Danica Patrick doesn't give Brad Keselowski extra room

• Patrick has career best finish in Sprint Cup with new crew chief Tony Gibson
• Brad Keselowski overruns pit box, wishes Patrick had given him more room to exit
• Keselowski's crew chief Paul Wolfe says Patrick 'isn't doing us any favors'

FORT WORTH — Danica Patrick finished on the lead lap for the first time in a Sprint Cup race in Sunday's AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but her career-best 24th wasn't the only way she made headlines.

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver had the pit stall in front of runner-up Brad Keselowski, and his No. 2 Penske Racing team wasn't pleased with the amount of room Patrick left for Keselowski's exit.

On his penultimate stop of the race, Keselowski was leading when he locked his brakes entering the stall and lost eight spots while his crew pushed his Dodge back so he could maneuver around Patrick.

Keselowski, who trails Jimmie Johnson by seven points in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with two races remaining, admitted his error but also seemed to agree with crew chief Paul Wolfe, who had radioed on previous stops that Patrick's No. 10 Chevrolet "isn't doing us any favors."

"It was probably a little bit of both and starting on my side," said Keselowski, who entered his stall well before Patrick on that stop. "I've got to take the blame where blame is deserved, and I felt we could have gotten a little more help from (Patrick). In that particular case, it probably wouldn't have made a significant difference, but it would have made a difference."

Patrick seemed pleased by the impact made by Tony Gibson, who was in the first of two races as her crew chief this season before taking the role in her full-time move to Sprint Cup next year.

She started 32nd and ran in the top 25 for much of the race in improving on her previous best of 25th at Chicagoland Speedway.

"We had a really nice first weekend," said Patrick, who crashed in her last Sprint Cup race while trying to wreck Landon Cassill. "It was really steady from the beginning. The car unloaded, and it had speed right off the get-go. We just kept on improving with it. I felt like it was a nice progression where I actually felt like I knew I why I went faster, and I knew why I went slower. Those yellows at the end, I just didn't do a good enough job on those restarts and lost a whole bunch of spots. I always feel so defeated at the end of the race when that happens.

"Tony Gibson did such a good job. I'm really looking forward to next year."

Said Gibson: "She ran with guys that she's never run with before, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin. To come here and run on the lead lap and a shot at a top-20 was pretty impressive."