“It's just a lot of people dive-bombing”: When Danica Patrick expressed her frustrations against NASCAR drivers including Dale Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick are some of the most well-known personalities in the world of American motorsports. While the duo have long hung up their racing boots, there was an incident back in the day (2017), when tensions arose between them during a NASCAR race.

In the 2017 edition of the race at Sonoma, Danica Patrick had a potent car underneath her. She was comfortably running in the top 10 until lap 15 when everything went wrong for her.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. made contact with Patrick's car twice in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, and it ultimately led to the latter finishing the race in P17. She was not very pleased with her outing as she compared the Cup Series race to what it's like in IndyCar.

"It's just a lot of people dive-bombing, and it's part of what makes road-course racing exciting in a stock car because you don't climb wheels [like an IndyCar]. You just bump fenders. It just wasn't the day we expected to have today. Someday, though, it will go the other way. At least we took off competitive when everything was all squared off," Patrick said after the race [via ESPN].

To rub more salt into the 42-year-old's wound, Earnhardt Jr. ended his outing with a strong sixth-place finish.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in the 'wrong place' during first contact with Danica Patrick

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (88) and Danica Patrick (10) during the 59th running of the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Daytona 500 - Source: Getty

While Danica Patrick came up with some strong words following the 2017 race in Sonoma, Dale Earnhardt Jr. took some of the blame for the first contact. The stock car racing icon felt that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Wrong place, wrong time. Danica was trying to protect her position, and I went even lower than we normally go. It's real slick down there, and I just locked up the rear tires. That was kind of a racing deal. I'll take some of the responsibility for sure," Earnhardt Jr. replied.

Danica Patrick's last competitive outing in NASCAR came at the 2018 Daytona 500. Moreover, during her Cup Series career, she managed 191 race starts. In the process of doing so, she also amassed seven top-ten finishes alongside a solitary pole position.

Following her last overall outing at the 2018 Indianapolis 500 (IndyCar), she has switched to becoming a pundit for motorsports like NASCAR, IndyCar, and also Formula 1. Dale Earnhardt Jr., on the other hand, has also switched to commenting majorly on NASCAR (stock car racing) from 2018 onwards.

The 50-year-old had a legendary career in the Cup Series, wherein he amassed a whopping 631 race starts and managed 26 victories, 260 top-tens, and 15 pole positions. His last outing in the competition came at the 2017 Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead).