Danica Patrick wadded up on lap 1 in Kansas
WHAT HAPPENED?
“I knew that going into the race based on practice and everything we’ve seen from practice in Cup to the Nationwide race, that losing grip was going to be not that hard to do. And so I said that before the race even; I said make sure that we’re on top of who is on my door and who is behind me. And I knew all that was going to be happening on the start. And I had enough momentum to go to the middle because I got a run on the car in front of me but I had to wait past the Start/Finish line. I lifted going into Turn 1 and all I can say is that you know, I didn’t try and do anything. I just found myself sideways in the middle of the corner and that was it.
“And it’s just a shame because it always seems to be the case (on) those weekends when things start to be going better and I’ve had lots of people say you looked good in practice yesterday and felt a lot better and (crew chief, Tony) Gibson did a great job and the crew did a good job. And I have an awesome pit road crew. I knew we were going to have a good day there. Things just go wrong. And days when you’re not fast, it seems like those aren’t the days that you get the bad luck.
“So, I don’t know. If I did something wrong, I apologize to everybody on my team. It’s a shame."
MORE ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“…I mentally was ready for it. I said to my spotter I was like let me know where everybody is throughout the day, outside corner and right behind me. I knew the start was going to be definitely hairy, but when you arrive at Turn 1 you are not going very fast yet. So, I still was off the throttle and I just had enough momentum to go to the middle and so I did and I don’t know why it came around.
“Either I drove into hard or the air is just that challenging or we were a little loose. I don’t know. I didn’t even have my front bead blowers on yet just trying to build heat in the front tires.
“It’s just a shame because we were having a better weekend. Yesterday was a pretty good day for us. We felt really confident today that we were going to be able to have a good day. My pit road crew is so good I knew that was going to be something to look forward to. I’m really sorry. I’m really bummed. I just was looking forward to having a good day and it’s over within a matter of feet."