After being accused of blocking at Iowa last month, Danica Patrick was on the receiving end of some blocking maneuvers at Nashville Superspeedway in Saturday night’s Firestone Indy 200.
Starting second on the grid, Patrick tried to pass polesitter Helio Castroneves early in the race, but a slippery concrete racing surface allows for only one racing groove.
So, Castroneves made sure he impeded Patrick’s progress in order to protect his position.
“Once you get off line here, it is trouble,” Patrick said. “Every time I tried something, I dropped back. In the beginning, I tried to pass Helio and he blocked me down low. That’s what everybody is kind of doing. He did it quite a few times and I dropped back because I got checked up. I tried to pass some lapped traffic in turns three and four and the marbles are so bad, I slid up the track.
“Gambling here at this track doesn’t pay off so well.”
Patrick was able to dodge blocked cars, marbles on the race track and lightning to finish fifth in what was probably the final IndyCar Series race at Nashville.
“I’ve always done well here and I think it’s a cool track,” Patrick said. “We get a bunch of fans here, so I would like to see us come back. The best thing we can do as drivers is put on a good show. But it is a one-groove track and since it is not a side-by-side action kind of track, it brings the excitement down a notch. Trying to pass lapped traffic in turns three and four, you get up into the marbles and people go by, it’s a different kind of excitement.”
Patrick gave a weather report to her crew when she saw lightning approaching on lap 70. It was the impending storm that would ultimately end the race early with Scott Dixon in the lead.
But lightning wasn’t as bad as being blocked early in the race by Castroneves.
“I got to the inside of him and he just drove down,” Patrick said. “He cut in front of me and washed me out and I was down to third gear, which is why I got passed by Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. It just didn’t work out for me tonight. Helio was definitely blocking me.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t partially defend at times on restarts, driving down the inside. But the bottom line,it gets so thick here. It’s not going to happen. It’s all right if you are up front because you can pick them off here and there as traffic comes. But if you have to pick up ground through traffic, it’s always frustrating here.”
Castroneves admitted he did what he had to do to protect his position.
“It’s tough to pass, but the crowd always enjoyed having us here,” Castroneves said. “Early in the race, they need to give us a break on blocking. I could see she was doing the same thing with the cars behind her. It’s tough early in the race to not do that. There were times when I would have let her go, but it wasn’t time yet.”
With the abrasive concrete surface, the tires get worn down like a cheese-grater, which creates marbles on the track. Once a car gets into that marble area, it loses grip and creates treacherous racing.
So getting out of Nashville with a top-five finish is an accomplishment for any driver.
“With the way our season has gone, I guess I can walk away all right with a top five,” Patrick said. “Tony Kanaan had a really strong car and I might have had the next strongest car if I had stayed up in the second position because Dixon’s car struggled in traffic. But their gamble paid off by not pitting at the end.”