Danica will run Nationwide full time, Cup part time in 2012

Danica will run Nationwide full time, Cup part time in 2012

 

Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(August 2, 2011)

 

Danica Patrick is finalizing a deal to run a full Nationwide Series schedule for JR Motorsports and a partial Cup schedule with Stewart-Haas Racing next season, according to The Associated Press.

 

JR Motorsports spokesman Mike Davis and Patrick agent Mark Dyer declined to comment on the report.

 

It has been widely speculated that if Patrick moved from IndyCar to NASCAR full time, she would run the full Nationwide schedule for JRM, where she has run partial schedules the past two years with sponsorship from GoDaddy.com.

 

She also is expected to compete in select Sprint Cup races with Tony Stewart’s Stewart-Haas Racing, according to AP.

 

Stewart-Haas co-owner Tony Stewart said in May he hadn’t talked to Patrick about next year but was interested in having her join his organization.

 

Patrick, 29, whose fourth-place finish at Las Vegas was the highest of any female in a national NASCAR touring series race, has one IndyCar victory but likely will leave open-wheel racing behind after 2011.

 

“I’m racing (part time) in NASCAR, and I’ve not made anyone wonder whether or not I like it,” Patrick said at Daytona last month. “Other than that, these things, as I’ve said from the beginning of the year, are complicated and they take time.

 

“Whether I’m coming here or not has yet to be signed, sealed and delivered. And I might not be. Only time will tell.”

 

Patrick is 11th in the IndyCar standings driving for team owner Michael Andretti.