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Danica 'angry,' 'disappointed' after car catches fire

Michelle R. Martinelli

HOMESTEAD, Fla. - This is certainly not how Danica Patrick wanted her last NASCAR race as a full-time driver to go, and the sadness she felt about her race exit was obvious.

Patrick's race was over after she completed just 139 laps of the 267-lap Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday when she hit the wall between turns three and four, eventually losing a front tire and having her car fill with smoke once it caught fire. To make matters worse, when she hit the wall, Kasey Kahne was directly behind her and had nowhere to go and slammed into her.

"I feel angry," Patrick said after being cleared by the infield medical care center. "I'm disappointed that it was my fault that I got the tire rub and caught the wall. …

"There was smoke in the car, they thought it looked alright, but it wasn't. So it felt like the story of the year and what has pushed me to the decision that I ended up making. It just seemed like every time things were going better, something would happen - my fault or sometimes not my fault - so this is another case of that. It was just fun for a little while there at the end."

While it was a tough way to exit her final race as a full-time driver - something she announced Friday - Patrick pointed out the silver lining. She plans to race in NASCAR's Daytona 500 in February and IndyCar's Indy 500 in May.

"There's still racing in my future and still 1000 miles to go," she said.

Patrick also spoke to NBC about the crash.

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