Danica Patrick Takes Heavy Damage At Darlington, Questions What Happened

Danica Patrick–who has been known as the Lady In Black lately due to her new suit–took some heavy damage to her vehicle on Sunday at the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway...
Danica Patrick Takes Heavy Damage At Darlington, Questions What Happened
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Danica Patrick–who has been known as the Lady In Black lately due to her new suit–took some heavy damage to her vehicle on Sunday at the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, and she says she’s not sure what happened.

    Patrick says she took a turn fairly hard and hit the wall, causing enough suspension damage to get her car taken off the track.

    “Everything seemed pretty in control out there. I was getting a pretty decent rhythm. It snapped pretty hard in turn 4. I don’t know,” Patrick said just after the crash.

    According to her team, it’s possible that a tire came loose during the race, but Danica doesn’t know if it was that or if there was damage to it.

    “It’s definitely possible that it just got loose. For a few laps before that I felt like I could pull the yaw pretty easily through turns 3 and 4. The one thing about Darlington is that you definitely run a lot of lines around here. I felt better lower than higher, so at times I was a lane or two below the dotted line. Debris is just something that happens here because you’re using so much track. I’m not 100 percent sure of a flat tire. I could have just got loose, but it could have been a cut tire, too. Just a bummer.”

    Danica Patrick made headlines earlier this summer when she cursed out her good friend Dale Earnhardt Jr. following an accident on the track at the Kentucky Speedway. Earnhardt said he was having brake problems when he bumped into the back of Patrick’s car, earning him an earful and a return tap as they made their way back onto the track.

    “The brakes got worse and worse and worse and I probably shouldn’t have been racing as hard as I was when we ran into the back of Danica. But I went into that corner and mashed the brakes to the floor. I pumped it three times all the way to the floor and then ran into her. There wasn’t anything I could do. It sucks. I don’t like running into Danica because it gets a little too much attention, but I’m sorry for that,” Earnhardt said. “I mean, as hard as I hit her, what the hell did she think I was doing? Trying to wreck her?. We ain’t got no problem. It’s not like we were having a problem out on the racetrack with her. It’s not like I just drew her name out of a hat and decided she was the one I was going to run into tonight,” Earnhardt said.

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