Patrick, Cassill differ on reason for wreck

Brandon Cassill – I hit her because she was driving like an idiot for 30th

Danica Patrick vowed to stand up for herself when the time was right, and she deemed Sunday's NASCAR race at Kansas Speedway to be that time. Patrick, in her eighth Sprint Cup Series race, spun Landon Cassill around the midway point of the Hollywood Casino 400 as frustration over what she said were multiple incidents with the BK Racing driver boiled over. "He got into me on the front straight and said I was just in the way," Patrick said. "That's really no good reason to hit me. If it's one time, I can imagine it's frustration, but it's been quite a few times with him. At some point I have to stand up for myself so this doesn't happen with other people. I chose today."

Cassill, though, told SB Nation he didn't slam into Patrick because she was in the way – he moved the #10 car because Patrick was "driving like a maniac making it three-wide on a restart" when others were "staying cool to keep from wrecking." While the leaders were wrecking at the front of the field, Cassill said he and other drivers racing around the back were "biding our time." Patrick made it three-wide but didn't pass him – a move which irked Cassill. "If you're going to make it three-wide and pass somebody, you've got to back it up," he said by phone after the race. "But she didn't. She goes under there, and then she's sliding up the racetrack and then jacks up the field, gets in the way. Then she lets two cars go by, and when I get underneath her, she crowds me. So I was like, 'No! I've been faster than you all day,' so I was going to move her. And I did. I didn't hit her because she was in my way and I wanted to pick on her, I hit her because she was driving like an idiot for 30th." SB Nation