I think (crew chief) Tony Gibson and the Florida Lottery/GoDaddy guys build really good cars. "It's where my first stock-car start was in 2010 and I actually have a lot of experience there. "I always like going there," said Patrick. That said, Patrick is very comfortable at the venerable 2.5-mile, high-banked Daytona track.
But, hopefully, we'll have a good car and a good plan and make it work."
It just sort of happens if you are in the right place. I remember asking Jimmie Johnson after he won the 2013 Daytona 500 what his plan was and he said there really wasn't any plan. "A lot of the time, it's out of your control. "That's what's tough about restrictor-plate racing," said Patrick. We had the speed with it at Talladega but just couldn't do anything in the final laps."Īnd there is the rub at Daytona and Talladega: While it's important to have a fast race car, so much of where you finish depends on getting good drafting help. "It's the same chassis we won the pole with at Daytona last year so, hopefully, it has some of that speed," she said. Without question, Patrick is optimistic that there will be speed in her car this week. 10 SHR Chevrolet SS will have a different look this weekend, with the orange and pink colors of the Florida Lottery joining the traditional GoDaddy green, part of a two-race sponsor deal that also will include the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. And, of course, thanks to the no-minimum-ride-height rule, the chassis setups are very different than they were a year ago. This time out at Daytona, knockout qualifying will be in place for the first time in a Sprint Cup race here. Lots of other things have changed from a year ago Saturday night under the lights, she'll be looking to build on those efforts, as she returns to Daytona in Stewart-Haas Racing Chassis 10-758, the very same one that was underneath her for her Daytona 500 pole run last year.īut that's one of the few constants. Patrick then followed that excellent run with a still-respectable 14th in last year's Coke Zero 400 at DIS. Although she got shuffled back to eighth on the last lap, it was still a successful outing. In that race, she ran competitively all afternoon, leading five laps and taking the white flag in third place. Last year as a rookie, Patrick stunned the racing world by winning the pole for the Daytona 500.
#ROLANDO RODRIGUEZ GODADDY SERIES#
In a little more than one-and-a-half seasons of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, Daytona International Speedway is still the high-water mark of Danica Patrick's brief stock-car career.