{"id":14830,"date":"2018-02-18T20:37:02","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T02:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=14830"},"modified":"2018-02-18T20:37:02","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T02:37:02","slug":"an-emotional-danica-patrick-bids-farewell-to-nascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/18\/an-emotional-danica-patrick-bids-farewell-to-nascar\/","title":{"rendered":"An emotional Danica Patrick bids farewell to NASCAR"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 There was no mistaking the love. Danica Patrick<\/strong> got one of the largest applauses when introduced for Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 \u2013 her last NASCAR<\/a> race \u2013 and then made her ceremonial lap around the famous Daytona International Speedway soaking in the cheers, and good wishes and genuinely moved by the standing ovation she received from the sold-out crowd.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Danica Patrick, driver of the #7 GoDaddy Chevrolet, races at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately her time in the race car ended a lap past the halfway mark of NASCAR\u2019s greatest race as she was collected in a multicar accident that also ended the day for race favorites Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick among others.<\/p>\n

Patrick was uncharacteristically emotional \u2013 wiping away tears even \u2013 when she announced last November that she would run this final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup race. But ever the focused competitor, she managed a smile and logical dissection of her day when speaking to the media after her crash.<\/p>\n

She seemed at peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just wasn’t meant to be today,” Patrick said after getting the \u201call-clear\u201d from Daytona\u2019s infield care center. I am proud. We raced the whole race other than a little bit at the end of that first stage when it looked silly with all the cars with tires and no tires.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than that, we raced it and the car was competitive. That is all you can do. That is the gamble at Daytona. It can go so well, and it can go so awful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m grateful for everything. Thank you to all the fans. Still have one more. It is not a stock car, but still have one more.”<\/p>\n

Her crew chief Tony Eury Jr. came out off the sideline specifically to work with Patrick again as she closed out her NASCAR career \u2013 a proper bookend to the pairing. The two had been together when Patrick first started racing stock cars, even as she was completing her IndyCar career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want things to end like that,” Eury said, standing in the garage with the Premium Motorsports crew next to Patrick\u2019s damaged car. \u201cDefinitely one of our biggest goals was just to come in here and finish the race and if we could get a solid top-10 that was great, a win – that\u2019s a story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first wreck they had, she was running in the back of the field and I saw them dicing and I told her, \u2018get away from them, they\u2019re getting ready to do something\u2019 and they did.”<\/p>\n

Eury said he was touched that Patrick asked him to lead her final NASCAR effort – officially a 35th-place finish, for the record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just shows me I made an impact on her driving career in NASCAR and it makes me feel really good,” Eury said. \u201cI told her I was really honored that she asked me to come to do this deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole deal coming down here was we\u2019re going to have fun and try to run the best we can and she had a lot of confidence I would bring her a good Daytona 500 car and everybody here at Premium is really good as far as making this happen really quick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were right where we needed to be but had to finish to pull it off.<\/p>\n

As pre-race festivities winded down earlier in the day before Patrick\u2019s final NASCAR green flag, Patrick stood alongside her bright green No. 7 GoDaddy Chevrolet on the starting grid, surrounded by family and close friends. Her parents Bev and TJ were there, as was her new boyfriend, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers and her sister Brooke and Brooke\u2019s two young daughters.<\/p>\n

Patrick enthusiastically posed for photographs with her loved ones in front of her car and seemed truly at ease with the big day. Rogers gave her a kiss just before she slid her long hair into a ponytail and climbed into the car.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny story is when she first started at 10, I told my wife, \u2018she\u2019s going to change racing,\u2019 her proud father said while standing beside her car on the starting grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in racing my whole life and I saw that she was different.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s done a lot. Would we like to have better results? I think every driver would.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully this has opened the door for some little kids but mainly what I feel is, you don\u2019t have to be a girl, it could be the boys, but [she\u2019s shown] you can do whatever you like if you really, really, REALLY try.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 There was no mistaking the love. Danica Patrick got one of the largest applauses when introduced for Sunday\u2019s Daytona 500 \u2013 her last NASCAR race \u2013 and then made her ceremonial lap around the famous Daytona International Speedway soaking in the cheers, and good wishes and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[411,42,287,16],"class_list":["post-14830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-danica-patrick","tag-daytona-500","tag-daytona-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-3Rc","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14437,"url":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/22\/danica-patrick-announces-full-plan-for-final-nascar-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":14830,"position":0},"title":"Danica Patrick announces full plan for final NASCAR start","author":"Mike Haag","date":"January 22, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"By Holly Cain,\u00a0NASCAR Wire Service Only four days after confirming that her longtime sponsor GoDaddy would sponsor her final Daytona 500 attempt next month, Danica Patrick announced Monday she will make that last NASCAR start driving the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro with Premium Motorsports. 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