Yep, Danica Patrick wrecks again: Regan Smith puts her into the Bristol wall
You can love Danica Patrick or you can hate her, but you can't argue that she hasn't had some really rough luck this season. After a miserable practice session in which she consistently brought up the rear of the pack, timing-wise, Patrick ran decently at Bristol largely by keeping her head while everyone around her lost theirs. She was on the verge of a top-20 finish — not the stuff of which legends are made, but not what we'd have expected from that practice session, either — when contact with Regan Smith on lap 435 sent her into the wall and into a fury.
"This is Bristol, and this is why people love this track is because you see a lot of that and you see tempers flare," she said afterward. "The team did a great job and everything was running really smoothly. So it's a shame that we lost that. But you know, Bristol is a place where you find out who's playing fair and who's not."
[Related: Tony Stewart flings helmet at Matt Kenseth]
Her team was far less diplomatic, cursing over the radio and vowing revenge on Smith.
Smith, for his part, was contrite: "I just pushed up into her," he told SB Nation. "Trust me when I say this: No one wants to be the guy who wrecked Danica."
Patrick punctuated her anger by angrily wagging her finger at Smith. That was unfortunate; she should have joined her boss Tony Stewart in flinging a helmet. If she'd connected, she'd instantly gain legions of new fans.
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