NASCAR loves a good “you won’t believe this” story. Cars flipping into fences, fake debris cautions, entire races decided by radio chatter that sounded way too convenient. But sometimes the sport throws something so random at you that even the wildest conspiracy feels tame.

Back in 2012, Danica Patrick was about to grab her first (and what would have been only) NASCAR national series win when a fan decided the track needed a shoe. One shoe. And just like that, victory turned into one of the funniest heartbreak moments ever caught on camera.

The day a random shoe took Patrick out

It was the Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal in 2012. Danica Patrick had the car dialed in all weekend. She’d been strong on road courses, came painfully close at Road America a few weeks earlier, and finally, everything was clicking. She grabbed the lead, had clean air, and the win looked locked up. Then someone in the stands decided to yeet a sneaker onto the track.

Next time around, Patrick ran right over it. Pieces flew everywhere. At first, everyone figured it was no big deal, it’s just a shoe, not a brake rotor. Wrong. The impact knocked something critical loose underneath.

Her handling went straight to junk, a bracket fell off, and suddenly the leader was limping around trying not to hit the wall. She ended up 27th, six laps down. Justin Allgaier took the trophy while Patrick’s crew stared at the shoe rubber stuck to the splitter.

“(I was) looking forward to having a shot to win, and that happened in the lead. Whether it was what caused the problem or not, I don’t know. But it definitely was what ended up leading toward the end of our day,” Patrick said post the race.

She added, “I can’t tell how many people said after Watkins Glen what bad luck I had – and then I hit a shoe. So I don’t feel like it can get a lot worse. I don’t know if anyone’s ever hit a shoe before – but it just seems like a very weird situation.”

That one weird moment summed up a lot of her early NASCAR years: speed, promise, and then some totally bizarre setback nobody saw coming. NASCAR tightened up rules about throwing stuff (and about what fans can even bring near road course grandstands) because beach balls and beer cans were one thing, but a shoe costing the leader a win?

That was next level. Thirteen years later, the clip still gets shared every time someone asks, “What’s the weirdest thing that ever decided a race?”

A year after the shoe stole her win, Patrick found herself in the crosshairs again, this time at the 2013 Sprint Cup Awards banquet.

When Patrick sat stone-faced through Jay Mohr’s awards show roast

Comedian Jay Mohr was hosting and came out swinging at everybody. Dale Jr., Jeff Gordon, and Clint Bowyer; nobody was safe. But Danica Patrick, sitting next to her boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr., got the sharpest jab of the night.

Mohr looked right at her and said, “Danica, I hope you’re not too uncomfortable tonight. I know you’re not used to being this close to the front.”

The room cracked up. Patrick did not.

He tried to smooth it over by praising her Daytona 500 pole, then kept going, joking about her wrecking Stenhouse at New Hampshire and basically calling their relationship chaos on wheels.

When Patrick got on stage later, she didn’t miss.

“I’d like to thank all my fans, and I think it’s pretty safe to say Jay Mohr is not one of them.”

Perfect. Mohr came back after the break with an apology, claiming he was actually a huge fan, and she finally let a small smile slip.

He roasted half the garage that night, but Patrick’s ice-cold stare and quick comeback stole the show almost as much as the flying shoe had the year before.

From a sneaker ending her best shot at victory to sitting through a nationally televised roast without flinching, Danica Patrick gave NASCAR some of its most unforgettable non-racing moments. And honestly? The sport is still talking about both of them.