Not to be outdone, FOX reporter Michael Waltrip walked down pit road before the race and informed Stenhouse about Patrick’s answer to the hypothetical question. As one media observer noted, both interviews were rather awkward and raised questions: Would Patrick really say “no” to a question like that in an interview? Did someone at FOX tip off Stenhouse or his PR rep about that live interview encounter?
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“Of course Patrick is going to say yes,” noted Nick Bromberg of Yahoo! Sports. “While she may be polarizing, she’s very polished and she’s not going to admit to Darrell Waltrip and the NASCAR viewing audience if she didn’t see a long-term future with her boyfriend of over two years. She’s fully aware of the reaction she’d cause with an answer opposite of the one she gave.”
Patrick currently stands 17th in the Sprint Cup standings, 10 spots ahead of Stenhouse.
