for her NASCAR Sprint Cup Series debut.

Patrick had a hard crash on the last lap of Thursday's Gatorade Duel, wrecked early in the Nationwide Series raceafter winning the pole and then got caught in an accident on lap 2 of Monday night's Daytona 500.

All the buildup and talk and front-page stories about Patrick's presence in the 500, and she was only in the running for less than two laps.

The team eventually fixed her car and she finished the race in 38th place, but she was 62 laps down.

"I just wish that the beginning of the race could have been a nice single-file line like it was when I got back out there – but it wasn't," she said. "And honestly, that's my lesson to learn maybe, is that just write off that first little bit if you're not up front."

If she had to do it all over again, Patrick would be more conservative at the start of the 500.

"I think the power of laying back at the very beginning there; there's inevitably going to be a crash," she said. "Especially when you get all the cars out there at one time and everybody kind of shaking out the jitters of the Daytona 500, maybe."

Patrick also noted that restrictor-plate accidents are "obviously out of your control at times," but said she learned a lot and gained experience.

"It's disappointing," she said. "I would have loved to have gotten a great finish. I would have loved to have been able to run on the lead lap there at the end. I feel bad for disappointing my fans who were cheering for me; especially going out so early. But I'll come back stronger."

multi21

Lies, damn lies and statistics.....

If you look at the statistics, she had three crashes in 3 races. If you look at the details, none of them were her fault.

How many others were caught up in a crash in those races? A ton. Maybe she has to learn how Not to be caught in those big pile ups. But Jimma and Tony manage to get caught up in those as well, just not at the wrong time.

Honestly, NASCAR loves the crashfest style racing because if there wasn't this 15 car pile up everytime they actually race and not put in "laps" then no one would watch.

Let me ask you Lewis, who fared better this weekend, Danica or Montoya?

stuttgart46

I don't think anybody that watched any of those races can say any of those wrecks were her fault. Wrong place, wrong time. That's racing sometimes.
I just wish they would quit making such a big deal about her being a girl. With the helmet on, inside the car, can you really tell?

ZAPmobile

Danica is a good racer, maybe not the best. How many of you think you can beat her. If so put on a dress and give it a try.

tomburdge

I'm a fan of hers but I gotta say I think she may have screwed up last night.
If you listen to (not watch) the replay of the incident last night her spotter said to go" low", she went" high".
Perhaps at those speeds you just can't process that kind of info fast enough for it to do any good.
If nothing else, she's got those guys placing their hands on their chests just before impact. Jimmy Johnson did it, which is the first time I've ever seen any NASCAR driver do it and we've seen alot of 'In-car" over the years. Hope I can remember to do the same if I ever need to. They don't teach you that in DE.
Three races ,three wrecks. She's gotta be thinking WTF is it with these yahoo's.
Tom B.

hacker-pschorr

She finished the 500. Juan "fireball 500" Montoya cannot say the same

67King

I find Daytona to be a charicature of motorsports. When was the last time a race at Daytona had the final, say, 5 laps finish wihtout a wreck? I don't know how to fix it, can they make it such that the cars would be faster wihtout bunching up through some aerodynamic package? I know sadly little about aero. But so long as you've got 30+ cars with not so much as a car length or width between any of them, it is a recipe for disaster, and the notion that driving ability has much influence on the race is laughable. IOW, you can't judge her "debut" based on that track.

As for 3 for 3 - Tony Stewart was involved in BOTH late race crashes. Got away from one, less fortunate on the other. What does that say about him? Oh yeah, wasn't he also involved in the Nationwide series final wreck, too?

utkinpol

all i can say - i really feel for parents of that 20 year old guy, forgot his name already, #83, who watched his son`s first race in that crazy zoo. it is not a sport, it is a perverted wreck machine, it is just way too many cars on a small track and way too much probability for all of them to go off. if whole sport was created for rednecks to have fun watching cars burn it is not a sport anymore, it is a WWF.

93 FireHawk 968

Danica is always going to have a plethora of critics regardless of how she drives. Question is; How many of the critics have ever raced at the pro level and are truly qualified to pass judgement? I know I'm not so I'll keep my opinion to myself.

Van

I'm a fan of Danica's, but I feel she bumped that white car, while she was "going low" - and that's what got her out of shape and caused the collision with Jimmy Johnson. Of course, it's hard to say, watching from a camera in a blimp, vs. in the car, how much reaction time she actually had, but that first "bump" had the look of a too rushed panic reaction.

Again, I'm sure all of those drivers would teach me a lesson on any track in any car...

hacker-pschorr

The cars are designed to stay bunched up like that, makes for a better "show" for the fans. I'm not kidding.

Years before when the cars were setup to seperate, the racing was rather boring with all the cars strung out with 2-3 lengths between everyone. When I say boring, I mean for the casual race fan, their #1 demographic.

The big problems started when the IRL tried to duplicate this style of racing.
We saw how that worked out last year in Vegas....

Vampire

However, Montoya finished 2 positions ahead of Danica.

Or think if it as 2 hours ahead of her.

Land Jet

Crash Patrick showed us all this weekend what we can expect from her in the future. And you don't have to be a race car driver to comment, just a racing fan who has a long history of watching true winners and champions do what true winners and champions do.

SoClose

Here we go again

kurt M

I bet you end up in the position to eat those words but won't admit to it when the time comes.

DP may not end up a champ but she is far from a hack.