When will IndyCar’s highest-paid star, Danica Patrick, take her fans and her sponsor dollars to NASCAR, the most profitable racing series in the United States?
The latest and most solid rumor says this season in IndyCar is her last.
ESPN’s Marty Smith reported Tuesday that Patrick, who started driving stock cars part-time in 2010, is moving to NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide series full-time in 2012. The official announcement will come at a press conference at the Phoenix headquarters of GoDaddy.com, Patrick’s principal sponsor, early next week, Smith reports.
Danica Patrick’s migration to NASCAR has been a foregone conclusion since late 2009 when she began scouting teams for a part-time ride. In December, she announced that she would compete in 13 races for Deal Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports team, an offshoot of the powerful Hendrick Motorsport team.
Because of her popularity and no doubt because to the GoDaddy dollars she brings, Danica landed a seat with one of the best teams on the track. She supposed to stick with JR Racing through 2013, when other rumors have her driving a Sprint Cup car for the team of her friend Tony Stewart.
Those rumors might be premature. Sprint Cup is vastly more competitive than Nationwide. If she thrives in Nationwide, a few test drives in a Cup car would be reasonable. If not, that move might be further on down the road.
Mike Arning, spokesman for Stewart-Haas Racing, told ESPN, “Tony Stewart has always said he’d love to have her, but we’re a long ways from being at that point. From a Stewart-Haas Racing standpoint, things aren’t there yet.”
JR Racing made no comments on the issue, telling ESPN they had “nothing new to report.”
Earlier this year stories were circulating that Patrick wanted a NASCAR deal that would allow her to drive in the Indianapolis 500. There has been no word whether that will be part of her new deal.
Danica’s Progress in NASCAR
Her first-season results were not spectacular. She finished sixth in her first stock-car race, in the fourth-tier ARCA series, then qualified 15th and finished 35th in her first Nationwide race a week later. Her best finish of the season was 19th.
Patrick is scheduled to run 12 Nationwide events in 2011. Her fourth-place finish at Las Vegas in March is the best ever by a female driver in any NASCAR series.
Patrick seems to feel right at home in the big cars, pushing and shoving along with the guys; she has never been easy to intimidate, and with all that metal surrounding her hundred-pound frame, she gives as good as she gets.
Meanwhile she has struggled in IndyCar. After leading laps in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and finishing sixth overall in 2008 and fifth in 2009, she dropped to tenth in 2010 and is currently twelfth. She has only one won race in 108 starts.
Patrick has made it clear that she prefers oval tracks to road courses—most of her best finishes and her only win came on ovals. NASCAR runs 41 oval races each season and only two on road courses, while IndyCar runs a 50/50 split.
Another benefit to racing at NASCAR is the money. While her $5 million contract with Andretti Autosports is the biggest in the league, she stands to make more in NASCAR, which is many times more popular—and profitable.
The majority of her $12 million annual income currently comes from commercials and merchandise. NASCAR fans traditionally buy huge amounts of merchandise.
According to Forbes.com, top NASCAR drivers earn about $2 million annually on merchandise. Dale Earnhardt Jr., frequently voted the most popular driver, earns $7 million–$8 million annually.
Forbes speculates that if she does well in NASCAR, Patrick could challenge Maria Sharapova as the highest-paid female athlete in the world.
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