Danica Patrick and her management team are working on a plan that would bring her full-time to NASCAR in 2012, sources said Tuesday. Patrick hopes to finalize a deal soon that would have her race full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series next season. She would also race a few Sprint Cup events in 2012 before going full-time to Cup in 2013. The plan includes Patrick continuing to compete in the Indianapolis 500 next year. Which team she will race for and how the details will work out are still being finalized, sources said. GoDaddy.com, which sponsors her Indy car and the car she drives in the Nationwide Series, is expected to stay with her if she moves to NASCAR full-time. Her contracts with Andretti Autosport in the IndyCar Series and JR Motorsports in the Nationwide Series end after this year. Patrick said last week at Indianapolis that she hasn’t made any decisions about her future.(ESPN.com)(5-24-2011)
UPDATE: Tony Stewart says he’d be interested in signing Danica Patrick if she moves to NASCAR’s top series. Stewart is the owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, and is always looking for opportunties to grow the team from two to four cars. He’s given Patrick advice during her trial period in NASCAR, and moving full-time from IndyCar is a possibility when her contract ends later this year. Stewart said Wednesday he’s not had talks with Patrick about driving for SHR. He also said he would not field a Nationwide Series team for Patrick.(Associated Press)
AND Danica Patrick on Wednesday said there was “no truth” to an ESPN report that her and her management team were working on plans for a fulltime NASCAR schedule in 2012. SI.com’s Bruce Martin, in a previously-scheduled interview with Patrick on Wednesday in Indianapolis, asked her for her reaction to the report. Here was Patrick’s complete response: “I’m watching TV and see it scroll across the bottom of the screen. I don’t know where it came from but it’s all speculation. Anybody can speculate that and write that. I don’t know where it came from but there is no truth to it; it’s just speculation,” she said. “It’s no different than it was last month or even last year. There is nothing new in it.”(Charlotte Observer)(5-25-2011)
UPDATE 2: Bob Parsons, CEO and founder of Danica Patrick sponsor GoDaddy.com, said Sunday he expects her to make the move full-time to NASCAR next season. “She hasn’t told me she will, but I believe she will and we’ll be ready,” Parsons said. “Here’s the fact: She loves [NASCAR], it’s much more exciting than IndyCar, with all due respect, and the TV audience for NASCAR is off the hook.” Parsons was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday to watch Patrick compete in the event. Patrick is working on a plan to race full-time in the Nationwide Series is 2012 and move to Sprint Cup in 2013, sources confirmed earlier this week. “She came up to me right after she did her first NASCAR race [the 2010 Nationwide race at Daytona],” Parson said. “She said to me, ‘I absolutely loved it. This is what I was born to do.’ ” Parsons emphasized he is behind her whatever decision she makes. “As long as I can stroke the check,” he said. “I tell you what, she doesn’t exactly work for minimum wage. I usually don’t get into that too much until the decision’s been made. But I’ve told her I would sponsor her if she started ice skating.”(ESPN.com)(5-29-2011)
