Danica Patrick Announces Full Plan For Final NASCAR Start

(NASCAR Wire Service)

Danica Patrick after winning the pole for the 2013 Daytona 500 (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)

By Holly Cain ~ NASCAR Wire Service

Only four days after confirming that her longtime sponsor GoDaddy would sponsor her final Daytona 500 attempt next month, Danica Patrick announced Monday she will make that last NASCAR start driving the No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro with Premium Motorsports.

The team will be led by crew chief Tony Eury Jr. who served in the same role when Patrick first debuted in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series from 2010-12.

The Premium Motorsports team recently purchased the assets from Tommy Baldwin Racing, who owned the car Patrick ran in her first Daytona 500 in 2012.

“I keep saying I couldn’t have written a better story about how this would all fall into place – going with the flow is working out beautifully,’’ Patrick said. “I’ll be back in GoDaddy green, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet with Tony Jr. in my ear again. It all makes my last NASCAR race just that much sweeter.”

Patrick, 35, is doing the “Danica Double” this season, finishing her history-making career with runs in the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 – two races that have defined her career.

Patrick became the first woman to win the pole for the Daytona 500 in 2013 and her five laps led in that race marked the first laps ever led by a woman in NASCAR’s biggest event. Her eighth-place finish in that race is also a historic best. And she added another eighth place at the track in the 2014 July race.

Her impressive track record and the opportunity to send Patrick off in a competitive effort was all it took to convince Eury to lead the effort.

“It wouldn’t be just any opportunity that could coax me back to the pit box, working with Danica and GoDaddy again at Daytona is going to be fun,” Eury said. “When you can do what you love and be in your element. .. well, I can tell you, it doesn’t get any better.’’

Patrick announced last November that she was stepping away from racing competition in order to culminate her career in these two high-profile events – races that she has made historically significant contributions.

In addition to her NASCAR turn at the Daytona 500, Patrick was the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500. Her 19 laps out front there is record-book material along with her historic finish of third place in 2009. In fact, she has top-10 finishes in six of her seven Indy 500 starts.

Patrick’s best showing in fulltime Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition is a sixth place run at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2014 – one of seven top-10s in five years of fulltime Cup competition.

Comments

  1. NH MOD CHASER says

    Their you go Doug your girlfriend bought her ride with a guarantee starting spot..What an accomplishment..

  2. Perhaps this will be another opportunity to play kick the chick as she retires. Regardless these two races she has special deals on are the kind of special interest story that is only beneficial to racing. With Earnhart retiring story lines are needed and Danica provides one that is desperately needed. No she won’t do very well most likely nor will she gain any respect among the audience here as has already been made clear. But it is impossible to argue that she currently stands as the most successful women in IndyCar and NASCAR racing. That it’s inspiring to women to see her on the track. And that many have used her failures to overshadow her firsts for a woman in a male dominated sport. And those voices hailing her failures have been helped by a media that seems more interested on whom she is dating or helping her with her latest marketing effort then stressing her racing firsts for a woman.
    She’s Danica Inc. Not cuddly, not reserved nor any outdated stereotype of what a woman should be. She did it her way and she’ll go out her way with a bucket full of opportunity and the reigning most successful woman in top level, turn left racing.

  3. Thank you NH Mod Chaser for chiming in with the mockery and taunt. Girlfriend, really, never gets old does it? May I suggest that just once you consider not delivering as predicted in your mind numbingly and tedious way and just once deliver a unique perspective that doesn’t reek with angry geezer.

  4. Doug, to add to the conversation, I would not call her the MOST successful female racer ever in Indy or Nascar. And, I agree, Mod Chasers comment was a little (or a lot) out of line.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Guthrie

  5. Certainly a case could be made for Janet Guthrie seeing as how she was racing when the barriers for women were even greater. In the big picture I see it as Shirley (don’t call be Cha Cha) Muldowney as the first of the truly successful women in racing in the NHRA. Patrick the most successful based on highest achieved qualifying and finish results in two premier series and Guthrie an unquestioned pioneer.
    Honorable mention locally to Alexandra Fearn and Nicole Chambrello that routinely are voted most popular in their divisions at Stafford because a lot of women and girls fill in their names in the voting. And each is a multiple winner as well.

  6. OK I’ll admit I’m wrong. Guthrie had some pretty outstanding finishes in Nascar and Indy car that shocked the racing world at the time. Unlike Danica, Guthrie was essentially forced out by the lack of sponsorship making her accomplishments all that much more impressive. She gets the clear nod as not only the pioneer for women in turn left racing but the greatest of all time.

  7. How come nobody comments on the 20 or so male drivers that she beats every week. Most races start 43 cars. She mainly ends in the low 20’s finishing position. That means she has just beat all the guys that finish behind her every week. Now one of you naysayers will comment that the last 20 cars have inferior equipment. To that I say, if the entire field qualifies within 1 or 2 seconds of each other, their equipment can’t be all that inferior. In some of the Bristol races all cars qualify within 1 second of each other. That is some close racing.

  8. Henry Lecomte says

    Go Daddy sounds more like Sugar Daddy it’s not who u know but who u blo

  9. Don’t forget Nicole Morgillo in your list of women honorable mentions.

  10. Danica may not win races or even place in the top 10 most days but the unseen unmentioned things she did for our beloved sport are historical. Not going to rattle off stats but she brought the sport to the next level on multiple fronts She is a woman of integrity determination and conviction and is no joke. Google her and check out the images this woman is a model of fitness she always gave it her best efforts on and off the track and will always be thought of as the woman who changed NASCAR. Hopefully more women come to race in the future

  11. Not to beat a dead horse but last year Rob P, she had 1 top 10 in 36 races. She crashed out 10 times, and finished laps down in 24/36 races or in 2/3 of the races (66% of the time). If she was a he, he’d be done. She was good for NASCAR and a good ambassador for the sport especially for young girls, no question. But as a driver? These “results” are beyond pedestrian and it is time for her to move on.

  12. To say there are male drivers she regularly beats should not be the issue, and her gender should not matter either.The fact that she kept her quality ride so long with lackluster results seems to be the order of the day male or female.So the “if he were a she” argument falls flat.Makes me crazy when I see a guy like Preece struggle for a ride.

  13. art, imagine if Preece was in the cars Danica had the last few years.

  14. Apparently the Daytona car is ready complete with paint scheme.
    http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/02/02/danica-patricks-last-nascar-car-debuts.html
    No word on the Indy car yet. Drivers seem to think she will be a marketing hit for the race but said her success depends on how good a car she gets. All the complaining about her NASCAR accomplishments or lack of was not a case in Indy Car where she was very competitive. Some drivers expressed concern the cars are so much different now she will have to plan on a sharp learning curve.

  15. “Some drivers expressed concern the cars are so much different now she will have to plan on a sharp learning curve.”

    When it comes to racing, learning doesn’t appear to be her strong suit.

  16. Might not be an informed comment Kenny as far as Indy Car is concerned. She had many top 10 finishes.

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