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Hollywood Casino 400 Pre-Report

10.12.16

Hollywood Casino 400 Pre-Report

Danica Patrick and the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet SS team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) return to Kansas Speedway in Kansas City for Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race ready to build on last week’s solid performance at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Patrick started 13th in last Sunday’s race in Charlotte and, after running inside the top-10, took home an 11th place finish. The result marked the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet team’s best finish of 2016.

Fresh off that effort at Charlotte, returning to Kansas Speedway couldn’t have come at a better time for Patrick and the team. Kansas Speedway is a 1.5-mile track, like Charlotte, and it’s also the site of Patrick’s first Sprint Cup top-10 finish on a 1.5-mile track. She earned that result in May 2014 when she took the checkered flag seventh. It was one of six top-10 finishes Patrick has scored thus far in her Sprint Cup career.  

All told, Patrick has competed in eight Sprint Cup races at Kansas. In that time, she has scored one top-10 and three top-20 finishes. In addition, in two NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the track, she finished a career-best 10th in October 2012 and took home a 15th-place result in October 2011.

Patrick has also made six IndyCar Series starts at Kansas. In 2005, she earned the pole award for the IndyCar race at the track. Her best finish was a fifth-place effort in 2009, and she scored a total of three top-10 finishes at the track in that series. Aside from a 19th-place finish due to a mechanical failure in 2008, Patrick didn’t finish outside of the top-11 in IndyCar Series competition at Kansas.

After last week’s solid performance at Charlotte, the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet team hopes a return to Kansas Speedway, where Patrick has run well in three major professional racing series, will result in continued on-track success in the form of a top-10 run Sunday. 

DANICA PATRICK, Driver of the No. 10 Nature's Bakery Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing: 

What are your thoughts on going back to Kansas?

“I’ve always liked going to Kansas. It’s a nice facility and I’ve got a lot of experience there compared to some places, even if a lot of it is in IndyCar.”

 

What is the hardest part of the track to figure out at Kansas?

“Kansas is a fast track and we fight the same problems there that we face at most tracks we go to – you have to get through the center well enough to be comfortable enough to be very aggressive with the throttle at the same time. I think that, for sheer speed, you can’t be too loose, but in the race you can’t be too tight or you’ll fall back.

“These cars are finicky. It’s about focusing on the small things and getting the most out of the car itself instead of trying to throw the kitchen sink at it if you’re a little off. It’s all in the little details. I think that’s the most important thing”