KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Danica Patrick was frustrated with Landon Cassill. However, as she drove into turn one on Cassill's rear bumper on lap 155 of Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, she got the worse end of the accident.
Patrick entered the corner with her front fender on Cassill's rear bumper, and maintained the contact through the turn while moving him up the track. Her message was delivered, as Cassill's car went into a spin. But Patrick's did too, and when she went to straighten her car out in turn 2, she ended up sliding back up the track and slamming into the wall.
"I have just been really frustrated with the No. 83," Patrick said after getting out of her car. "He slammed into me on the front straight for no other reason than his radio communication 'She was in the way.' I've always played fair. If it's one time, I can imagine frustration. But it's been pretty consistent with him getting in to me. So at some point in time, I have to stand up for myself, or everybody's going to do it. So, the bummer is that this is my Texas car. We were having a good run, we were making the car better. And, I'm out of the race and he's not."
Her crew chief, Stewart-Haas Racing competition director Greg Zipadelli was not amused with Patrick's attempt at retaliation, telling her, according to the ESPN broadcast that "You know better than to do that."
Before crashing Cassill, Patrick was inside the top 20 and on the lead lap in her eighth Sprint Cup Series start of the season before she moves full time to the series in 2013. But because of the damange, she finished 32nd. Cassill was able to keep going. He finished 18th.
"My situation with [Cassill] is really a product of frustration," Patrick said. "He got into me on the front straight and said I was just in the way. That's really no good reason to hit me. If it's one time, I can imagine it's frustration, but it's been quite a few times with him. At some point I have to stand up for myself so this doesn't happen with other people. I chose today. The bummer about it is that my car is out, and he's still out there going, so I've got to work on how to do that."
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