Busch pans Patrick

Danica Patrick doesn't have that killer instinct when it counts

Entering her fifth season as a NASCAR driver, Danica Patrick is still looking for her first win.

Not only will Patrick enter this weekend's Daytona 500 without a victory, but also without a top-five finish in 154 starts as a Cup driver.

Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch think he knows why Patrick, one of NASCAR's biggest names, has struggled as a Cup driver. He says it's because she doesn't do well when it counts the most.

"She can be having a great race, but at the final restart she doesn’t have that moment to push that other guy out of the way, and she ends up 16th," Busch said Wednesday via The Charlotte Observer.

"That’s what I keep trying to coach her with. But she’s a student of the game. We just need to teach her more things about how to capitalize on those clutch moments at the end of the race."

Busch doesn't pin all of Patrick's flaws on that, though. Busch said Patrick's career in the IndyCar Series didn't prepare well enough for the NASCAR circuit.

"It’s very difficult when you’ve grown up in the open-wheel world, where there’s not a lot of contact, door-to-door (racing), rubbing, tire smoke, bumper-to-bumper, bumping into each other," Busch said. "Those are her weak areas."