This year’s Daytona 500 was undoubtedly one of the strangest in recent memory. For starters, there was that whole 36-hour delay and holding it on a Monday night for the first time in history. But between the multiple crashes in Saturday’s Nationwide race, the crash in the opening of the 500 and Juan Pablo Montoya inexplicably flying into a track dryer/jet engine, the entire weekend felt like one really bad Days of Thunder remake. Except this one didn’t feature Nicole Kidman screaming, “LET ME OUT OF THE CAH, COLE!” or end with Tom Cruise running like a sissy.
But it did end with people wondering, WTF is up with Danica Patrick? The not-really-first lady of racing wrecked three times during the 500 weekend events, including both the Nationwide and main races. So what the hell happened, DP?
“I just wish the beginning of the race could have been a nice single-file line like it was when I got back out there, but it wasn’t,” Patrick said. “And honestly, that’s my lesson to learn, maybe. Write off that first little bit if you’re not up front.”
“I would have loved to have run up there. I would have loved to have got the experience when you actually were racing for positions as opposed to just feeling it out,” Patrick said. “But I truly believe everything happens for a reason.”(Via CBS Sports)
That’s a good outlook, I suppose, but she crashed three times. This was supposed to be her big chance – her first Daytona 500 – to hang with the boys and take one giant leap forward for women in racing. But if everything happens for a reason, I think someone is trying to tell Danica to tighten her HANS device, because it’s gonna be a long year.
(Banner via Reuters, inset via s_bukley/Shutterstock.com.)
