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DANICA PATRICK – 2017 Bristol I Race Report

Event:               Food City 500 (Round 8 of 36)
Series:               Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Location:          Bristol Motor Speedway (.533-mile oval)
Format:             500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)
Start/Finish:      29th/36th (Accident, completed 320 of 500 laps) 
Point Standing: 30th (91 points, 269 out of first)

Race Winner:    Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

Stage 1 Recap (Ended on lap 125):

  • Danica Patrick started 29th and finished 27th.
  • The No. 10 Mobil 1 Annual Protection Ford Fusion was “a little tight off throttle” in the initial run. Patrick went a lap down to the leader during the first stage.
  • Patrick pitted for tires, fuel and adjustments during the stage to help improve the handling of her racecar. 

Stage 2 Recap (Ended on lap 250):

  • Patrick started 29th and finished 26th.
  • Patrick climbed five positions to reach 24th midway through the stage before damage to the right-rear tire slowed her progress.
  • Crew chief Billy Scott called for a pair of pit stops late in the stage to fix damage to the right rear and a hole in the nose of the car. 

Final Stage Recap (Ended on lap 500):

  • Patrick started 26th and finished 36th.
  • Scott elected to keep Patrick out between stages so she could wave around and restart one lap down to the leader.
  • At lap 325, contact from the No. 38 entry of David Ragan sent Patrick into the outside wall. That damage sustained by the No. 10 Mobil 1 Annual Protection Ford was too great to continue, thus ending the team’s day. 

Notes:              

  • Following the incident, Patrick was evaluated and released from the Bristol Motor Speedway infield care center.
  • Patrick leaves Bristol with a total of 91 points for the season thus far. She is ranked 30th in the driver point standings heading into next weekend’s event. 

Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 Mobil 1 Annual Protection Ford Fusion for Stewart-Haas Racing: 

“I started off the race and wasn’t really that great, and then we had a stop and (the No. 10 Mobil 1 Annual Protection Ford) was on fire for a little while. I mean, I was doing the old Bristol bump-and-run all the way up to the Lucky Dog spot, and then I got a little bit tight and some cars caught me, so we started running the high line. Like we all know, it comes in and it was all right, and then all of a sudden (the car) just snapped loose in one and two and hit the wall and got a lot of right-rear damage and lost a lot of sideforce. It was just super-loose after that. Then all of a sudden I heard ‘three-wide,’ and I don’t know what happened there, but our car ended up wrecked.” 

Next Up:                                                                        

The next event on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, April 30 at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX.