Racing History is Made by Danica Patrick in Las Vegas

Danica Patrick made history in Las Vegas where no one expected her to garner headlines all across the nation, pulling off the best finish made by a female driver in a major NASCAR Series She was competing in the Sam's Town 300 and one of the reasons that no one was expecting her to do as well as she did was that she lost two laps against a field of world class drivers. However, she came back with an incredible recovery that left here in fourth place when the race was all over, and a place in Motorsport history for a long time to come.

Anyone who watched the practice sessions on Thursday and Friday would have been surprised by the ending of Saturday's race, with practice sessions that were all over the board. She ended up qualifying at 22^nd on Saturday morning, and for a large portion of the race itself she was having trouble staying at the lead lap. On lap 47 Kyle Busch came up and passed her to put her a lap down. She took a wave around but then had to pit under a green on lap number ninety six for gasoline, which brought her two laps down.

Three different times she missed the free pass or “lucky dog” to the lead lap given to the highest lapped car after the caution flag has been thrown and she was heard on the radio lamenting her bad luck. She commented later that she felt like she had missed six or so lucky dogs between last week's race in Phoenix and this one and she admitted she was angry on the radio. She said that it was frustrating because it wasn't just a position lost, but an entire lap. Before her fourth placed finish, the record was set by Sara Christian in 1949 who took fifth place.