Artful dodger

The Lap 43 wreck at Talladega may have damaged 16 cars, but Danica Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet wasn’t one of them. As cars began spinning wildly in Turn 1, Patrick turned left down onto the apron and narrowly evaded harm.

Crew chief Tony Gibson was watching the action and was amazed by his driver’s ability to dodge the wreck.

“We were watching and we were like, ‘Holy cow!'” Gibson said during the long rain delay that interrupted the race after Lap 125. “The next thing you know, she came on the radio and she just aimed for the empty hole. I don’t know how she missed the No. 18 (Kyle Busch) there at the end.

“The No. 18 came back down across (the track) and she said she got loose when she got on the first apron; then when she got on the flat, she got real loose. How she survived,

I have no idea. But I’ll take it, because usually we’re right in the middle of those things. The GoDaddy.com Chevy did good, and our spotter did an awesome job. We’ve got a fast car today. We’ve just got to get up there and show it.”

After the race resumed, however, Patrick was the victim of a 12-car pile-up on Lap 183 and finished 33rd.