After leading 11 laps at the midpoint of the event, Danica Patrick and the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet SS team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) persevered after a late-race accident to score a 21st-place finish in Sunday’s Cheez-It 355k at The Glen NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Patrick started the race from the 31st position. After dropping to 34th, she raced her way back up to 31st by lap five. Crew chief Billy Scott made a strategy call to pit under caution at lap 14 for fuel and a chassis adjustment. A number of teams elected not to pit, and Patrick restarted from the 20th position at lap 15.
As the teams that didn’t pit during the caution period made their way to pit road under the following green-flag run, Patrick took over the point position at lap 34 and led 11 laps before Scott called her to pit road at lap 45 for four tires, fuel and another chassis adjustment. The caution flag waved three laps later, and Patrick was scored in the 28th position.
The No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet team elected to stay out during the caution period while a number of teams pitted, which put Patrick fifth for the lap-52 restart. When the field went back to green, Patrick ended up three-wide, got loose and was knocked off course. She lost numerous positions before she was able to rejoin the field. When the caution flag waved on the following lap, Scott called her to pit road for a fuel-only stop and had her return to pit road before the following restart so the team could top off with fuel.
Patrick worked her way back up to just outside the top-20 before she was caught up in a multicar incident at lap 83. Her racecar sustained significant left-rear damage, but Patrick was able to make it back to pit road before the red flag was displayed. The team assessed the damage and was able to make repairs once the field was back under caution. Patrick remained on the lead lap but was scored in the 27th position at the lap-86 restart. She was able to pick up six positions in the closing laps to earn a 21st-place result.
“My Nature’s Bakery team did a good job of getting me back out there at the end, and we were able to pick up a bunch of spots,” Patrick said. “The race didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, but we led some laps and were able to rally back at the end to get a decent finish, considering all of the damage.”
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