DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Danica Patrick watched drivers turn laps out of the corner of her eye. In her whirlwind preparation for the “Danica Double,” getting a car ready for the first event of the NASCAR season had not been a priority.
But with practice running for Sunday’s exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway — an event Patrick would have been eligible to enter if she had a car — the highest-finishing woman in Daytona 500 history could only follow along on a TV monitor.
“It all came together too late,” she said Saturday. “A couple of days ago I was thinking to myself that we should have run the backup car in the (exhibition). ... I was like, ‘Man, where was I on that one?’ I didn’t think of it soon enough. It would have been good practice.”
Patrick is retiring after she races in both NASCAR’s Feb. 18 season-opening Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 in May.