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Patrick makes jump to stock cars
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photo
Driver Danica Patrick displays the car that she will drive full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series circuit and select Sprint Cup races during an auto racing news conference Thursday, Aug 25, 2011, in Scottsdale, Ariz. After months of skirting speculation, Patrick announced Thursday that she's leaving IndyCar in 2012 to run a full Nationwide schedule with JR Motorsports and up to 10 Sprint Cup races for Stewart-Haas Racing. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Danica Patrick, one of the most famous female athletes in the United States, has a new full-time home: NASCAR.
Patrick confirmed her move from the IndyCar Series to NASCAR in an announcement Thursday at the headquarters of her racing sponsor, GoDaddy.com.
The 29-year-old driver, who has competed in 20 Nationwide Series events for JR Motorsports since the start of 2010, will drive in the Nationwide Series for JRM in 2012. She also will compete in about 8-10 Sprint Cup events for Stewart-Haas Racing next year. She said her goal for 2013 is a full-time Sprint Cup ride, but that — as well as whether she will compete in the 2012 Daytona 500 — is still to be determined.
“I’m very excited to finally say it,” Patrick said. “From the first time I got out of the car in the ARCA race at Daytona [in 2010], it was the most fun I ever had in a racecar. It probably had to do with the bumping, but it was the most fun I ever had in a car and I think that really started it all and it went from there.
“I’m excited to start the next chapter. … I’m ready to go.”
Patrick is the third-highest paid female athlete, according to Forbes, with estimated earnings of $12 million annually.
“There is no doubt in my mind that she’s putting 100 percent into it [when she’s here],” Stewart said earlier this year. “You talk to her on the weekends … she’s got really good questions. She’s not just asking questions to ask questions. She’s asking very smart questions and you can tell she’s not doing this just to do it.”
Apparently open-wheel racing is where she no longer wants to be. Patrick has competed in the IndyCar Series since 2005. She is the only female to win in the series (Japan, 2008) and the only female to lead a lap in the Indianapolis 500.
She will make this season her last on the IndyCar side for the foreseeable future.