These Saturday races always mess me up. I am used to racing being on Sunday, so I missed out on picking my fantasy league drivers for the Go Bowling 400 at Kansas Speedway. I am in the Top 10 running in that league, so missing out entirely on a race is bad news for me.
Danica Patrick ran a special Wonder Woman-themed car in the race, and was driving like a Wonder Woman in the Top 15 when Joey Logano's car broke and swung into her, leading to a fiery wreck that also collected Aric Almirola's car. Almirola got the worst of it, as he shot in at near full speed and went airborne in his car. He had to be cut out of the car, and then he was airlifted to the hospital for observation.
I hope that Almirola comes out of this all right. As far as I know, both Logano and Patrick were treated and released at the track medical center. A 36th-place finish in the race drops Danica two spots to 33rd in the points standings, and the failure to finish the race is her 5th DNF in 11 races. I ordered a copy of her Wonder Woman die-cast car, as someone on a die-cast forum had a coupon code for her site, which allowed me to get an autographed car for not much more than the regular car would cost. Unfortunately, the anticipated shipping date isn't until late October, so I've got a nearly six-month wait ahead of me.
This card is another eBay pick-up for me. It's a 2012 Press Pass FanFare Sapphire parallel. These were apparently a Power Pack-exclusive parallel. Power Packs were, to my understanding, a Press Pass incentive program, where boxes purchased from preferred retailers had a bonus pack (the Power Pack) inserted into them. The bonus packs usually had some pretty good stuff, like these Sapphire parallels. I think I bought some Press Pass Ignite boxes that had bonus Jeff Gordon relics in their Power Packs. This card is numbered # 16 / 20, and has a nice big area of shiny reflective holofoil on the front.
Was flipping thru the channels last nite and stopped on the race. A actually thought it was the Busch race until I looked at the leaderboard onscreen. It was the first NASCAR I've seen in a couple of years. Not ten minutes later the wreck happened. All three are very lucky they were not seriously hurt. Really amazing safety features they build into those cars. Patrick had a nice run going.
ReplyDeleteThese cars have a lot of safety built into them. The results of an impact like that could have been a lot worse, especially given the speed Almirola was carrying coming into it.
DeletePatrick was well on her way to her best finish of the season, but it seems like there is always that keeps her from moving up to the next level.
That's what she was saying when they interviewed her. I haven't been keeping up but I did see a couple of clips of her getting collected in previous races thru no fault of her own. She's due a few breaks.
DeleteThere are some people who just seem snake-bitten when it comes to stuff like that. You see people with all kinds of talent who just can't seem to get things to go right, whether it's the injury bug or being stuck behind someone on a depth chart or an undeserved reputation.
DeleteDanica is really not having a good nor a lucky season this year.
ReplyDeleteNo, she isn't. It seems like if she isn't wrecking, she is running in the back half of the pack. When she is running well, she wrecks out. You can't pin last night's wreck on her. Logano's car failed suddenly and catastrophically.
DeleteShe is actually qualifying 2.6 spots better this year than she did through 11 races last season (24.1 vs. 26.7), but her average finish is 4 spots worse (28.1 vs. 24.1). She had 3 DNF's at this point last season, with 5 already this year. Maybe running up near the front during this race will translate into better finishes in the future.
That was a nasty wreck. Almirola broke a vertebra in his back. Nice card. I have one from the same parallel, of Austin Dyne.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Almirola will recover quickly. That was a heck of an impact.
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