Danica Patrick looks forward to returning to Daytona despite crash

Danica Patrick’s NASCAR debut lasted until lap 69 Saturday.

Patrick was swept up in a multi-car accident that eventually involved 10 cars. It was the second time Patrick had drove straight into an incident in front of her. The first happened on lap 2 when Chrissie Wallace spun out coming out of turn four. In that first incident Patrick was able to escape unscathed.

“In that specific incident, I can really relate it the very first one at the beginning of the race,” Patrick said. “I was up high and some cars came together in front of me, there was smoke and I just kind of held my line and slowed down and they went from crashing in front of me to sliding down the track a little bit so I missed it.”

In the second incident she wasn’t so fortunate. Patrick’s car was tapped in the rear and turned headlong into the front stretch wall. “Man I hit that wall hard!” she said on her team radio as her car slid to a stop in the infield. “That was a f---king mess,” she added.

Later she as she spoke to reporters Patrick said she hoped she could avoid the second accident like she did the first.

“I did the same thing,” she said. “I could see actually something happen out of four, definitely, some car got sideways, (but) he got it,it looked like. I slowed down in the middle of four cause I saw it, but I thought we all were it under control. Then all of a sudden you see smoke and I literally could not see a thing.”

Patrick said that early in the race, she didn’t like the setup on her JR Motorsports Chevy and elected not to push it beyond what she felt was comfortable. She would eventually drop back and become the last car on the lead lap. But after a pit stop the crew made some adjustments and Patrick said she felt like she could make a run towards the front. That’s what she was doing when the incident that took her out of the race happened.

Afterwards Patrick, who was scored 35th, was able to take it all in stride.

“I was just was just caught up in an accident like many people get into at these races,” she said.

Patrick who will race in the Nationwide series event at California Speedway next week, said she was already looking forward to coming back to Daytona.

I can tell you that I'll be a lot more confident and prepared for next year,” Patrick said. “This is some really difficult racing, it really is. The cars are definitely on the edge here. As you can see, when somebody gets a little bit out of shape, everybody's on top of each other.”

Patrick’s teammate and car co-owner Dale Earnhardt Junior suffered his own disastrous day. While fighting for the lead, his Chevy was turned sideways along the backstretch and flipped over before coming to rest. Earnhardt was uninjured.