NNS: Patrick’s Bristol Debut Ends With Crash

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NNS: Patrick’s Bristol Debut Ends With Crash

Ryan Truex takes blame for Danica Patrick crash at Bristol Motor Speedway...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted March 20, 2011 Bristol, TN

Danica Patrick was unable to finish the Scotts EZ Seed 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

Danica Patrick said prior to the Scotts EZ Seed 300 that she would have been happy with a top-20 finish in her first race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The JR Motorsports driver ran in the top 20 until her day ended 55 laps early when she was involved in an accident with Ryan Truex.

Patrick was 17th, two laps down at the time of the incident, which saw her slam hard into the outside wall.

Two weeks after she finished fourth at Las Vegas for the highest finish of a female in a NASCAR national stock-car touring series event, Patrick wound up 33rd in her Bristol debut.

Before getting in the ambulance, Patrick walked toward Truex’s car as it circled the track under the caution and held up her arms.

“I felt like I got a run down the straight and it felt like he came into my right front,” Patrick said. “I don’t know exactly what happened.”

Truex was making his Bristol debut as well. The Pastrana-Waltrip Racing driver said the accident was his fault but that it was not intentional.

“I got loose, came off the wall, came down on her,” Truex said. “My fault. I didn’t mean to do it. If she’s mad, she’s mad. There’s nothing I can do about it now.

“I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry. I don’t know if she thinks if I did it on purpose or she was mad that it happened.”

Patrick was frustrated with Truex, saying it took her 20 laps at the beginning of the race to pass him.

“He just runs hard – he’s run hard every time I’ve been around him and it seems like overkill,” Patrick said. “If your car is good you’ll go forward, if your car isn’t, you’ll go back and that’s just a lot of NASCAR.”

Truex said he just made a mistake.

“It was my first time here,” Truex said. “I’m learning just as much as she is. I guess it was a rookie mistake by me. Sorry.”

The 19-year-old Truex said he had to choose between slapping the wall and trying to squeeze through and he ended up making contact with Patrick.

“We were fighting loose through the center and off [the corner] the whole day,” Truex said. “It was really hard to drive on long runs and I was just trying to hold on to it for another pit stop so we can work on it.

“I was just real free off the corner, and we came off there side-by-side, and I got kicked out sideways. I just had to bring it down to keep it off the wall and she was down there. I hate it for her. She was probably having a good run.”

Danica Patrick was unable to finish the Scotts EZ Seed 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. (Photo: Getty Images)

She was, as far as she was concerned. Patrick won’t be back in a Nationwide car for JR Motorsports until June as she prepares to concentrate on her full-time IndyCar Series schedule.

“It would have been nice to get the finish, especially not being back for a couple of months, but I think [crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr. gave me the best car of the weekend in the race and that accident … I don’t really know. I have to see the replay,” said Patrick, who will drive in 12 Nationwide races this year. “It might have been one of those things.”

Patrick, the only woman to lead a lap in the Indianapolis 500, had a fairly solid day going before the incident.

“I’m definitely disappointed,” Patrick said. “It would have been nice to finish this race at Bristol.

“We got pretty far. We were having a pretty decent race for our first time here – definitely the best that I’ve been on a short oval for the first time at it. … I would have liked to have finished. I’m always disappointed to crash a car.”