NASCAR: Patrick hopes for better 'grades'

With an averaging starting position of 26 and a finishing spot about one higher, the frustration is starting to mount for Danica Patrick.

After learning on the job the past three seasons, Patrick expected big things in 2016. But instead of moving up the grid, she has endured two DNFs and has only a pair of top-20 finishes through six starts.

She is coming off her best finish, a 16th on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, but that's only elevated her to 26th in the standings. Patrick is disappointed, and she hopes to reset her season on Sunday in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.

"It hasn't been a great start to the year," she said Thursday. "When there are good finishes that slip away, where it could have very easily been a top 10, that's disappointing."

Patrick opened the season with a crash in the Daytona 500, robbing her of a finish at one of her better tracks. She was on the lead lap on March 20 at Fontana before Kasey Kahne crashed her in the middle stages of that event, and last week she was running inside the top 10 at Martinsville with 100 laps to go before fading over the final two stints.

As a result, she's already 35 points – nearly a full race – outside of a playoff spot.

"It's like a grade-point average – you start off the year with an 'F', and it seems like it takes you all year to get back to an 'A' again," Patrick said. "You spend the whole year feeling like you're down and out or behind.

"You just have to fight it out and see where you end up in the end. But I would much rather be in a position where I was running really well and didn't get the finish than running terrible and grabbed a finish. It means there is so much potential later on for good results."

Patrick's emotion boiled over when Kahne hooked her into the wall. Believing the contact was intentional, Patrick stormed out of her Chevrolet, walked up the apron of the track and motioned toward Kahne. NASCAR fined her $20,000 and put her on a four-week probation for walking on a hot track toward oncoming traffic.

"I understand NASCAR has to do whatever they can to protect their drivers and making sure that we don't put ourselves in harm's way," Patrick said. "Did I feel like I was in danger? Absolutely not. It's my own body. I don't want to put my body in danger at all. But then you start working into gray areas of, well, what's too close and what's not close? So I get their position. But some of the most exciting throwback videos you see of NASCAR is of drivers getting all rowdy and getting mad ... You can't do things that completely eliminate the spirit of the sport."

The rule was introduced in 2014 after Kevin Ward Jr. was fatally injured when he was hit by Tony Stewart's car during a sprint car event.

"I get that it's 2016, and we can get smarter and better, and there are certain things that cross the line, and I guess that they deemed that I did," Patrick said. "When I did it, it wasn't like I thought, 'I don't care if I get fined, I'm going to walk out.' It literally didn't enter my mind. So I think that's the challenge. ... When I did that, I was just really giving the universal 'WTF' sign to him like, 'I can't believe you just did that to me.'"

Patrick, who will start 26th on Saturday night, has two top-20 finishes in seven Sprint Cup starts at Texas. In last year's two races, she finished 16th in both.

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