Patrick Finishes 21st at ‘Monster Mile’

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

Danica Patrick and the Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS team earned a 21st-place finish after battling a loose-handling condition for much of Sunday’s AAA 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

Driving a special pink No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet in honor of breast cancer awareness, Patrick started the race from the 24th position and slipped back to 26th before NASCAR issued a competition caution at lap 40. She radioed to the team that on a scale of one to five, the car was a four loose, so crew chief Daniel Knost called for a four-tire pit stop with air pressure and wedge adjustments to help improve the car’s handling.

The handling condition persisted on the following run, and due to the blistering pace set by leader Kevin Harvick, Patrick went a lap down to the leader at lap 83 and lost a second lap to the leader nearly 80 laps later. The team continued to make adjustments to the car on each trip to pit road, and the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet remained inside the top-30.

Knost twice called for Patrick to take the wave-around under caution to get a lap back. The first time was under the lap 230 caution, and she took the green flag in the 22nd position. But after making a green-flag pit stop at lap 286, she ended up three laps down to the leader before the caution flag waved again at lap 311. Once again, Knost had Patrick wave-around to get a lap back, which put her two laps down to the leader in the 24th position. She was able to gain a position before the caution flag waved again at lap 354, and in the closing laps of the race Patrick worked her way up to the 21st position.

“The GoDaddy Chevrolet was just too loose for most of the race,” Patrick said. “The guys made some good adjustments, and we ended up catching a couple breaks with cautions and took home a decent finish.”

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