NASCAR Nationwide Series
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NNS: Patrick Starts, Finishes 12th
Danica Patrick ended the Las Vegas NASCAR Nationwide Series race exactly where she started...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted March 10, 2012   Las Vegas, NV
Danica Patrick didn’t have a great run in Saturday’s Sam’s Town 300, but she had a decent one, finishing 12th in her No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. That was her best finish of the still-young NASCAR Nationwide Series season, which is just three races old.

But considering she had her career-best Nationwide finish here a year ago, when she finished fourth, Patrick wasn’t totally satisfied with where she ended the day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I guess today was one of those days where I feel like the results probably don’t show for kind of how I felt in the car,” said Patrick. “It was definitely loose to start, but once we got that together then in the middle of the race it was really coming to me, and then it got tight in the end.”

And that made for a mixed result in Patrick’s mind.

“You know what? It was a solid day,” said Patrick. “You know, I wish I could have gotten in the top 10, because that was my goal, but there really wasn’t much I could do about that. I was trying.”

Patrick, who came into the race 21st in points, started from the 12th position. After the first caution on Lap 12 and the subsequent round of pit stops, she was back to 18th.

During the second caution on Lap 27 for a Kyle Busch spin, Patrick lost more spots, dropping to 23rd. Early on, Patrick was complaining her car was loose, making it extremely difficult to drive.

But at the one-quarter distance of the race, she starting making progress, and was up to 16th by Lap 60.

At halfway, Patrick was up to 10th, her best position of the day, after a series of adjustments by crew chief Tony Eury Jr. to tighten her car up.

And with 60 laps to go, Patrick was eighth, right behind teammate Cole Whitt. Shortly thereafter, T.J. Bell ran out of gas, causing another caution. A great stop by the JR Motorsports crew got Patrick out in sixth position, giving her team optimism of another great Las Vegas finish.

But Patrick slipped back on the restart, falling to 11th by Lap 153. With only 15 cars on the lead lap, Patrick pitted under caution after a caution for Jeremy Clements’ spin on Lap 156, taking fuel and getting a chassis adjustment but no tires.

She re-entered the race 14th and was up to 12th by Lap 178. And that’s where she would end her race, scoring her best finish of 2012.

“I wasn’t able to vary my line very much so that’s something I have to work on and I know that,” Patrick said.

Overall? “Solid day for the GoDaddy car,” said Patrick. “Not a groundbreaking day but a lot better than last weekend.”

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
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