Crash wrecks Patrick’s finale
GoDaddy driver ‘just sad that it ended that way’
DAYTONA BEACH — There was no fairy-tale ending for Danica Patrick.
There was no checkered flag; no trip to Victory Lane and no Cinderella story in her final NASCAR race. There was no driving off in the sunset.
Instead, Patrick wound up a casual bystander after her No. 7 GoDaddy Chevrolet got caught up in a crash in Turn 3 halfway through the 200 lap race that ended her day prematurely.
Chase Elliott tried to block Brad Keselowski, but instead, it turned into a seven-car accident that would wind up engulfing Patrick in its wake.
“[It was] just a superspeedway accident,” a disappointed Patrick said following her 35th-place finish. “We weren’t the fastest car out there, but the car was competitive and that’s what’s important.
“I’m just sad that it ended that way.”
Patrick said she hopes she was able to deliver fun to all of the people who were out there watching her race.
“I love to fulfill the storybook but we didn’t get to do that today,” she added.
Patrick, 35, wraps up her time at Daytona with 12 career starts with her best finish at the Daytona 500 being an eighth-placed showing back in 2013. Her average career finish at the track is 26th.
This was the third straight time she’s wrecked out of a Daytona 500. The 103 laps she finished Sunday were the fewest amount in her short career at Daytona International Speedway.
When asked about how she feels she will be remembered, Patrick recalled a recent conversation with NASCAR great Jeff Gordon, who recently went through his first season of retirement.
“He said his last Daytona didn’t go well either and I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I don’t remember that. I remember your career.’ So I hope that is how it is for me with everybody.”
After five seasons at the NASCAR Cup Series level, Patrick is calling it a career. She capped things off with one final ride here in Daytona and in a fit of nostalgia, she was even driving the familiar green GoDaddy.com Chevrolet.
She will wrap up her racing career in May with a run at the Indianapolis 500.
Patrick faced unrealistic expectations that followed her throughout her NASCAR career. She never won a race and failed to have a top-5 finish.
She did become the first woman to win a pole in a NASCAR race, a feat she accomplished at this same track back in 2013. And despite the fact that she never finishing better than 24th in the end of the season points standings, Patrick did earn more than $12 million in career earnings.
But despite her trials and tribulations on the race track, off of it she became a household name in a maledominated sport. Her popularity helped push the sport along with the likes of Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Now with her NASCAR career coming to a close, Patrick wants people to remember more than just how she finished her races but he overall story.
“I hope they remember me as a great driver and that I was a woman and that it was really cool to watch and to be there for,” she said.