Danica Patrick's NASCAR career comes to an end in a giant wreck

By Dave Kovaleski February 19, 2018 at 8:15am

Danica Patrick’s NASCAR career came to an end Sunday at the Daytona 500, and not in the way she hoped it would.

On the 101st lap, Brad Keselowski tried to go around Chase Elliot, who was running second. Elliott, in the No. 9 car, moved to block Keselowski and made contact with Keselowski, causing Elliott to spin out.

The crash not only ended Keselowski’s and Elliott’s day, it also took out Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne and Patrick in the process, who were all further back in the pack.

Elliott took the blame after the race. “I didn’t make the right move,” he said.

Another BIG one. #DAYTONA500 https://t.co/q5ThlqQpPF

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 18, 2018

For Patrick, it marked an uneventful end to her groundbreaking NASCAR career.

“I said earlier today that I feel like the whole thing was picture perfect with GoDaddy on the car … but it just wasn’t meant to be I guess today,” Patrick said.

Patrick, 35, did not have a team to drive for this season. She announced last year that the Daytona 500 would be her final NASCAR race.

After a successful career on the Indy Car circuit, where she became the only female to ever win an Indy Car race — the Japan 300 in 2008 — Patrick made the move to NASCAR in 2012.

Danica Patrick ends NASCAR career with no wins, seven top 10 finishes in 191 races (3.6% of the time) pic.twitter.com/tMgJ772NOW

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) February 18, 2018

Patrick’s NASCAR career got off to a great start, winning the pole position at the 2013 Daytona 500, making her first woman to win a pole position in a NASCAR cup race. She didn’t win that year, finishing 8th.

Patrick never won a NASACR cup race, but had seven top-10 finishes, the most of any woman ever. She also holds the record among women for the most starts and most laps led.

“That’s the gamble about Daytona is it can go so well and it can go so awful,” Patrick said after the race.

While it was her final race in NASCAR, Patrick still has one more race to compete in before driving off into the sunset. She will race in the Indianapolis 500 on May 27.

“I had such a fast Camaro ZL1 today, and I just wanted a shot there at the end. I hate that we didn’t have that opportunity.” — @chaseelliott pic.twitter.com/xBSfPeT1cB

— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) February 18, 2018

Sunday’s race was marred by several big crashes. In addition to the Elliott crash, Jimmie Johnson, Erik Jones, William Byron, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr and Ty Dillon were all caught up in a crash on lap 60.

And on the final lap, leader Aric Almirola hit the wall, opening the door for eventual winner Austin Dillon to win the race.

.@austindillon3 wins the 60th #DAYTONA500 in a thriller! pic.twitter.com/cMXO0glmIl

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) February 18, 2018

It was Dillon’s first win at the Daytona 500.

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Dave Kovaleski

Contributor, Sports

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Dave is a lifelong sports fan who has been writing for The Wildcard since 2017. He has been a writer for more than 20 years for a variety of publications.

Dave has been writing about sports for The Wildcard since 2017. He's been a reporter and editor for over 20 years, covering everything from sports to financial news. In addition to writing for The Wildcard, Dave has covered mutual funds for Pensions and Investments, meetings and conventions, money market funds, personal finance, associations, and he currently covers financial regulations and the energy sector for Macallan Communications. He has won awards for both news and sports reporting.

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