Danica Patrick now has the most top-10 finishes by a woman in the Cup Series
Danica Patrick set a record with her ninth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday night.
The race marked Patrick's sixth top-10 finish of her career in the Sprint Cup Series, breaking a tie she had with Janet Guthrie for the most top-10 finishes by a woman in NASCAR's top level.
Guthrie, who made her debut in what's now the Cup Series in 1976, had five top 10s in 33 career starts over a span of four seasons. Sunday night was Patrick's sixth top 10 in 90 Cup Series starts.
Guthrie's highest finish of her career – coincidentally enough – came at Bristol in 1977, where she finished sixth. Patrick's best finish is also sixth. She snagged that at Atlanta last fall.
Throughout much of Sunday's race, it was hard to envision how Patrick would get a top 10. She didn't run poorly by any stretch of the imagination; she was in the top 20 for most of the evening. She just found her car pointing the wrong direction in the aftermath of crashes ahead of her on more than one occasion.
However, she was able to scramble towards the front before the end of the race, which Matt Kenseth won.
“I didn’t think this day was ever going to end," Patrick said of the race that had multiple rain delays and finished 9.5 hours after it was originally scheduled to start. "I’m proud of everybody for keeping their heads up and staying positive and these are the things that happen when you work together as a team ... We had some luck on our side and I really feel like that positivity feeds into getting some luck and being at the right place at the right time. ... We came out of here with a top 10.
"I got to tell you I did not think – I was hoping for a top 20 after our weekend. We were like 30 something in practice. Lucked out in qualifying and got 26th which like I said lucked out. It was a struggle of a weekend, but by all means you take these weekends because they tell you what you have a great weekends and you are running well and something happens."
It's also Patrick's second top-10 finish in three races. She finished seventh at Martinsville in March and the two races are her first top-10 finishes at short tracks.
Throughout her Sprint Cup Series tenure, Stewart-Haas Racing has talked about her improvement as a driver and if the last three weeks are any indication, it's being reflected in the box scores. She's 13th in the points standings through the first eight races. If this trend continues, a berth in NASCAR's Chase won't seem as farfetched as you might think.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
