By Aaron Burns

Danica Patrick’s finish wasn’t indicative of how competitive she was on Sunday in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

Patrick qualified 29th and finished two laps down in 22nd, but it wasn’t as much a product of poor performance as it was a need for better track position.

The story in Sunday’s race was the same as the previous week’s event at Charlotte Motor Speedway: If you had track position, you kept it. If you lost it, you didn’t get it back.

Patrick didn’t start with good track position and on a track that has proven increasingly difficult to pass – but not impossible, as Joey Logano showed – it made for a difficult afternoon.

She wasn’t alone there.

Patrick and the Cup tour heads to Talladega next, a place at which she’s run well in the past. And a place where she could lead plenty of laps this time around.