Mid-Race Accident Causes Patrick to Finish 33rd

Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished 33rd after being involved in an accident on lap 146 of the AdvoCare 500k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.

Patrick, who started 32nd, battled a loose-handling racecar early in the event and then was caught in an accident not of her making at the midway point of the race.

“It was a tough day all around,” said Patrick, who made her 45th Sprint Cup start and her third at Phoenix. “We started out pretty loose and got down a lap early. Then obviously we got caught up in the accident. Someone spun in front of me, and there was so much smoke I started to check up, and all of a sudden my car got hit from behind. It tore the back of the car up pretty good. It’s disappointing, but the GoDaddy guys did a good job of fixing it as best they could so we could finish. It’s tough to have a day like this, especially with a lot of people from GoDaddy here watching. Obviously, we wanted to put a better performance on for them. We’ll go to Homestead and see if we can have a good run to end the season.”

Patrick, who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors against Ricky Stenhouse Jr., finished 21 spots behind Stenhouse, who placed 12th. Patrick fell two spots to 27th in the point standings and has 622 points.

Patrick’s teammate, Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 Quicken Loans Chevrolet SS, finished 10th. The third member of SHR, Mark Martin, interim driver of SHR’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS as he subs for the injured Tony Stewart, finished 15th.

TSC PR