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Patrick rebounds after accident
11/05/2008 14:14 - (SA)
Indianapolis - Danica Patrick put a frightening incident in which she hit a crewman from another team with her car in pit lane behind her to qualify on the second row of the grid for the Indianapolis 500 on Saturday.
Patrick had been in tears on Friday after hitting Chuck Buckman and sending him flipping over her car and onto his face.
Buckman, who was hospitalised with a concussion and cuts to his face, was expected to return to duty as chief mechanic for Mario Moraes at Dale Coyne Racing in a few days.
And Patrick on Saturday got back to the business of trying to capture pole position for the 92nd Indianapolis 500 on May 25.
She didn't quite manage it, settling for fifth on the grid, the middle of the second row.
She got some words of encouragement from fellow driver Tony Kanaan of Brazil, her teammate at Andretti Green Racing who is the leader of the team.
'Keep your head up'
"I came back and I watched the video," Kanaan said. "When I came in, she had tears in her eyes, so I hugged her and she cried a little more, so maybe that was a bad move on my behalf.
"I said, 'Let it go.' She was like, 'He has a family.' I said, 'It wasn't your fault.' I said he's going to get better. There is not a lot you can say. I said, 'You've got to keep your head straight.' I said, 'Go talk to his team, call his family.'"
Patrick, who addressed the media on Friday night after the incident and said that she would not discuss the situation any further, was more interested in getting a chance to start up front for the biggest race of the season.
"Getting a pole here is like winning a race somewhere else," Patrick said. "I was a little bit worried going in (to the qualifying run) just wondering what was going to come of it because I hadn't done a full qualifying simulation. So that was a little bit intimidating.
"We obviously have a pretty quick car. It was nice to start off qualifying like this. My run wasn't perfect and the last two laps fell off for a reason, and we need to fix that."
Patrick, who won in Japan last month to become the first woman to win a race in a major series, had hoped to have another run on Saturday, but changing weather conditions and increasing wind prompted her team to decide it wouldn't be fruitful.
"These are not super easy," Patrick said of qualifying attempts at Indy. "This track is very difficult when the car is not balanced right. It's intimidating, it's scary, it's difficult. We run on such a knife-edge here. When you tip over the edge, it's very difficult."
The first 11 spots in the line-up were on offer Saturday with the next 11 to be decided Sunday. Next weekend will see the final spots filled and then have the slowest qualifiers bumped from the lineup.
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Rugby
