Danica Patrick fine after car crashes during race

Danica Patrick heads to infield medical center after crashing during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race March 3, 2013, in Avondale, Ariz. / AP

AVONDALE, Ariz. Danica Patrick had one of the hardest hits of her career when her car slammed into the wall at Phoenix International Raceway on Sunday, but she walked away uninjured.

Running 26th with just over 100 laps left, Patrick blew a right front tire coming around turn 4 and slammed the right side of her car into the wall. She careened back onto the track and was hit hard again by David Ragan, flipping her hood over the windshield and shredding the left front fender as protective foam flew from the driver's side door.

Patrick coasted to a stop near the inside wall with pieces of her car strewn across half the home straightaway. A smoking chunk of tire also flew into pit lane.

Patrick climbed out of her car and was quickly cleared by the infield care center.

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"Whenever those right-fronts go, they always hit hard because you don't broadside, you hit more straight on," Patrick said. "It took a hard hit both sides and I'm fine, so NASCAR is doing a good job at safety. But no real good warning. The car wasn't all that tight and most of the (problems) were in the rear, so there was no real vibration that told me that was going to happen."

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Danica Patrick

Patrick became the first woman to win a Sprint Cup pole and lead green-flag laps at the Daytona 500 last week, sending her popularity into a new realm. She struggled with her car in qualifying at Phoenix, starting 40th, and had to make some major adjustments during the race after reporting vibrations in the rear near the midpoint.

"For me, it s--ks to lose the points," she said. "Everybody works hard and after last weekend, we just wanted to get these three races to get some solid points to re-establish the garage area. We're parked in the dirt this weekend, so I really wanted my guys to get into the garage area. We'll just have to get it at Vegas."

With not enough stalls at Phoenix, rookie Patrick's team had to work outside the garage area.

Carl Edwards won the race.

[rmm26a]

The only part about this story I don't like is that she is fine.

[destruk3]

OOH! Does this mean she made history AGAIN - this time as the first female driver to damage her car in a NASCAR race? She is just racking up the historical pages in groundbreaking auto racing! WOOHOO!

[jarhead1986]

Yawn, Danica loses yet another race. She is the Anna Kournikova of racing, except Anna didn't look like a little boy with long hair.

[[oweghn]

How many cars can Go Daddy afford?

[jeffinpa1234]

Love the headline.... car crashes during race.....as if the car had a mind of it's own and just decided thats it time to crash.

Maybe just maybe the driver had some inputs to assist the crash like gas or brake or steering.....but no we can't have that ....it places blame on the driver.

Maybe NASCAR should change it's name to DCAR as all we ever get is info on Danica....

[Louie_K1]

Let me get this straight. Danica does not even finish the race, places in 39th, and she gets a full story written. Yet, the winner, his first in 70 races, get's nothing. What in SAM BLAZE'S is going on here.

[bobnjersey]

[With not enough stalls at Phoenix, rookie Patrick's team had to work outside the garage area.]
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well ... it's not a garage area if they're not in the garage.

why do they even have a nascar race at this track if they can't accommodate the number of drivers that are in the field?

[38hazle38]

Because ISC owns it