Next season Danica Patrick will run the entire NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule in a third car for Stewart Haas Racing. That has not stopped the Go Daddy driver from looking for additional opportunity’s to race in 2013.
Patrick has raced in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports driving the No. 7 car for 55 races over the last two seasons. Whether she will continue to see seat time in that car is undetermined.
JR Motorsports signed Regan Smith to run the entire season in the No. 5 car and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will race at Daytona for the team with sponsorship coming from TaxSlayer. TaxSlayer recently signed a long term deal with JR Motorsports which calls for them to sponsor 17 races next season.
Cole Whitt is currently drive the team’s No. 88 car but thus far they have been unable to find enough sponsorship to put together a full season worth of races.
Ideally the team would have two full time teams and a third team for races in which Earnhardt or other drivers competed in.
“I would love to do a dozen or so races next year in the Nationwide Series,” Patrick said Thursday at Texas Motor Speedway. “I would like to do some that are really challenging tracks that are good for just getting laps on to help in the Cup car.”
It is also no secret that Patrick would like to run the Indianapolis 500 this year. Following the Indianapolis 500, Patrick would then race NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, the series longest race of the season.
“I love that event,” she said of the Indy 500. “I would love to try to do it again. & We’ve been working hard for months now but we’re no further along to say anything right now.”
