Photo by: Action Sports Photography
Danica Patrick will take part in a grueling weekend that will see her run both her NASCAR Nationwide and NASCAR Spring Cup Series machines – her NSCS car for 600 interminable miles around the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
And while some in Indianapolis last week said that the race might be better off without Danica in it, Danica countered today by saying that she is happy to be in Charlotte and that she doesn’t miss being in Indianapolis.
“I was ready to leave IndyCar,” she said. “I wanted to be here. When you are not missing something, longing for something you don’t really think about it that much. It’s like that girlfriend you didn’t want to have anymore. You don’t think about her anymore.”
Patrick admitted to watching part of Pole Day qualifying last weekend, but what she saw stirred memories and empathy for those trying to find speed – not pangs of regret for what she is missing.
“I was thinking about how I would be doing if I was there,” Patrick reported. “When someone comes off the track and says ‘I don’t know I don’t think we can go any faster that was a pretty tough run as it was’ I can imagine what that is like. I know what that is like for those drivers that are on the spot and trying to qualify. I can imagine all those thoughts. I didn’t feel like I wanted to be there. I just had a lot of memories of what was going on.”
But while there are no immediate longing glances at the television coverage of Indy, Patrick surmised today in Charlotte that the reason she is not worried about missing it, it that she could be there again at some point.
“Indy, I have lots of great memories from there and probably the part of me that doesn’t feel quite as longing for it is that there is still a chance that I could do it again. It’s not gone.” Patrick said.
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