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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Crash ends Patrick’s day at Indy


Danica Patrick walks toward Ryan Briscoe's pit after a collision between the two drivers during the Indianapolis 500. Associated Press
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

After spending much of the afternoon giving her own mechanics an earful, a late crash left Danica Patrick looking like she was ready to fight another driver’s pit crew.

Patrick already was having a disappointing day in Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 when driver Ryan Briscoe ran into her on pit road late in the race, causing her car to rumble to a halt at the end of pit road in Indianapolis.

A furious Patrick then got out and purposefully strode toward Briscoe’s pit for what was shaping up as a confrontation with his crew. But track security personnel intervened and directed her back to her own pit area.

With that, all the hype and momentum Patrick carried into the race didn’t mean a thing. Even before the crash, Patrick had spent much of the race complaining about her car.

“I am SLOW!,” Patrick protested over her in-car radio with about 60 laps left. “I am DAMN SLOW!”

Patrick made the leap to legitimacy with an IndyCar series victory earlier this season, but she’ll have to wait a year for another shot at Indianapolis 500 stardom.

Patrick’s complaints about her car started early, and her crew made a wing adjustment intended to give her car more top-end speed. That helped boost her to eighth place at the race’s halfway point.

But Patrick struggled to hang onto her position from there, and was warned by Indy Racing League officials not to weave back and forth to keep Helio Castroneves from passing her with 80 laps remaining in the race.

Then she launched into her team again for giving her a car that just wasn’t fast enough, but seemed to disprove her own point when she climbed to sixth on a re-start. Then the crash ended her day.

Patrick wasn’t considered a favorite going into Sunday’s race, despite all the attention and momentum. She qualified fifth, but didn’t seem to have the speed to match the Ganassi team cars driven by Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon in practice this month.