Typically, when Danica Patrick came to a 1.5-mile speedway this season in Sprint Cup Series competition, you could find her bright green No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS competitive.
This weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, not so much.
In her first race with the new Stewart Haas Racing swap, where her former No. 10 team led by crew chief Tony Gibson went to Kurt Busch’s No. 41 team and Busch’s former leader Daniel Knost took Gibson’s role, the two seemed to be outside the groove – in more ways than one.
Patrick qualified a discouraging 27th on Sunday, but had to start at the rear of the field for Sunday’s AAA Texas 500, after her SHR changed the transmission in her Chevrolet SS prior to the green flag.
While the former Verizon IndyCar Series driver made some noise early in the race with some “hold your breath” three-wide passes of the slower traffic, Patrick’s momentum stalled when she arrived in the 31st position.
From there, her day went from bad to worse. Two subsequent tire failures resulted in a disappointing 36th place finish, her worst intermediate finish since a rear-end failure ended her day at Indianapolis with a 42nd place finish.
On Lap 39, her right-front tire shredded and forced her to pit under green. She went two laps down and just never had a handle on the car as the race went on.
On Lap 250, she cut another right-front tire and brushed the wall, and that caused her to go more laps down. She ended up finishing 36th, nine laps behind the leaders.
“It was a rough day,” Patrick said. “We had the tire issues, and the car just wasn’t handling all that well. We’ve got two weeks left, and I’m ready for Phoenix next week. It’s a big race with GoDaddy out there, so I’m ready to go.”
After seeing her former crew chief Gibson in contention for the win with driver Kurt Busch, she might be singing a different tune on the ride home from Texas.
Was the swap a mistake? Could that have been her contending for her fourth top-10 finish of the season?
But, what’s done is done.
If Patrick goes to Phoenix next weekend, the home of GoDaddy and often previously known as a secondary home for the Roscoe, Illinois native with a miserable showing like she displayed at Texas, the search may be on to find her an even more experienced crew chief.
Though, with the incredible pressure and backlash that Patrick receives from her peers and fans alike, Patrick doesn’t have time to throttle backwards, let alone lose the progress she’s showed in 2014.
Knost has been thrown into the wolves at SHR. Not his fault. Extremely talented, but not ideal driver situations. Knost’s inexperience atop of the box needs to be funneled with a young, prospect driver – where the two can build a relationship from the ground up. Similar to that of Chad Knaus and Jimmie Johnson.
Truth be told, Patrick needs to accelerate on her gains made with Gibson sooner rather than later, because time may eventually run out.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
