Hour 9

Danica Patrick took over the controls from Casey Mears and put in a solid effort with the No. 2 Gentleman Jack Pontiac Crawford. She put down very respectable laps in the 1:45-second range in the dark.

"It ended up being pretty fun by the end. I was in a comfortable rhythm. I'd have to say just from the lack of experience in these cars that I'd like a triple stint just from a rhythm standpoint. It was a little rough to start. We were running low on front (brake) pads  but planned on changing them sometime during my time in the car. So, after I complained about not being able to stop the car, they made the change and made it very quickly. I was surprised how quickly it went on my first stint (pit) stop.

"I really felt I could put the Gentleman Jack car where I wanted it and brake where I wanted to more and more. There was a restart after we'd come in and changed the pads and tires and there was probably 20 some GT cars in front of me. Just carving through them was kinda fun ... in IndyCar, we just don't do that much passing so it was kinda fun just zinging around people.

"I think for me, when I drove the car the first time at the test (Jan. 2-5), it was in the dark. The apexes in the corners are in shadows but the brake zones are in the light so you can't quite see where you're braking to. But once you've done it in the daylight a few times, it's a lot easier so maybe I'll be a lot quicker when I drive in the daylight."

Patrick was running 30th when she handed over the wheel of the Childress-Howard Motorsports entry to Andy Wallace to begin his second stint at 12:25 a.m. At the end of 10 hours of competition, at 1:30 a.m., the No. 2 Gentleman Jack entry was running 25th, 27 laps off the pace of leader Dario Franchitti in the No. 02 entry.