Patrick was slightly involved in two major accidents, blew past her pit stall during a pit stop and dodged rain to score her third career top-10 finish.
“The car was fast,” Patrick said. “It has just been a matter of attrition and getting a little lucky and making it through things. We were in two crashes, and the car has been OK to keep going, which is hard to do here at Daytona because the splitter height is so critical, because if it’s a little too low you can’t go the speed you need to because it will just hit the track. We have been really fortunate from that perspective, getting a yellow in the middle when I made the mistake on pit road of missing my pit box. It’s been a crazy day. I can’t believe we finished eighth.”
The race was delayed from Saturday night to Sunday morning due to rain, and then the drivers got in just seven laps before rain delayed the race for 25 minutes. Once they got going again there was a 16-car accident on lap 21, and Patrick somehow avoided any damage despite having to go low and then high on the race track to avoid wrecking cars. Other than a small vibration and needing repairs to the left front of the car, all was good with her machine.
Patrick got herself in the top-10 at lap 80 and was ready for a midrace pit stop when she slid through her pit box. She had to back up and get in position to get fuel and tires and fell back to 30th, about 15 seconds behind the lead pack.
“I just missed it,” Patrick said.” I thought the 16 (Greg Biffle) was coming to pit road and he was pitted behind me, but he didn’t, and the (No.) 5 (Kasey Kahne) was in front of me and I just followed the 5 and blew the pit stall. It was my fault. But we got a yellow a few laps later and were able to get back toward the front.”
As she began to move up with the race nearing lap 100, a massive 26-car accident on the backstretch found Patrick in the upper part of the racetrack with nowhere to go. Amazingly she got through it with only minor damage, a flat left front tire. It was an unbelievable piece of driving that even left Patrick’s crew chief Tony Gibson shaking his head in amazement as she went from 22nd to eighth in one lap.
From there, only six more laps would be run under green, and Patrick stayed in eighth-place when the mighty rains came once more. The officials called an end to the race after 112 of the scheduled 160 laps.
“I know she was worried about it being able to perform with damage, but she did a good job staying tucked up in there,” Gibson said. “I didn’t know how good it was going to lead, but I’m pretty happy with eighth. Obviously, I would like to see what would have happened at the end with us and our teammate (Kurt Busch), but I’m happy with that. Not being torn up that bad and top 10 finish? I’m good.”
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