DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—After wrecks in the last Saturday’s Sprint Unlimited, Wednesday’s practice and Thursday night’s Duel, the last thing Danica Patrick needed was another problem.
Consider that Patrick and her No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing team had already launched their own recycling program—for race cars. The car Patrick wrecked in the Unlimited had been sent back to Charlotte, North Carolina, for repairs, and that was the machine Patrick was driving during Friday afternoon’s practice session at Daytona International Speedway.
Seventeen minutes into Friday’s second session—the first of the day for Patrick at the 2.5-mile superspeedway—her car began to smoke and dropped fluid on the track, causing a brief red-flag period.
Fortunately, the problem was merely a water line issue and not a blown engine, and Patrick was able to return to the tack later in the session. But Speedweeks continued to be fraught with obstacles for the former open-wheel star.
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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