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When Danica Patrick Learned the Truth About Bristol Racing the Hard Way

Published 09/16/2022, 10:16 AM EDT

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Danica Patrick has had her fair share of wrecks in the NASCAR Cup Series. Back in 2012, she was involved in a massive wreck at Bristol where she learned how hard racing dominates that specific track.

Patrick was thrust into the inside wall after Regan Smith nudged the back of her car. The impact was so hard it nearly crushed the front half of her car. Later, somebody on Patrick’s team came up on the radio and promised to “choke that prick later.”

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Patrick then responded, “It’s been that way all night with him. He’s a d**k. Everything was running really smoothly. So it’s a shame that we lost that. But you know, Bristol is a place where you find out who’s playing fair and who’s not.”

However, after the race, Smith apologized for the incident but stated that he did not do it intentionally, rather claiming that he was pushed into Patrick.

Danica Patrick talks about the worst crash of her career

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Danica Patrick was involved in a horrifying wreck while racing for her IndyCar debut. It was all the way back in 2005 when IndyCar went to race at the iconic Homestead Miami Speedway. She managed to get her right wheel cut by another driver which made her lose control and hit the wall so hard that she ended up losing consciousness altogether.

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Patrick stated, “I was down low on the bottom of the track and a car was falling down the track. And clipped by right rears as I went by. Shot me up into the wall. I hit at like almost 150G’s started on a fire a little bit and spun. Went down to the bottom of the track.”

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Patrick must have felt lucky to have survived such a high downforce crash and made it out in one piece. Even after such a horrifying incident she never budged out of racing and continued on.

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Written by:

Srijan Mandal

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Srijan Mandal is a NASCAR author at EssentiallySports. He is currently pursuing his Master’s in Journalism and has been writing for his own blog as well, covering NASCAR, F1, F2, W Series, MotoGP, DTM, IndyCar, WRC, and WEC. Following motorsports for more than a decade, he has become a devout supporter of McLaren Racing, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Bubba Wallace, Sir Lewis Hamilton, and Ayrton Senna.
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Edited by:

Ankit Sharma