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Tag: Car Race

  • Danica Patrick Closes Out the Season at Richmond

    Following an impressive showing at the Atlanta Motor Speedway over Labor Day weekend, Danica Patrick finished up the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup regular season in Richmond, Virginia on Saturday. Patrick finished in 16th place during the Federated Auto Parts 400 held at the Richmond International Raceway.

    “It was a good day,” said Patrick. “Everyone on the GoDaddy team worked hard; we had good night. I’m proud of where we have been the last two weeks, and tonight was by far our best run at Richmond. It was a good job by the team.”

    Patrick started the race in 13th and ran between 10th and 20th during the entire race. On lap 330 Patrick was in 16th and one lap down when the caution flag was raised due to a fan that had scaled a retaining fence on the track. The caution allowed Patrick to gain a lap via the beneficiary rule (also known as the “lucky dog” rule), though she remained in 16th for the rest of the race.

    “If we could have got one more caution, it would have been nice,” said Patrick. “But it didn’t happen. Still, I’m proud of these guys and for GoDaddy. It’s our best run here by far. We’ve been testing a lot, so hopefully everyone can wind down on Sunday before we get ready for Chicago.”

    Saturday’s race was the final race of this year’s Sprint Cup regular season. Next weekend will begin the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Sixteen drivers will compete in ten races to determine the series winner. The drivers were selected to compete in the Chase based on their wins and point totals during the regular season.

    Patrick is not part of the Chase, but the sixth seed going into the series is Patrick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick. Harvick won two races during the regular season and finished fifth at Richmond this past weekend.

    The first race of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, the MyAFibStory.com 400, will take place on September 14 at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.

  • Kevin Harvick Wins First Career Pole At Darlington

    When all was said and done at the Darlington Raceway on Friday, it was Kevin Harvick who crossed the finish line ahead of the rest.

    It is Harvick’s first career pole and it keeps him in the hunt for his first Southern 500 NASCAR victory.

    ”It all worked out,” said Harvick ” Knockout qualifying paid off for us today because we were able to save the best for last.”

    Harvick’s explanation for his ability to beat the competition in this first knockout qualifying session comes down to having the fastest car.

    It’s simple enough, but certainly not something to take for granted. This is a session that a new track record of 184.145 mph set courtesy of Aric Almirola (Harvick crossed the finish line with a speed of 183.479 mph).

    Almirola’s lap was said to be more than 2 mph than the previous mark, and he looked to be the most likely to finish the qualifying session in first.

    Armirola would go on to finish in third place behind Harvick and Joey Logano.

    Because Harvick said his team had “faster cars”, he believes it helped him find the edge needed to get past Almirola.

    Harvick credited his No. 4 Chevrolet team with the improved quality of qualifying speed.

    It seemed all drivers were faster this year than drivers on the roadway this time last year when Kurt Busch set a record of 181.918 mph. It’s reported that all 25 drivers did better than that mark during the first round of qualifying.

    As this is a knockout race, not everyone was able to make it through to the next round of racing. This included Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

    Will there be future speed records? It’s likely. Since Busch’s record was set last year it was beaten in six of eight subsequent races.

    Harvick’s car may have been faster today, but with someone else holding the the track speed record, there’s no telling who will take the win in the Bojangles Southern 500.

    Image via YouTube

  • Danica Patrick Crashes During Practice, Finishes 18th in Bristol

    Friday’s practice at Bristol Motor Speedway was quite a bumpy start for NASCAR driver Danica Patrick.

    Only a few minutes into the practice run, the 31-year-old’s No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet crashed into Parker Kligerman’s No. 30 Swan Racing Toyota.

    Following the collision, Kligerman’s team attempted to fix his car while Patrick returned to the race track in a backup Chevrolet.

    However, she wasn’t the only driver who crashed and had to resort to a backup car.

    Justin Allgaier’s soon found himself collided with the wall.  Kyle Busch’s wreck followed the same scenario. Both were forced to use backup cars.

    Greg Biffle also went to a backup when he crashed only a half-an-hour later on the front chute.

    NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin sat out and watched the first 15 minutes of practice.

    According to ESPN, he told the Associated Press that the wrecks were probably due to “Goodyear’s tire compound producing faster speeds” mixed with highly accelerated embankments on the 0.533-mile track.

    “It’s just the speeds are so much higher than we’ve seen,” he said. “It takes a little getting used to. We are all out there fighting for a tenth of a second, a hundredth of a second at Bristol. I think it comes more from us pushing the edge than it is treacherous.

    Two other drivers, Matt Kenseth and Rick Stenhouse Jr., both scraped the wall towards the end of the session, but didn’t incur major damages.

    Five-time Bristol winner Kurt Busch ultimately had the best practice time.

    The clip below shows Patrick’s crash during the Bristol practice:

    Unfortunately, Patrick’s bad luck just didn’t stop there. 

    During Sunday’s icy and rainy race, Patrick, who started at 36th, only had 50 laps left when she decided to exit on the pit road.

    Clint Bowyer’s No. 15 Toyota was two stalls ahead of Patrick. As she departed the pit, Patrick hit the acceleration and her vehicle headed towards the right rear side of her opponent’s car.

    “I only had fourth gear, so that’s why I hit Clint in the pits,” Patrick said, according to ESPNW. “I hit Clint in the pits. It wouldn’t go. I dipped the clutch and it got sideways, and when it caught it went straight and it wouldn’t stop.”

    Fortunately, Patrick hit the breaks in enough time to not cause as much damage, something she says would have been a “shame” if they had to restart or go back to pit.

    She later said: “I have days where not a single thing goes wrong, but I finish 30th, so on a night like tonight where about everything went wrong, I’ll take it.”

    Although this past weekend was pretty rough for Patrick, she finished 18th in the Food City 500.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons