Danica Patrick finished 10th in Friday night’s non-points-paying Sprint Showdown NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.
The driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Cares Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) qualified seventh and had hoped to build on the momentum from last weekend’s career-best seventh-place finish at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. However, Patrick fought a tight-handling racecar from the drop of the green flag in the 40-lap exhibition race, which was divided into two 20-lap segments.
Patrick finished the first 20-lap segment in ninth-place. Following the end of the first segment, crew chief Tony Gibson brought Patrick down pit road for right side tires and air pressure and wedge adjustments to help the tight-handling racecar.
Quick pit work led to a fifth-place restart for Patrick for segment two, but the adjustments didn’t go far enough, and Patrick continued to struggle with a tight-handling condition. Patrick slid back to 10th, where she finished the night.
“Our GoDaddy Cares Chevy just got way too tight in that second segment, and I just couldn’t carry any speed and get the car to turn the way I needed it to. I had to slow down to get it to turn,” said Patrick, who last year won the Sprint Fan Vote to gain entrance into her first NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. “We would have liked to have raced our way into the All-Star Race tonight, but it just didn’t happen. The guys gave a good effort, and we’ll learn from this and hopefully, it will help us next week in the Coca-Cola 600.
“Last year, we were lucky enough to get the Sprint Fan Vote, and that didn’t happen this year. It’s my understanding that I had more votes than I did last year, but you know, it is what it is. I don’t doubt my fans at all. I know they voted, and I’m grateful for all they did to try and get me in the race.”
Clint Bowyer won the Sprint Showdown. A.J. Allmendinger finished 2.547 seconds behind Bowyer in the runner-up spot. Bowyer, Allmendinger and Sprint Fan Vote winner Josh Wise will all advance to Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race.
Casey Mears, Marcos Ambrose and Aric Almirola rounded out the top-five. Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Patrick comprised the remainder of the top-10.
Patrick was the only SHR driver in Friday night’s Sprint Showdown. Teammates Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart will all compete in Saturday night’s Sprint All-Star Race. Coverage of the non-points-paying event begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX Sports 1.
Patrick returns to points-paying racing action with the rest of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunday, May 25 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. The longest race on the Sprint Cup schedule gets underway at 6 p.m. EDT, with live coverage provided by FOX beginning at 5:30 p.m.
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