'MY CAR DOESN'T LOOK VERY PRETTY BUT IT WAS FUN!'

+ Click to Enlarge 'THAT WAS A BLAST!' Danica Patrick talks to reporters after her first stock-car race. Image: AFP

February 9, 2010
By Lewis Franck

IndyCar driver Danica Patrick will make her Nascar debut at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday.

Patrick, the only woman to win an IndyCar race, will drive for the first time in Nascar's second-tier Nationwide Series, after surviving a spin to finish sixth in her stock-car debut in a regional race for Nascar-type cars at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday.

"That was fun," she said after the 80-lap race on the high-banked speedway. "I was going side-by-side with people. My car doesn't look very pretty," she said of the dents and scrapes, "but it was fun."

Patrick was bumped by former Formula 1 driver Nelson Piquet Jr on lap 54, sending her spinning in the grass – but she didn't hit anything and got back on the race.

She said: "I thought: 'Shoot, we're not out of it.' I was pretty excited to go from last."

American Bobby Gerhart won the race with Piquet 27th.

Patrick plans to run a partial Nationwide schedule in 2010 and said: "Racing in the Nationwide Series race was my goal during this entire two-month preparation process but we wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do.

"The ARCA race was a blast - I'm not ready for my first Daytona Speedweek to end just yet."

Team manager Kelley Earnhardt said she was impressed by Patrick's performance in the ARCA event, part of a regional stock car series that uses Nascar-type cars.

She said: "I think Danica proved to everybody that she can compete in stock cars at a high level." - Reuters