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Patrick finishes sixth in stock car debut at Daytona

Sat 6th, February 2010

Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - Danica Patrick had an impressive performance in her stock car racing debut Saturday at Daytona International Speedway, finishing sixth despite spinning during the mid-stages of the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 ARCA race.

Patrick, who has become the center of attention in the opening days of Speedweeks at Daytona, started 12th and held her pace until lap 54 when former Formula One star Nelson Piquet Jr. tapped her right front fender and put her into a spin on the frontstretch. She managed not to hit anything before her No.7 Chevrolet slid on the infield grass.

After pitting twice for repairs during the caution, Patrick restarted at the tail end of the lead lap but charged through the field within the final 15 laps before nipping Ricky Carmichael at the line to finish sixth. She became the highest finishing female in a race at Daytona since Shawna Robinson's second-place run here in the 1999 ARCA event.

"I was pretty excited to go from last back to the top-five again, and then I jumped up high again, and I said, 'Whatever, there's eight to go, who cares, let's go.'"

Patrick -- the most popular star in the IndyCar Series -- could make her first Nationwide Series start in next week's season-opener. A decision on her Nationwide debut at Daytona is expected within the next few days. Patrick is running a partial schedule in NASCAR's second-tier series for JR Motorsports this year.

"The car felt really good, so that was pretty fun," she added.

Bobby Gerhart won the 80-lap ARCA season-opener, claiming his sixth victory at Daytona. Gerhart ran the final 65 laps around the 2.5-mile superspeedway without pitting.

"We calculated what little time we had that we could run 66 laps," Gerhart said. "You look at the cautions, and it just didn't do that. I did everything I could."

Mark Thompson finished second, followed by John Wes Townley, James Buescher and Patrick Sheltra. Townley and Buescher are expected to run a full schedule in Nationwide this season.