Danica Patrick announces retirement from full-time racing

Danica Patrick will not race full-time after the conclusion of the current NASCAR season, but the celebrated driver will race in the 2018 Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500 before she wraps up her racing career.

An emotional Patrick made the announcement Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the site of the season-ending NASCAR Cup Series championship race on Sunday. Fighting back tears, the 35-year-old said she was “grateful for all the opportunities.”

Patrick’s father, mother, sister, brother-in-law, and her boyfriend, NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., were in attendance during the announcement. Several times Patrick had to stop and compose herself.

“I feel like I should be doing this,” Patrick said. “Sometimes we just get kind of nudged there. Sometimes we get big nudges and sometimes it’s little. I’ve never had sponsor issues. It made me think about things. I’m excited about the next phase, trust me.”

Patrick began racing in NASCAR on a part-time basis in 2010 with much fanfare after becoming the highest-finishing female driver in the Indianapolis 500 (third, 2009) and the first to win an IndyCar race. She left open-wheel racing and shifted to NASCAR full-time in 2012, first in the Xfinity Series then in Cup beginning in 2013.

Patrick is the only woman to have led laps in both the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. And her ability on the track and her marketability off it transformed her into one of the most famous athletes in the world.

In addition to her racing career, Patrick also appeared in 14 Super Bowl commercials.

But Patrick’s on-track struggles in recent years have caused her star power to diminish, impacting her ability to attract the necessary sponsorship to remain associated with top-tier teams. She announced in September she was leaving Stewart-Haas Racing, co-owned by three-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, due to a lack of sponsorship and as other seats filled her options to remain in NASCAR became limited.

Although Patrick had long said she would never again race in the Indianapolis 500, her mind began changing when her prospects of finding an upper-echelon NASCAR ride failed to materialize. When her agent Alan Miller presented her with the idea earlier in the year about concluding her at career at Daytona, Patrick said she blurted out, “What about Indy?” which got the wheels motion.

Patrick did not disclose which team(s) she will join to race in the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, but said she was “down the line” with several organizations and an announcement would come later.

“I don’t even know why I said it necessarily, but it was really the first idea that got me really excited,” Patrick said. “… I’m still surprised. It came from my heart and I think it’s going to be awesome.”

Patrick had seven top-10 finishes in 189 Cup starts, with a best of sixth. She made seven starts in the Indianapolis 500 from 2005-11, placing in the top 10 six times.