Danica Patrick, hanging out at the Hard Rock

If Danica Patrick plans to win her first IndyCar Series race this weekend at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, she'll have to drive better than she did Wednesday in Tampa. Patrick was among the drivers who took part in a charity remote-control car race at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. She was paired with Bay News 9's Virginia Johnson, and together they endured more flipouts and fender-benders than we could count. "That’s why I’m leery of doing these sorts of things," Patrick said. "If people feel like they beat me in some way, they feel like they can beat me as a race car driver. There are going to be a lot of people here that think they can probably beat me in racing."

Arie Luyendyk Jr. and 101.5-WPOI The Point's Corey Dylan won the 20-lap race, bringing in $5,000 for All Children's Hospital. (The Hard Rock also donated $1,000 apiece to the Children's Cancer Ceter, the Ryan Neece Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Awww.) If you'd like to bid on the battle-damaged cars, check out WPOI's Web site in the near future; they'll be auctioning the 18-inch hot wheels off.

Check out Thursday's tbt* for a one-on-one with Danica. In the meantime, Luis Santana of tbt* snagged some footage of her and the other drivers racing. (Danica's car is the blue one.)

(Photos/video: Luis Santana/tbt*)

Comments

[Gail]

Don't let the video fool you. I was there, when Danica had the controls she was running very well. However when Virginia (who is very nice but NOT a good driver) took the controls thats when the car was crashing. Misleading video