By Jay Hart, Yahoo! Sports 2-25-2012
(Getty Images)
Just 48 hours after smashing hard into a retaining wall in a qualifying race for Sunday’s Daytona 500, Patrick got clipped again, this time by her own teammate, Cole Whitt, sending her into a spin and eventually the wall just 50 laps into the DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway.
“What the [expletive],” she yelled over her team radio. “He [expletive] hit me.”
After driving her damaged race car to the garage, Patrick jumped out, helmet still on, and stormed into her team hauler, leaving a trail of media behind her.
It was the second time in three days her race was ruined by a crash that was no fault of her own. Thursday she got bumped by Aric Almirola; Saturday it was Whitt.
“I don’t think it’s ever great when teammates come together,” she said afterward. “We’ll have to figure out what happened and move forward.”
As Whitt explained it, the two were trying to use the two-car draft to move to the front, with him playing the role of the pusher.
“We’re teammates,” he said. “We want our team to win. I mean, that’s why we were pushing each other anyways – we want to get our team up front together.”
When told Patrick expressed her dissatisfaction over the radio, Whitt responded, “I wouldn’t expect her to be happy about it. I wouldn’t be happy about it either. I don’t know why anyone would expect her to be like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s great.’ ”
The wreck ruined what could have been a storybook day for Patrick, who on Friday became just the second woman ever to win a pole position for a Nationwide Series race. Starting up front, Patrick teamed up with her boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., to lead the first two laps of Saturday’s race.
She was running comfortably in the top 20 at the time of the accident. She wound up 38th.
Lost in the hoopla that always surrounds Patrick is the fact that she’s running for a Nationwide Series championship. Saturday’s 38th-place finish means she starts the season in a significant hole.
“The bummer of it is not only is it the start to the championship and I’m in the championship and every point matters – which is why we went back out there again – but there are so many other days when your car isn’t perfect, isn’t super-fast and nothing happens to you,” she said. “And you think why on the days when I have a really fast car it has to happen today. But it did and we’ll move on.”
MTW-
A man can say what he so desires, yet, as I watched the race, he did a little more than “bump” her in the so called drafting maneuver. A hard hit, and not a “bump draft” style hit. Come on men, this woman is a good racer. It should not matter what her gender is, there in your little rich boy club. Do you think the boss- Dale Earnhardt is going to be happy that Cole Whitt caused her crash? I do not. She had already been wrecked in qualifying for the 500, by another driver. And now in the Nationwide race, by her teammate. If others cannot see this is an “angry man” thing, they must be blind. Go girl, do not let them stop you! Good luck in the Daytona 500 tomorrow Danica. You are very attractive as well.
GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND OUR ARMED FORCES!
POST AND COMMENTS BY Michael T. Wayne- A Little Crazy
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