Ten years ago, Danica Patrick was fined $50,000 for crashing into David Gilliland during a Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway. She was also docked 25 driver points and placed on probation for a while.
In 2015, Patrick was involved in arguably the biggest on-track controversy of her career. The one-time IndyCar race winner purposely collided with Gilliland during the NASCAR Cup Series Goody’s Headache Relief Shot 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
During the race, Patrick’s No. 10 Chevrolet chased down Gilliland’s car under caution and bumped into him in retaliation for their earlier racing encounter. She caused severe damage to the front of her car, which ended her race.
Danica Patrick Put the Martinsville Speedway Incident Behind Her
Talking to Sports Illustrated about the incident at the end of that year, Patrick said, “You can’t think about the weekend before. You can’t let one weekend spill over into the next. You just have to get over it and move on and see it as an opportunity to turn things around.”
In a similar case in 2017, NASCAR did not fine Austin Dillon when he squeezed Cole Custer into the wall under caution during the Xfinity Series race at Phoenix Raceway. When Patrick was asked for her opinion about this during a media interview before practice at the Auto Club Speedway, she said, “Give me my money back.”
Patrick added, “I think NASCAR makes a really big mistake fining for some stuff, especially something that happens in the car because it makes for good TV — just like fights and all that stuff. We can handle it. I think it’s a mistake. I might be speaking too much, but I’ve been fined a few times, and I think that it makes for good TV, and I think that we handle it out on the track ourselves.”
As a result of the collision, Patrick finished the 2015 race in 40th place. Meanwhile, in the No. 38 Ford, Gilliland finished in 24th place.