It was quite the showing for Danica at Daytona tonight. She most certainly had the fastest car on the track and was poised to get her first NASCAR win, if only she had some "back up" to push her along. The whole race came down to the final 18 laps where she survived the "big one" during lap 20, which took out pretty much any semblance of "allies" that she could tandem with. After the restart, she was left "high and dry" by pretty much the top 15 drivers and ended up in the middle of the pack searching for a partner. By the time she found someone, it was all for nothing as she was caught up in an accident she really couldn't avoid. She finishes 31st despite leading most of the laps in the race.
All I can say is Danica truly understands how to draft cars ahead of her. Slipping and sliding in between tandem packs, she was strong all by herself riding the drafts being created by the leaders. It was quite impressive. It was also quite phenomenal how she handled getting pushed along and how easy it was for her to navigate back to the front with "pusher" in tow. The only issue I saw tonight was that she still needs to learn how to be "the pusher". She kept insisting on being the lead car in the tandem, and I truly believe it didn't help her cause at the end. Especially during that last restart, there were cars purposely avoiding being her "pusher" even though I truly believe it probably would have benefited both Danica and that trail car if it were to happen. Again, Tony Jr. has hinted on the possibility of why and I most definitely saw it in that particular instance. Quite a shame. She should have won that race.
