Danica Patrick finishes season with an 18th-place result

Danica Patrick battled to an 18th-place finish after starting 32nd in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season Finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The driver of the No. 10 Florida Lottery/GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) notched her 14th top-20 result of 2014. Last year, she finished in the top-20 nine times.

“The Florida Lottery/GoDaddy Chevrolet was pretty good,” Patrick said. “We moved up pretty quickly on the start but stayed around 20th most of the day. We were at our best at the end and finished in the top-20. The pit stops were good, and I’m proud of the Florida Lottery/GoDaddy crew. It is a long year for everyone, but we improved in a lot of areas.”

After moving up at the start, Patrick battled with the handling on her car for much of the race. Crew chief Daniel Knost made many adjustments with track bar and tire pressure to try and get the car right. At one point late in the race, Patrick said the car was the best it had been all day. But after the next stop it went back to its old ways, and the best finish she could muster was 18th.

Patrick made major strides in 2014, including average better starts (22.3 in 2014 vs. 30.1 in 2013) and better finishes (23.7 vs. 26.1). She had three top-10 finishes in 2014, triple the lone top-10 of last year.

“We did improve this year, and I hope we do better in 2015,” Patrick said. “And congrats to Kevin Harvick for winning the championship. He did great. And thanks to Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch for also being good teammates. Looking forward to next year.”