Danica Patrick had two tire failures and finished a disappointing 36th in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.
Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), qualified 27th but had to start at the rear of the field after the team changed a transmission on Saturday afternoon. NASCAR rules state that if such a change is made, the driver must start at the rear of the field.
Even so, Patrick’s start was solid and she got to 31st rather quickly. Then, bad things began happening.
On lap 39, her right-front tire shredded and forced her to pit under green. She went two laps down and just never had a handle on the car as the race went on. On lap 250 she cut another right-front tire and brushed the wall, and that caused her to go more laps down. She ended up finishing 36th, nine laps behind the leaders.
“It was a rough day,” Patrick said. “We had the tire issues, and the car just wasn’t handling all that well. We’ve got two weeks left, and I’m ready for Phoenix next week. It’s a big race with GoDaddy out there, so I’m ready to go.”
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