Danica Patrick: Can She Better Her Record Finish at Las Vegas for Her Friend?

It was a year ago that Danica Patrick finished fourth at Las Vegas with her No. 7 Nationwide Chevrolet. It was a record finish, and now she returns to the track where her friend and open-wheel driver, Dan Wheldon, lost his life last fall.

Patrick became the first woman to finish that high in any NASCAR national series event.

This weekend, she makes her return to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It is a track she looks forward to racing on, but the GoDaddy.com driver will be making laps with a heavy heart.

The intermediate 1.5-mile tracks with banking are the best tracks for Patrick to hone her stock car racing skills on, because they give her a wider berth to find a racing groove and they are fast.

The first full-time season in the second-tier series of NASCAR hasn't gone quite as well as Patrick expected, especially the three crashes at Daytona in three different races.

The only highlight of the season so far was capturing the pole for the Daytona Nationwide race.

She can take solace in the fact she finished the race at Phoenix, her hometown, but after qualifying 30th, she finished three laps down in 21st place. The team just could not get the car to handle.

The overall goal for Patrick this year is to finish in the top 10 and maybe get a win or two along the way with her Nationwide car out of JR Motorsports.

Her crew chief, Tony Eury Jr., has the same goals, but he is happy to see the car come back to the garage unscathed after a race.

That was hardly the case at Daytona when her teammate, Cole Whitt, gave her a shot to the rear of her car and sent her spinning.

After spewing expletives, Patrick scolded Whitt post-race and reminded him to give her racing room in the future. Some questioned her right to come down as hard as she did on her teammate.

Currently, Patrick sits 21st in the Nationwide point standings, 59 markers behind series leader Elliott Sadler.

If the driver of the No. 7 is to gain ground with the series, she needs to start at Las Vegas because she is apt to have a rough ride at the following race in the coliseum at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. expressed thoughts shared by many drivers during the recent NASCAR Media Day at Daytona.

Junior stated, "I've watched her race and I think she does great."

Earnhardt added, "She's a good person to be around. She's tenacious and works hard. She's pretty intense."

Intense she will probably be at the Sam's Town 300 this weekend at LVMS.

She always wants to do well, but it should really matter more than ever to better her finish from last year, if only for her friend, Wheldon.

Quotes in this article were obtained in person or by an official press release.