Danica Patrick Finalizes 2012 NASCAR Schedule

We finally know where Danica Patrick’s 10th and final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start will take place this season: At Kansas Speedway in October.

Patrick’s 10th race had been TBA ever since she announced the schedule last year, but it was finally released today. Stewart-Haas Racing chose Kansas because the newly repaved track will allow for an extra test day – and Patrick needs all the track time she can get.

Danica Patrick entered Friday night’s Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway confident and thinking it was her best chance to score her maiden NASCAR win.

But her night came to an unexpected end on lap 84, when Patrick was left with nowhere to go when Jeffrey Earnhardt was turned off of Turn 2. In the ensuing chaos, Patrick’s car veered sideways and savagely hit the backstretch wall.

Danica Patrick will win tonight’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway...according to Danica Patrick.

Well, kind of.

Danica Patrick was Villeneuve’d out of a top-five finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America – she got spun out by human wrecking ball Jacques Villeneuve – and now her JR Motorsports team is weighing in with a funny video.

It wasn’t so much Villeneuve’s actions on Saturday that bothered people, but his response to the incident. He told ESPN afterward that Patrick’s spin “had nothing to do with me, so I really don’t care.”

Despite some setbacks this season – her first full-time campaign in the NASCAR Nationwide Series – Danica Patrick prefers to focus on the positives instead of dwelling on her lackluster finishes.

“I could sort of go through all the the things I think have been better over the year so far – and there’s been quite a few of them,” she said Friday at Michigan International Speedway. “So instead of getting upset about the individual weekends and the results, it’s better to think about what you’ve improved on and the things you need to improve on moving forward so your results keep getting better.”

This hasn’t been a very good NASCAR season for Danica Patrick, and now even one of the trailers carrying her branded merchandise has found some trouble.

Patrick’s souvenir hauler was rear-ended by another truck on Thursday while en route from Eldora Speedway in Ohio to Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania. According to a picture circulating Twitter, the cab of the other truck went all the way into the rear end of Patrick’s hauler (the driver’s condition is unknown).

Danica Patrick, meet Sonic the Hedgehog.

In an upcoming video game titled Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Patrick will be a free playable character where gamers will have the opportunity to race across land, air and water in vehicles that are fully transformable.

Danica Patrick made it official this afternoon: The Go Daddy girl is coming to NASCAR on a full-time basis in 2012.

What will this mean for Danica, for NASCAR and for race fans? SB Nation’s Jeff Gluck and Jay Pennell attempted to tackle that question and more below.

The tease is over, but the hype has just begun.

Danica Patrick will finally reveal Thursday that she’s coming to NASCAR on a full-time basis in 2012. Patrick is expected to announce her plans at the Arizona headquarters of sponsor GoDaddy.com.

ESPN is reporting that Danica Patrick will formally announce her intent to move to NASCAR full-time in 2012 next week, according to sources.

Patrick also reportedly plans to enter some Sprint Cup races next season with the intention to move to Sprint Cup full-time in a multiyear deal with Stewart-Haas in 2013.

Following an Associated Press report earlier in the week that Danica Patrick was close to completing a deal to run the full Nationwide Series schedule for JR Motorsports in 2012, team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. remained quiet on the rumors on Friday at Pocono Raceway.

Earnhardt Jr. said there was no news on the Danica front, adding he is not in the middle of negotiations but nothing has changed over the past week.

Danica Patrick is coming to NASCAR full-time next year in the Nationwide Series, and is likely to run seven Sprint Cup Series races for Stewart-Haas Racing, reports the Associated Press.

But if Patrick really wants use those seven Cup races to prepare for her future, the best place to make her major-league debut would be on NASCAR’s biggest stage: The Daytona 500.