Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas ó Danica Patrick has a message for Ryan Briscoe: Congratulations on your first IndyCar Series victory.
Yes, she congratulated the driver who slammed into her car on pit row at the Indianapolis 500, a collision that knocked her out with 30 laps to go.
“You know what, I’m happy that he got his win,” Patrick said Monday, a day after Briscoe won at the Milwaukee Mile. “He deserves a big congratulation. He was behind me at the beginning of the race at one point. … He obviously had a good car. He was driving around people like they were sitting still sometimes.”
The win at Milwaukee came a week after Indianapolis, where Briscoe spun his tires and slammed into her car coming out of his pit.
Patrick, who got her first IRL win at Motegi in April, got out of her car and was headed toward Briscoe’s crew when an Indianapolis track security official steered her away. Patrick and Briscoe later talked, but neither of them apologized or took blame for the incident.
“We don’t agree on what happened,” Patrick said Monday. “That’s the past, this is now. I will race him fair every lap of my career because that’s the type of driver I am, and I expect the same in return.”
The Bombardier Learjet 550 is Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, the high-banked track where the IRL has had some of its fastest and closest races. Patrick finished third at Texas last June, which was her best career finish at the time.
At Milwaukee, Patrick had handling problems with her car and finished ninth, a lap down.