Danica Patrick has little trouble clicking through the reasons why she’s off to the worst start of her IndyCar career. Poor qualifying. Missed opportunities. Bad setups. Even worse luck. Never, however, does Patrick use the word “NASCAR” while trying to explain what she admits is largely unexplainable. Patrick isn’t about to place blame on her part-time gig driving in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports [#7 GoDaddy.com Chevy]. “It just a really easy thing to look at, an easy excuse,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything to it.” Patrick is 16th in points heading into the Indy 500 and has finished outside the Top 10 in four of five races. She had seven such finishes all of last season, when she soared to a career-best fifth in the points standings. She re-signed with Andretti Autosports to compete for a title. Two months into the season, she’s not even competing for the top spot on her own team. Patrick is currently looking up at teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay (fourth), Tony Kanaan (eighth) and Marco Andretti (13th) in the standings. “It’s just an unfortunate situation, and there’s no other answer,” she said. Her struggles weren’t exactly the kind of spring she had in mind following her largely positive NASCAR debut. She signed a deal with JR Motorsports last December to drive part-time on the Nationwide Series. She drove capably in her stock car debut, finishing sixth in an ARCA race at Daytona in February. The next week she rolled out alongside Sprint Cup regulars Stewart, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch. Patrick made it 58 laps before getting caught up in an accident that wasn’t her fault and finished 35th. She improved to 31st a week later in California before ending her first Nationwide stint with a 36th-place finish in Las Vegas.(in part from the Associated Press/ESPN)(5-13-2010)
