NASCAR: Retirement Might Be On The Horizon For Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick isn’t the most popular driver in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series but she is one of the most known names in the world of Motorsports. Unfortunately, notoriety hasn’t equaled success and retirement might be sooner than some fans think.
Is 2017 the final year that Danica Patrick runs in the NASCAR Cup Series? While the answer might not be yes, the asking of the question seems to be more appropriate than some fans might realize.
Patrick is no longer a rookie in NASCAR, the 35-year-old is now a veteran of the sport and closer to the end of her career than she is the beginning. Gone are the days of writers like myself wondering if this is going to be the year for Patrick. Those days have been replaced with the understanding that what we have with her is most likely the most that we are going to get.
Given where she is in her career and life, questions of retirement are going to start to come up more often with Patrick. Last week while launching her new clothing line on HSN, she was asked about when her racing career might come to an end. Patrick was asked a similar question before the 2017 season began and she was very candid in her response.
"As long as it’s fun – and it hasn’t been super fun lately. But every year I start the year, I always have hope that it’s going to be the year that things are going to click. I understand my career hasn’t progressed.Maybe it’s regressed? Why is that? Am I worse driver than I was a couple of years ago? Probably not. I don’t think anybody gets worse. So it’s really a matter of all the factors around you."
By the numbers Patrick has improved each season that she has been in NASCAR. Granted, her improvement has been minimal, but improvement is improvement. After her first full season in 2013 her average finish was 26th, after 2016 it was 22nd, and it rose each year in 2014 and 2015 as well. That being said, Patrick has never won a race, had a top-five finish, finished higher than 24th in the standings or had more than 20 lead-lap finishes in a season.
Aside from her career seeming to have plateaued, she also seems to want to have a family. The idea of marriage and children is something that has been in the air regarding her and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for some time now. If the family thing is to happen, Patrick will obviously have to step away from racing.
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All in all it only seems natural to assume that Patrick will walk away from NASCAR sooner rather than later. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t love the sport or that her career was a failure, it just means that the time is about to be right. If you’re a fan of Patrick, it might be time for you to come to terms with this.