Danica Ready to Rumble at Indy
May 27, 2008 by Tim Zaegel
Filed under Racing
Image details: 92nd Indianapolis 500 served by picapp.com
Making her fourth Indianapolis 500 appearance this past Sunday, Danica Patrick started the race from the fifth position, but was taken out of contention on lap 171 of the 200 lap event when the no. 6 Team Penske car of Ryan Briscoe got into her as they attempted to exit pit road. The damage that the incident left on Danica’s car was too extensive for her to continue on, and she was left with a 22nd place finish after running up around the top-ten for most of the day.
Following the accident, Danica stormed out of her wrecked race car and immediately went looking for Briscoe’s pit as she proceeded to remove her gloves. The confrontation was stopped short by track security, and eventually cooler heads prevailed before it could progress any further.
“I was ready to take it all off, my helmet and everything, because it’s hard to talk through the helmet,” she said following the race. “It’s probably a better idea that I didn’t make it all the way down there anyway because, well, as you guys know, I’m a little emotional.”
After watching the replays on video, Briscoe remains adament that he left Danica plent of room, and was unwilling to offer up any sort of an apology. This could be a feud to keep an eye on as the series heads to the Milwuakee Mile on June 1st. After four attempts now, Danica’s best Indianapolis finish remains to be her fourth place run in her rookie season back in 2005.
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Wish I had gotten to see it. I like to see Danica walking around with her feathers ruffled up. You can’t argue her desire to win.
I don’t like her at all! I don’t watch Indy, but I just don’t like seeing these girl racers. I’m a girl, but a guy is more interesting to watch in this kind of sport.
I can’t blame Danica for her anger after being knocked out of contention. She wasn’t going to win, but could have had a nice top 10 finish. She gave the IRL some greatly needed attention when she tried to make her way down to Briscoe’s pit. Positive or negative attention, it is still attention that the series and the driver needs to remain successful.
it woulda been cool if the track security didnt break it up. danica was going to hit him i think!!!
Cesar, I completely agree with the “attention” factor. It’s no different than the kind of heat that guys like Kyle Busch or Tony Stewart (a few years ago) have brought to NASCAR. It gives people something to talk about, and sometimes that’s all it takes.
And, TrackHazard, yes, nobody’s ever denied Danica’s passion for a win.
I don’t think he left her any room.. the video I found on youtube isn’t the same angle they showed on TV, but it looks like he plowed out into her…
Too bad the officials were there.. we could’a had some interesting news to chat about if she kicked someone’s butt.
If you do a search on youtube for “danica patrick ryan briscoe” you’ll get a few hits.. one has an interview of her, but a bad angle on the hit.
Another one is a fan video and you can hear the crowd start to cheer as she heads off to Briscoe’s pit.. they were waitin’ for someone to ‘throw down’!
Who’d a thunk that of IRL fans!?
Bruce, in every clip that I saw of the accident, I’m in full agreement with you. To say that he didn’t leave her any room is an understatement … it looked like he’d never tried pulling out of a pitbox before. Bonehead move.
She is now going for F1. The rumors are that she will be allowed a chance to test drive for the Honda F1 team. Nothing is official yet but, I thinks she will get the chance.
I wonder if trying to get Danica inside an F1 car is Honda’s answer to fending off anything Toyota might try to do with Kyle Busch?