Race Weekend Central

Danica Patrick Facing Possible Penalty for Walking on Hot Track

Following a hard hit entering Turn 1 at Auto Club Speedway, Danica Patrick is in line for a possible penalty from NASCAR.

Patrick made contact with Kasey Kahne with 80 laps remaining in the Auto Club 400 on Sunday afternoon, slamming the outside wall on the frontstretch. The impact was hard enough to send her No. 10 Chevrolet airborne, regulating her to a 38th-place finish in the 39-car field.

“We were on a restart, and I had a run on him so I went down low,” Patrick said. “If you get too close to them [a car you’re trying to clear] then it will drag you both back. I was going low. I saw him chase me down the track, and then the next thing I know I was getting spun up the track. I was passing him. He was behind me in the right rear.

“I don’t know what kind of day he was having. I just heard he was a lap down, actually. I feel bad if he felt like he was put in a position to have to be that desperate a lap down. … I was having a pretty good recovery day, kind of like last weekend. I was just running good race laps and on the lead lap at the end of the race back up into the top 20 from a bad starting position.”

Kahne was called to the NASCAR hauler after the incident, but Patrick was not.

“I passed her in [Turns] 3 and 4, and then she had the momentum off the top and went back under me going down the front stretch,” he explained. “So I went just to kind of catch a side draft to make sure I was in position getting into Turn 1, and it didn’t hold me up when I got there because I was the one coming, and I just got too close and the car was moving around and we hit and she had a bad wreck.

“I felt really bad because it was far from anything than just trying to hold my position. I’ve never had an issue with Danica at all. It was an avoidable accident in the middle of the straightaway that was far from anything but just trying to hold my position that I had just gained.”

After the wreck, Patrick walked on a hot track, meaning cars were still circling the track. Additionally, she left safety workers and her car, which puts her in line for a penalty, according to the NASCAR rule book.

Patrick was seen walking onto the apron near the banking in the middle of Turns 1 and 2 just moments after the accident. She waved her hands in frustration, a notion that has been seen multiple times over the years.

NASCAR implemented a rule to prevent drivers from walking onto the racetrack during caution periods days after Kevin Ward, Jr. was struck and killed by Tony Stewart at a New York dirt track in Aug. 2014.

Last year, Trevor Bayne and Jennifer Jo Cobb were each fined for walking onto a hot track. Bayne was fined $20,000 for his incident, while Cobb’s penalty was $5,000.

“California is a wide racetrack, but we have to make sure that first and foremost the rules are in place to keep the drivers safe,” Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Vice President, said during an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR radio Monday. “We want to review everything that took place and see if there is anything we need to react to. We want to be liberal in terms of allowing drivers to express their opinion. But there is absolutely a line. We have that set out in our behavioral guide lines.”

About the author

Joseph started with Fronstretch in Aug. 2014 and worked his way up to become an editor in less than a year. A native of Whitestone, New York, Joseph writes for NASCAR Pole Position magazine as a weekly contributor, along with being a former intern at Newsday and the Times Beacon Record Newspapers, each on Long Island. With a focus on NASCAR, he runs our social media pages and writes the NASCAR Mailbox column, along with other features for the site.

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kb

She has done this overwrought drama routine before, and if memory serves nothing happened from the sanctioning body.

janice

if na$car wants to retain what little credibility they have they should fine her for walking up track. i’d say about $25,000 would be a good hit.

but of course, she is princess sparkle pony, and most of the rules don’t apply to her.

DoninAjax

She should get fined because she did something that has resulted in a fine. But this is NA$CAR. And Brian needs the money! Decisions, decisions! What would Vince McMahon do?

Doug Slay

Don’t take all the emotion out of racing….plate racing sucks bad enough >>>.

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