Being caught in the middle of her boss and her boyfriend, Danica Patrick leaned towards team owner Tony Stewart in his desire to 'choke' boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. following Stenhouse's causing Patrick to crash during Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 race.
The incident involved Stenhouse, coming up from behind Patrick in the middle of the pack during the race, and nudging his car into hers, causing the new female NASCAR rookie star to crash into another driver, Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, causing damage to both of their cars this past weekend during the race.
While the couple has reportedly made up, Patrick made light of Stewart's recent comments that he wanted to 'choke' fellow NASCAR rookie Stenhouse following the race.
"Don't you want to choke your kids every now and again?" she said Friday at Dover International Speedway as she laughed with reporters. "Everyone wants to choke their kids or their dad or their son or their significant other at times. I think that's a comment out of love, no doubt."
Stewart told Sirius XM Radio that he was upset with Stewart for doing too much blocking during the race, though he did not name Patrick, who works with his team, as an example of anyone who suffered in the race because of it.
"Everybody that thinks this crap of blocking is productive, they don't know honestly what racing is all about," Stewart said. "And the guys that do it who think it's acceptable, I lose respect for them every day."
However, despite his comments, Patrick insisted that both Stewart and Stenhouse ironed out their differences after the race.
"They had a conversation about Sunday night," Patrick said. "(Stewart) loves him like a son, so you'd never try and hurt your son, you'd only try and help your son. That's the moral of that story."
"You say (you'd choke someone) because you can't do it."
Patrick admitted that she was less than pleased with her new boyfriend after the crash. Neither racer spoke to reporters immediately following the crash on Sunday and left together in the same car on the way home.
"I was definitely upset and angry about the situation," Patrick said. "I was a little bit upset with him. Yeah, I was and we talked about it. It's absolutely fine now and we were fine by the end of the ride home. That's what happens out there. Tensions are high and so are emotions."
However, the two went out on a boat afterwards and have returned to normal after the incident. Since the two went public with their relationship earlier this year, a lot of attention has gone towards Patrick and Stenhouse's relationship, in part due to the attention Patrick, who has become a female ambassador for the sport of race car driving, has received in her rookie season in NASCAR.
And yet, Patrick has not been reluctant to answer questions about her love life from the press.
"We're just very honest and keep things simple," she said. "We didn't even talk about what we should say. The only thing to know is that we are just honest about the things that happened and it was a racing incident. We're going to give our perspectives on what it was. I understand it's interesting. I'm sure I would want to know how that all went down after the race too. We're an entertainment sport, so I get it."
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