Patrick Fumes After Late Pit Hit
INDIANAPOLIS _ Like A.J. Foyt before her, Danica Patrick went hunting at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday.
Her prey: Ryan Briscoe, the young Australian driver in his first Indy 500 for Team Penske.
Patrick, who had complained over the radio of a slow car all day, was incensed at being hit by Briscoe on Lap 171 while exiting the pits, ending her day_she finished 22nd _ and her shot at her first 500 victory.
After climbing from her No. 7 Motorola Dallara/Honda, she marched down pit lane looking for Briscoe, who was still in his car. With her handlers in hot pursuit, Patrick almost reached Briscoe before track security and officials escorted her away.
“I was going down pit lane, and as people pull out of their pit boxes, if you are in the outside lane, then they have to wait to blend in,” said Patrick, the immensely popular Andretti Green Racing driver. “From what I know, it looked like it was pretty obvious what happened. What are you going to do? The guys worked so hard today. You just don’t come out of your pit box and swing three lanes out. That why there’s a `get up to speed’ lane and an `at speed’ lane. I was at speed.”
Did Patrick want to say something to Briscoe?
“We will see if he can find me first,” she said.
Briscoe, who finished 23rd , had his own view of the incident:
“From what I can see, there was still plenty of room on the right side for her to get around and there are people pointing fingers, but that’s not the way we are. We both have a brake pedal in our cars.”
MORE BAD LUCK: Tony Kanaan’s Indy jinx continued Sunday.
Leading the 500, Kanaan went high on Lap 106, brushed the Turn 3 wall and spun into the path of Sarah Fisher , who t-boned him hard.
Kanaan, who has controlled the race in the past only to be snake bit, felt teammate Marco Andretti dived under him and forced him up on the track and into the marbles.
Kanaan, an Andretti Green Racing veteran, was fuming after the incident, which took both Fisher (Sarah Fisher Racing) and he out of the race.
“It was a stupid move (by Marco),” said Kanaan, who led Lap 100 in both last year’s race and Sunday’s. “I think teammates shouldn’t do that to teammates. I’m sure he’ll have a good explanation of what he did. Halfway through the race with a bunch of traffic, why are you going to dive into me like that? I will wait to see what he has to say.”
Kanaan was credited with 29th place , while Fisher ended up 30th .
FOYT ON FIRE: Fire became A.J. Foyt IV’s worst enemy at Indy Sunday for the second occasion this month.
Foyt’s No. 2 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda erupted into flames during a botched fuel stop on Lap 39.
Ethanol spilled on to the side of Foyt’s car and his helmet. Luckily, the pit crew sprayed Foyt with foam, dousing the blaze. He rejoined the race and finished 21st .
During Bump Day practice, Foyt’ crashed heavily after a malfunction with his fuel system caused ethanol to spill on to his engine and tires. Foyt, the grandson of four-time 500 champion A.J. Foyt , was slightly burned on the neck.
IN THE PITS: Fisher’s day started badly when her car stalled on the grid before the race began.
Then, she spun her No. 67 Dallara/Honda warming up her tires during the first caution period of the day, needing a tow to the pits. She went two laps down on the leaders.
“It was just a terrible day,” said Fisher. “It just wasn’t our day.”
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