Who Is the Real “Bad Luck Brian?”
By Katie Copple
”It’s pretty embarrassing,” Bowyer said. ”For a four-time champion, and what I consider one of the best this sport’s ever seen to act like this is pretty ridiculous.”
Gordon had also had enough of Bowyer. ”Things just got escalated over the year, and I’d just had it,” he said. ”Clint has run into me numerous times, wrecked me, and he got into me on the back straightaway and pretty much ruined our day. I’ve had it, fed up with it and I got him back.”
Both drivers and crews are awaiting possible penalties for their actions, which will be handed down later this week.
Last but not least, Danica Patrick. Danica started her final Sprint Cup race of the season 37th. After being lapped early in the race, Patrick spent the day picking off cars one by one and spent most of the day running in the mid-20s and eventually back on the lead lap. Throughout the entire race, Patrick’s Crew Chief Tony Gibson, formally with Ryan Newman, was relaying lap times of her car owner Tony Stewart and also the race leader Kyle Busch. Patrick’s lap times were equal to and even better than theirs throughout most of the race. Her spotter, Tab Boyd, as well as Gibson, guided her through this tough short track and, after a small tangle with Sam Hornish Jr., got her into the Top 20. At the restart for the Green-White-Checkers, Danica was 13th and well on her way to a Top 15, even a Top 10 finish, in her 10th Sprint Cup start. Coming around Turns 3 and 4 to the white flag, Jeff Burton came sliding up the track and into Patrick’s left rear, sending her sliding into the wall then into the middle of the track. With no caution, despite her neon green GoDaddy car leaking fluid, Patrick nursed it down to pit wall and across the finish line, one lap down. As Kevin Harvick led the leaders around to the checkered flag, mayhem corrupted behind him. Drivers slid in the large oil patch left behind by Patrick’s wounded car, sending cars spinning everywhere. Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Mark Martin and others were all a part of the carnage. Patrick’s car served as the proverbial ping-pong ball and even got airborne after getting hit in the rear by Kurt Busch and Paul Menard, who had crashed behind her.
Patrick had this to say about the incident with Burton. “Clipped my left-rear, spun me around, and I just tried to limp back to the line. I didn’t know exactly how much damage I had or what it was, but just trying to limp to the line and get the finish on the lead lap, whatever that was. Still our best finish, but you always want more. I was 14th, I think, or something right around there and that would have been a really good finish for the Go Daddy Chevrolet.”
Danica finished the final race in her 10-race schedule in 17th, her best finish in the series yet.
Well, fans shouldn’t be complaining now. Phoenix brought us one hell of a race weekend in what should really be known as the “Festival of Twisted Sheet Metal” (credit to @pressdog). With Championship shake-ups in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series, we head to Homestead not really knowing what to expect. Many prominent drivers had awful luck this weekend, possibly costing two of them the chance at a very shiny trophy. So I guess the final question is this, who really was the Bad Luck Brian? My vote goes to Sprint Cup race winner Kevin Harvick, whose end to a 44 race winless streak has been over-shadowed by all of this drama.
