Danica Patrick: Latest News and 2014 Sprint Cup Ranking Ahead of New Hampshire

In NASCAR, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.

For Danica Patrick, she had a little of both on Sunday during the Coke Zero 400. But despite some tough luck, she was fortunate enough to capture her third career top-10 finish after avoiding the second "Big One" at Daytona.

Prior to steering clear of the massive wreck late in the race, Patrick was involved in the first crash and incurred some damage. But with many of the top drivers like Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards and Patrick's owner Tony Stewart out of the race, she navigated her way back near the front before the end of the race.

Following another top-10 result for Patrick, she now heads to a course where she's never finished 20th or better. In the race last July, she also sparked an accident that involved her boyfriend, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and put her in 37th.

Before the Sprint Cup circuit gets underway at New Hampshire, here's a look at the latest news and outlook for Patrick in the Camping World RV Sales 301.

Pos.	Driver	Points	Wins	Top 5	Top 10
1	Jimmie Johnson	596	3	6	12
2	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	624	2	9	12
3	Brad Keselowski	586	2	8	9
4	Joey Logano	546	2	6	9
5	Carl Edwards	543	2	4	8
6	Kevin Harvick	514	2	5	8
7	Jeff Gordon	651	1	6	13
8	Kyle Busch	523	1	4	7
9	Denny Hamlin	493	1	4	6
10	Aric Almirola	452	1	2	4
11	Kurt Busch	422	1	4	4
12	Matt Kenseth	581	0	6	11
13	Ryan Newman	534	0	1	6
14	Paul Menard	516	0	3	9
15	Clint Bowyer	509	0	2	7
16	Austin Dillon	494	0	1	2
27	Danica Patrick	358	0	0	2

Race	Track	Start	Finish
Coke Zero 400	Daytona International Speedway	29	8
Quaker State 400	Kentucky Speedway	10	21
Toyota/Save Mart 350	Sonoma Raceway	11	18
Quicken Loans 400	Michigan International Speedway	27	17
Pocono 400	Pocono Raceway	16	37
FedEx 400	Dover International Speedway	28	23
Coca-Cola 600	Charlotte Motor Speedway	4	39
5-Hour Energy 400	Kansas Speedway	9	7
Aaron's 499	Talladega Superspeedway	7	22
Toyota Owners 400	Richmond International Raceway	35	34
Bojangles' Southern 500	Darlington Raceway	33	22
Duck Commander 500	Texas Motor Speedway	24	27
STP 500	Martinsville Speedway	10	32
Auto Club 400	Auto Club Speedway	27	14
Food City 500	Bristol Motor Speedway	36	18
Kobalt 400	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	22	21
The Profit on CNBC 500	Phoenix International Raceway	33	36
Daytona 500	Daytona International Speedway	27	40

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After rain on Saturday night that led to the Coke Zero 400 taking place on Sunday, two more delays due to showers led to the race ending after just 112 laps.

While Aric Almirola shocked NASCAR fans by earning his first victory, several others in the top 10 were equally as surprising. Names like Casey Mears, Austin Dillon and Michael McDowell all avoided disaster to join Patrick in the top 10.

Patrick, who survived two wrecks that involved a combined 42 cars, spoke about her performance on Sunday, per Jeff Olson of USA Today:

"

It's been a crazy day. I can't believe we finished eighth.

The car was fast. It has just been a matter of attrition and getting a little lucky and making it through things. We were in two crashes and the car has been OK to keep going, which is hard to do here at Daytona because the splitter height is so critical.

"

The first of the two accidents collected a total of 16 machines, with Patrick receiving minimal damage. In fact, Stewart-Haas Racing took a look at the left front tire that was cut during the Big One:

While the wreck clearly didn't affect Patrick much at the time, what happened after the pileup could make things interesting.

Stewart, Patrick's team owner, was taken out during the wreck that was apparently started by Stenhouse. The three-time Sprint Cup champion then put the blame on Patrick's boyfriend, per Marty Smith of ESPN:

Stewart then backed off of the original rant just a bit, per Jim Noble of PRN:

Needless to say, that should make for some interesting conversations around the SHR garage in the coming days.

As for Patrick on the track, she was able to rally and return near the front. At her highest point, Patrick reached the fourth position, but she experienced an issue that was self-inflicted as she dropped several places.

During a pit stop, Patrick missed her pit box and was forced to hit reverse before her crew was able to work on the car. Brant James of ESPN.com breaks down exactly what happened to the No. 10 driver during the mishap:

Instead of getting drafting help, she would navigate her way around another multicar pileup and pass over those involved to finish inside the top 10. It might not have been all her doing, but making it through the 26-car accident was no easy feat for any driver at Daytona.

All in all, Patrick came away with her third finish of eighth or higher, but she will need more luck to do the same in New Hampshire. Of the 23 courses on the Sprint Cup circuit, Patrick's average finish of 32nd makes New Hampshire the second-worst track for her in two races thus far.

Here's a look at her career results at New Hampshire:

Date	Start	Finish	Laps Led	Driver Rating	Status
Sept. 28, 2013	21	27	0	57.1	Running
July 14, 2013	32	37	0	47.7	Accident

Though she was able to finish the Chase race at New Hampshire last September, the results weren't drastically better. Without a top-20 finish at the track, the chances of Patrick doing so this time on the flat track don't look great.

While anything is possible at the flat track, it doesn't look likely that Patrick will have another strong race. After posting poor results at similar tracks like Dover and Phoenix earlier this season, Patrick's luck might just run out this weekend at the one-mile track.

Predicted Finish: 25th

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