Crew members examine the damage on Danica Patrick's car after a crash during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Coca-Cola 600 auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Sunday, May 26, 2013.
Patrick left the first racing rough patch with boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the track.
At home, the relationship is still smooth sailing.
Patrick and Stenhouse escaped for some relaxation on a boat after their first dust-up on the track since the NASCAR rookies announced in January they were dating. NASCAR's power couple rubbed each other the wrong way during Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 after Stenhouse drove his car into the side of Patrick's car and effectively ended her race.
There was no escaping the relationship doghouse for Stenhouse — the two shared a ride home.
"You don't not talk about it because you're riding home together," Patrick said Wednesday. "There's a few silent moments for sure, many moments. I was upset. I wasn't necessarily strictly just upset at him. He was there three wide as part of the issue."
Patrick was racing in the middle of the three-wide pack when she was hit by Stenhouse and collided with Brad Keselowski. Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet suffered serious damage and she finished 29th, her sixth straight result of 25th or worse in her first full season in Sprint Cup.
"I've always given him a lot of room and he's done the same for me," Patrick said. "It was just one of those situations where we're on a restart and we're all trying to dig for what we can."
Unlike her dinged-up car, the two were quickly on the mend.
"We'll be fine. We're fine," she said. "We had a lovely day on the boat, on the lake, got a sun tan."
Sounds like fun. At least, more fun than a weekend at the track, where Patrick is off to a rocky start as a Cup regular. She swept the sport and herself into the national spotlight when she won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished a solid eighth. But Patrick finished 39th the following race in Phoenix and has no finished no better than 12th in any race outside of Daytona.
"There's a lot of things to be really excited about," Stewart said. "I hope four weeks from now, we can come back here and say, `Yes, we have the answers.'"
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