Danica Patrick rallied from a lap down to finish seventh at Martinsville.
Some fortuitous luck combined with skillful driving propelled Danica Patrick to a hard-fought seventh-place finish Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Patrick struggled with the handle of her car through the early portions of the STP 500. At one point she fell a lap behind while sliding around on old tires.
"I was definitely not happy on the radio to some degree," Patrick said "It was a general disaster going on."
She almost became swept up into an accident where Patrick nearly slammed into Paul Menard then sideswiped Clint Bowyer. Patrick escaped unscathed, which she attributed to good fortune.
"(Menard) was just completely sideways in front of my car, and luckily I had slowed down enough and swerved to the right," Patrick said. "It's all a matter of luck, too. I could have got drilled from the back and hit into the car. ... I got lucky that there was nothing in my way to get around that one. That would have probably wrecked my day."
But just before halfway, a caution put her back on the lead and from there, Patrick's car gradually improved. She credited crew chief Daniel Knost -- who in this race a year ago guided Kurt Busch to victory -- for the adjustments that steadily allowed her to get up front.
Martinsville was the ninth race Patrick and Knost worked together and their best finish. Knost moved to the team last fall -- Stewart-Haas Racing felt the more engineering-minded crew chief would be a better fit for Patrick, who spent most of her career in open-wheel racing.
"I feel like we have a very good business relationship," Patrick said. "We laugh and hang out and make jokes, and yet I feel like it's very matter of fact, the things that are going right and wrong when we go through our weekend. I feel like there's not a lot of emotion or nobody feels like it's personal as we go. It's really just about making it better."
Sunday marked the fifth time Patrick finished in the top 10, tying her with Janet Guthrie for the most top-10s by a woman in a premier division race. Patrick last placed in the top 10 in September at Atlanta Motor Speedway when she finished a career-best sixth.
Further indicative of how Patrick performed Sunday, she was the highest finishing driver among Stewart-Haas Racing's four car. Teammates Kevin Harvick, Busch and Tony Stewart finished eighth, 14th and 20th, respectively.
"When the car is right you can go fast," Patrick said. "But if the driver is making mistakes and not doing a good job and crashing or getting off line, that also won't help you have a good result.
And then overall, I can't do well if the team doesn't provide the people and the equipment that I need to perform."
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