Believe it or not, Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn is one of Danica Patrick’s top tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit.
Patrick, driver of the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing, finished 13th in the June 2013 event and has a total of four top-20 finishes in six Sprint Cup starts at the 2-mile oval.
Her 13th-place run was the third top-15 finish in her career and came when her team elected to take only right-side tires on the final pit stop. She drove hard for the final stint and wound up with a solid finish.
In June 2014, she went down a lap early in the race, but got it back on lap 147 and drove to a solid top-20 finish.
Last June, Patrick started the Michigan 400 from the 19th position, led two laps and scored a 16th-place finish in the rain-shortened event. When the series returned in August, Patrick started 23rd in the Pure Michigan 400 but was hampered by handling issues and finished 25th, her worst finish at the track thus far.
In addition to scoring solid runs at Michigan in the Sprint Cup Series, Patrick had done a good job in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and IndyCar Series prior to that.
In August 2012, she started an impressive fifth and led one lap en route to an 18th-place Xfinity Series finish. And, in August 2007, she started ninth, led five laps and finished seventh in the IndyCar Series.
In July 2006, she was running eighth when she ran out of fuel just three laps from the end of what would have been a top-10 IndyCar finish. She ended up 17th.
For this Sunday’s Firekeepers Casino 400 Sprint Cup race, Patrick and the Nature’s Bakery team are looking to rebound from last August and score another solid finish at Michigan.
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