After qualifying faster than any Indy 500 winner in the field, Danica Patrick looks forward to her farewell performance.
Danica Patrick is in the final race of her racing career. This will be the Indy 500 next Sunday (May 27th) and in their personal "Danica Double" to end the career it will be the second and final part.
After Patrick Part 1 - the NASCAR's Daytona 500 in February - was anything but successful, at least the starting position for Part 2 is much better. In the Indy 500, Patrick starts with her bright green # 13 Carpenter-Chevrolet from seventh on the grid and thus from the inside lane of the third row.
On "Pole Day" at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Patrick alone left behind two former Indy 500 winners in their qualifying group - the top 9 of Saturday. Because Scott Dixon, the winner of 2008, finished with his # 9 Ganassi Honda in ninth as the slowest in the top 9 from. And Helio Castroneves, who was still the provisional pole sitter after Saturday, managed only eighth on Sunday with his # 3 Penske-Chevrolet. The four other Indy 500 winners in the field (Alexander Rossi, Tony Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takuma Sato) had beaten Patrick already on Saturday regarding the starting position.
Four final qualifying laps just not boring
"We did not have much to lose from the start," said Patrick, having already qualified for one of the first three rows on Saturday. "I knew it would be okay if something did not go completely wrong," the 36-year-old explains her feeling before her last qualifying session on Sunday, confessing: "Nevertheless, I was quite nervous."
"I had a lot of understeers and a lap at the beginning of Turn 1, which was the only part of the four laps that was not boring," Patrick had already emphasized on the seventh grid position right after her ride, adding, "I'm satisfied, ECR (Ed Carpenter Racing) was a fantastic start and it's time to start the race. "
What is the starting number 13?
Patrick's ECR team-mates Ed Carpenter and Spencer Pigot start from pole position and sixth, respectively. The Indianapolis-based team, for which Patrick is the one-time rider, has all three cars in the top 7 of the grid.
With what feelings is Patrick now in her farewell performance? "I have no tears in my eyes," she says a week before she gets out of the cockpit for the last time. As a reminder, when Patrick announced half a year ago at Homestead just before the 2017 NASCAR season finale that she would be driving only the Daytona 500 and the Indy 500 in 2018 to end her career, she was in tears.
The big question is: Will Patrick bring # 13 in the last race of her career luck or bad luck?
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