A solid day for Danica Patrick turned sour as Sunday's event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway entered the final 100 laps when a heavy crash caused a red flag and ended her race early.
The Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Chevrolet of Patrick, who was running on the fringes of the top 10, was turned sideways on Lap 203 after contact from the No. 31 Chevrolet of Ryan Newman. Newman and Jeff Gordon were in close quarters to her inside, and their tight battle spilled over into Patrick's racing line.
Patrick's car slid down off the Turn 1 retaining wall directly into the path of David Ragan's No. 55 Toyota, which careened off the rear deck of Patrick's No. 10.
"I got really, really hit," Patrick told her crew, who tried to explain to her that Gordon was at fault as much as Newman.
"It's such a shame," said Patrick, who finished 40th. "We were having a good race and the car was definitely pretty decent. We took two tires on that last stop and it was definitely a little bit too loose, but I was kind of waiting for it to come to me and Newman has always been super fair and I know that he was working to get by me. But, it sounds like maybe Jeff got into him, or something. It's that time of year. It's the Chase and people are racing hard and they want everything they can get, and maybe Jeff couldn't see exactly where he was in relationship to the No. 31 (Newman) and me. But I did not get the good end of the stick."
The contact and extensive spray of debris forced the race under red-flag conditions for 6 minutes and 4 seconds, after 204 of a scheduled 300 laps. The track was littered with impact-absorbing foam after contact pried open the right-side sheet metal on Ragan's car.
Ragan, who wound up 41st in the 43-car field, said he had little chance to avoid Patrick's car as it slid down into his path.
"I don't know what happened to her, but typically when you hit the wall you hold onto the brakes, you lock it down -- you try not to come back across the track." Ragan said. "I saw her coming back down and I was trying. I didn't want to lock my brakes up because I knew I would hit her, so I was trying to just get it as low as I could and just couldn't get it as low as I needed to. Unfortunate to get involved in a wreck like that. I really hate it from our Michael Waltrip Racing Aaron's Toyota team. We had a rocky start to the race with a loose wheel and unscheduled green flag pit stop, but we had kind of gotten back our mojo that last run and got back on the lead lap.
"Just one of those deals. I hate it for everybody that works on these race cars. We needed a good finish today, but I wish that she would have locked her brakes up and would have stayed up on the wall."
Patrick was able to drive away from the crash, but reported to the infield care center on her own, primarily to check her carbon monoxide levels.
"I feel like for a month now I have been asking about it because sometimes after the race I get a headache," Patrick said. "I just talked to the doctor in there and they said that could happen very easily from dehydration. It seemed like a little bit more than that to me, but it makes sense. We sweat like crazy in these cars. Just got to take my hydration game up a notch, I guess. I feel fine."