Danica Patrick’s 6th Place Qualifying Effort at Sonoma Shows She May Not Be Done Quite Yet
By Asher Fair
At Sonoma, Danica Patrick qualified 6th, good for her highest of the season. She showed that she may still have something left despite retirement rumors.
NASCAR‘s Danica Patrick had not qualified in the top 11 through 15 races so far this season until she qualified on the outside of Row 3 in 6th place at Sonoma. The 6th place qualifying effort was her first top 10 qualifying effort since she qualified 10th at Pocono in 2014, and it was her best qualifying effort since she qualified at 4th at Charlotte earlier in 2014.
Her 6th place qualifying effort at Sonoma is the third-best qualifying effort of her Cup Series career, with the only two that are better than it having been the 4th place effort at Charlotte mentioned above and her pole at the Daytona 500 in 2013.
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So far, this has been the worst season of her Cup Series career. All four of her previous full-time seasons ended with her being between 24th and 28th in the championship standings, and she currently sits way down in 30th place as the lowest driver among those driving for the sport’s top teams with six DNF’s, which is the 2nd-highest total among all drivers this season and has already topped her career-high of five DNF’s even though 21 of the 36 races still remain on this season’s schedule.
With just seven top 10 finishes in 169 career Cup Series starts, no top 5 finishes and just one top 10 finish since 2015, there have naturally been many rumors surrounding Patrick in regard to whether or not she may retire from the sport or at the very least whether or not Stewart-Haas Racing may find another driver for the #10 Ford which she drives. After all, in four-plus full-time seasons, she just hasn’t delivered great or even good results despite driving for one of the sport’s top teams.
Must Read: Five Reasons Danica Patrick Should Retire
But while it is only qualifying, this Row 3 qualifying effort says something about her career. While she herself has stated that she hasn’t been having much fun driving lately, she obviously still wants to be in the sport or should would have left by now. And if she didn’t want to be here, she wouldn’t have qualified in 6th place.
At the very least, she sent a wake-up message to Stewart-Haas Racing and other teams in the paddock that she can, in fact, drive a race car. And let’s be honest; not all of her DNF’s are her fault, either. She has, in fact, had some poor fortune this year.
At Sonoma, she qualified as the fastest Ford driver, which is impressive since that means she was faster than household names on top teams like Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch. Whether or not she can drive a good race remains to be seen.
Yes, it’s only qualifying. And had any other driver qualified in 6th place, no matter how terrible they usually are, it would be a non-story. I get that. But Danica Patrick’s publicity and the uncertainty surrounding her future in the sport makes this something to keep an eye on, especially if she can turn this qualifying effort into a career-high result, perhaps even a victory, to really turn what has been a lackluster NASCAR career around.
Next: Could This Be Danica Patrick's Final Season In NASCAR?
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