It's only natural for woman to want to give her a man a little "love tap" from time to time; in the case of Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. it became problematic because Patrick's "love tap" happened in the middle of a restart at Sunday's Camping World RV Sale 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as Patrick caused a three way crash, according to USA Today.
Brian Vickers ended up winning the race and snapping a 75 race winless streak that spanned back to August 2009. Tony Stewart had a chance to win it all but ended up running out of gas on the last lap. Despite those two story lines and the 12 caution flags that slowed the day down Patrick wrecking her boyfriend for the second time this season dominated the post-race headlines.
The crash happened during one of the many restarts from a caution flag in lap 238. The day was unseasonably warm for New Hampshire and the track conditions were quite hot, meaning that tires would tend to be slipperier. Coming out of the restart Patrick lost control of her car and slid upwards into Stenhouse as well as Travis Kvapil. The wreck would be the end of Patrick's and Kvapil's days, Stenhouse was able to return after a few repairs, reports USA Today.
"We all bunched up on those restarts, and I'm not sure if I misjudged the braking zone or if they stopped really quick in front of me," Patrick said. "It felt like they stopped, and I tried to stop myself from getting in the back of anyone, but I got sideways when I did that. It's so unfortunate I took people with me. I'm really sorry."
Stenhouse had not seen the video of the crash prior to talking to the media so he wasn't sure who exactly had caused the crash that almost ended his race, although he did understand how the crash could have happened given the conditions, reports USA Today.
"It's like the tires have a certain amount of grip, but when they go, they go," Stenhouse said. "You're just trying all you can do to keep it off the person on the outside of you and the inside of you."
It was a doubly disappointing weekend for fans of Patrick. Not only did she crash and not finish the race but she also crushed the dreams of fans who had been hoping that she would pose nude for ESPN Magazine's popular "The Body" issue one of these years. At news conference prior to the race Patrick explained that posing nude was just outside of her comfort zone, according to Yahoo.
"There's a difference to me between going to the beach and wearing a swimming suit and going to the beach and wearing nothing or paint," Patrick said. "That's just pushing the limit a little bit....There's already enough stuff that I do that pushes that. So, I'd rather stay in my full comfort zone than go that far."
