Mr. E
Team Owner
Date: March 1, 2015
Event: Folds of Honor 500 (Round 2 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway (1.54-mile oval)}
Start/Finish: 18th/16th (Running, completed 324 of 325 laps)
Point Standing: 16th (51 points)
Winner: Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Danica Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), finished 16th in Sunday’s Folds of Honor 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway after fighting an electrical fire and ongoing handling issues.
Patrick started the race from the 18th position and was scored in 30th when she radioed to the team that there was smoke in the ****pit of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet. Shortly thereafter she noted that she could see flames under the dashboard. Patrick attempted to contain the fire, and as crew chief Daniel Knost radioed for her to come to pit road so the team could assess the situation, the caution flag waved. As the field made its way around the track, Patrick told the team that the fire was out but the car’s tachometer was no longer working.
The source of the flames was deemed to be a small electrical fire, which quickly extinguished itself but left Patrick without a read on her car’s RPMs. The tachometer is utilized in part to identify a proper speed for pit road, and without it a driver could easily speed down pit road and face penalties or not go fast enough and lose positions. The GoDaddy team quickly rallied together to determine a solution to the problem. They had Patrick take note of her oil pressure and used that as a rough gauge for the proper speed for pit road during the remainder of the race.
In the midst of that issue, the team faced another problem: Whenever they would put tape on the grille of the car, it either would not stick at all or it would come off in the middle of a run due to the cold temperature and humidity. In either instance, without the tape on the grille Patrick’s No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet would instantly develop a tight-handling condition.
Despite the difficulties the team faced, Patrick cracked the top-15 at lap 199 by passing Jeff Gordon and ran as high as 14th before a subsequent cycle of green-flag pit stops. The caution flag waved several laps after the No. 10 team pitted and left Patrick a lap down to the leader. She worked to put herself in contention for the “Lucky Dog” award to get her lap back, but her efforts were thwarted each time the caution flag waved again in the closing laps of the race.
When the field took the green flag with 14 laps to go, Patrick was scored in the 15th position, still a lap down to the leader. She lost a spot on the restart and noted the car was “tight off the corner” on the final run. She wasn’t able to make up any ground and took the checkered flag in the 16th position.
“I’d have to say one of our biggest problems today was that the tape kept coming off the front (end of the car),” Patrick said. “The tape was making me handle. I needed all of it. It wasn’t only running pretty cool, but the tape helps front downforce. It was pretty noticeable when the tape came off. That happened at the end and also happened in the middle of the race when I went that lap down. By all means, I was very tight in that run, but that was our biggest problem today as far as a better result goes.
“It happened, and we all kept our wits about ourselves and kept digging. I feel like we made a lot of progress as a team this weekend. I think we would’ve been on the lead lap if the tape would have stayed on. We didn’t get our lap back at the end, but we got a solid result and it’s been a decent start to the year.”
Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet SS, led the four-car SHR contingent Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway by finishing second in the Folds of Honor 500.
Harvick had to come from the back of the 43-car field after the team made an engine change during final practice on Saturday. He wound up leading six times for a race-high 116 laps en route to his sixth top-five in 25 career Sprint Cup starts at Atlanta.
Harvick, the reigning Sprint Cup champion, has picked up right where he left off in 2014. He finished second in the season-opening Daytona 500 last Sunday, and the runner-up finish at Atlanta marked the fifth-straight race Harvick has finished second or better. Dating back to Texas Motor Speedway in November, Harvick has finished second, first, first, second and second.
Regan Smith, interim driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished right behind Patrick in 17th.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for SHR, finished 30th after getting caught up in a multicar accident late in the race.
Jimmie Johnson won the Folds of Honor 500 to score his 71st career Sprint Cup victory, his first of the season and his fourth at Atlanta.
Harvick finished 1.802 seconds behind Johnson in the runner-up spot, while Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five. Martin Truex Jr., AJ Allmendinger, Brett Moffitt, Brad Keselowski and Ryan Newman comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were 10 caution periods for 54 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 325-lap race.
With round two of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship point standings. He is third with 86 points, two points behind first-place Logano. Patrick is 16th with 51 points, 37 out of first. Stewart is 35th with 16 points, 72 out of first. Smith didn’t accumulate any points because he is a fulltime driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
