FONTANA, Calif. – The difficult part for Danica Patrick is still not knowing for sure how things are “supposed to feel” in a stock car and what is normal on the track.
“I really don’t have any of those answers at this point,” Patrick said Friday. “It’s only going to come from, in my experience, really having something good to go, ‘Oh yes, I want that again. I know I can achieve it.’ It just takes time.”
Patrick gets another chance this weekend at California, in what originally was supposed to be her NASCAR Nationwide debut before she raced at Daytona. She went a week earlier than planned after finishing sixth in the ARCA race at Daytona.
Her goals today are simple: finish laps – and the race.
“Finishing is definitely always the goal,” she said. “I just need laps. … I’m probably going to be more surprised how I’m going to have to deal with the car sliding around for a majority of the run, and I need that to be a normal expectation for me that I deal with.”
Patrick spent much of her practice time Friday adjusting to differences. She ran 16 laps in the opening session and her best lap of 169.591 mph was 37th. She improved to 27th in the second session with a lap of 171.310 mph when she ran a field-high 35 laps.
McMurray on pole
After a whirlwind week of appearances and interviews as the champion of the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s season opener and biggest race, Jamie McMurray got back into the cockpit of his No. 1 Chevrolet and qualified first with a lap of 183.744 mph for Sunday’s Auto Club 500 Sprint Cup race at Fontana, Calif.
Earnhardt Ganassi teammate Juan Pablo Montoya will start alongside McMurray on the front row after a lap of 183.477 mph. Clint Bowyer is third in another Chevy, with Kasey Kahne’s No. 9 Ford qualifying fourth.
Matt Kenseth, who won at California the last two Februarys, qualified 20th.
Drivers like patch
Kevin Harvick said he believes the concrete patch to fix the pothole at Daytona International Speedway is the right thing to do.
Harvick said the patch is OK because the track has so much character and that repaving the entire 2 1/2 -mile superspeedway should be only an “absolute last resort.”
The damaged portion of the asphalt surface in Turn 2 that forced two delays totaling more than two hours during Sunday’s Daytona 500 are being repaired with a concrete patch that will be about 6 feet wide and 18 feet long.
NHRA qualifying
Doug Kalitta led Top Fuel qualifying in the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Chandler, Ariz., with a 3.825-second pass at a track-record 317.05 mph.
Matt Hagan (Funny Car) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) also topped their divisions in the second of 23 races in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
