Danica Patrick: Top 5 Replacement Candidates in 2018

There has been a lot of talk about Danica Patrick possibly either retiring or being given the boot from Stewart-Haas Racing following the 2017 season. Which drivers have the best chance to replace her?

When Danica Patrick’s NASCAR Cup Series career as a full-time driver began back in 2013, she had lots of potential. She showed it right away by taking the pole for the Daytona 500, and she went on to finish in 8th place.

However, since then, things have been all downhill. In the 161 races since then, she has no poles and has only bettered that 8th place finish three times, with her career-high finish being only a 6th place finish at Atlanta in 2014. Over the past 82 races, she has only one top 10 finish, that being just a 10th place effort at Dover last month.

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At this point, she is really nothing more than a marketing ploy, as she is driving for Stewart-Haas Racing, one of the sport’s top teams, and failing to deliver decent results. Given that the novelty of her driving at NASCAR’s top level has worn off over the years coupled with the fact that she has simply not delivered, there has naturally been talk about possible retirement or even Stewart-Haas Racing letting her go.

But certainly her no longer being in NASCAR would not end the sport by any means. So instead of stopping at speculation of her retiring or Stewart-Haas Racing letting her go, here are the five drivers with the best chance to replace her in the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in 2018 if she does end up leaving the sport, however it happens.

Darrell Wallace Jr.

Darrell Wallace Jr. has only raced in four NASCAR Cup Series races in 2017 as the replacement driver for the injured Aric Almirola. However, he has been rather solid, averaging a finish of 17.75 with a top finish of 11th at Kentucky.

His results aren’t spectacular, but consider the fact that he was a replacement driver as opposed to a full-time driver as well as the fact that he was the replacement driver on just a one-car team, Richard Petty Motorsports. All things considered, he did pretty well in his replacement role.

When Danica Patrick came on as the driver of the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet in 2013, she inevitably carried with her the novelty of being a woman, something not too common in NASCAR, and she probably still does seeing as how she has never finished higher than 24th in the standings but is still driving for a top-tier team.

Darrell Wallace Jr. is a driver who appears to be better than Patrick already, and he inevitably carries with him the novelty of being an African-American, something else that is extremely rare in NASCAR. Like it did with Patrick, a novelty like this carries loads of media attention, which can benefit the sport and its fan base as a whole.

Seeing as how he has done well in his replacement role, Wallace Jr. may take his novelty one step further than Patrick did and actually score some decent results to go along with the good publicity he gets. Stewart-Haas Racing may very well give him the chance seeing as how they gave Patrick hers.

Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson is the current leader of the championship standings, and he is driving for Chip Ganassi Racing, which is just a two-car team. While he has said that he wants to stay with the team, there are no guarantees, and certainly coming to the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing team could potentially play to his advantage in the long run.

As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Larson has certainly had a great 2017 season up to this point in time, which would lead one to think that “it ain’t broke.” But it hasn’t all been great for him throughout his career. In his first two seasons with the team, he didn’t even make the playoffs, and it took until his third season for him to finally win a race.

This season, he has finally starting to show flashes of not only his potential but his true talent, and moving to a larger team could be the best move for him to continue to exploit that talent. When Tony Stewart, co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, was asked about why Kyle Larson was not driving for him, here was his reply.

If Larson does end up leaving Chip Ganassi Racing at the end of the season, you can bet that Tony Stewart will do whatever he can to get him to fill a vacant seat for Stewart-Haas Racing, with the #10 car being the car that most likely ends up with a vacant seat.

Brad Keselowski

Brad Keselowski, like Kyle Larson, has had success driving for a two-car team. In fact, Keselowski won the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series championship driving for Team Penske. But in the four seasons since winning that championship, he has just one top 5 finish in the championship standings with two finishes outside of the top 11.

A transition to a larger four-car team like Stewart-Haas Racing may be the best option for him as he continues his pursuit of his second championship. As mentioned above, he has not been at his best recently and has experienced a slight decline in production for Team Penske since he won that championship five seasons ago.

Also, seeing as how Keselowski recently called Danica Patrick one of the best female athletes of all-time, he may see it as an honor to end up in the car that she has driven for five seasons.

Keselowski has the talent, as he showed in 2012 when he won the championship. Given the fact that he has yet to sign a contract extension with Team Penske, if the option exists that would allow him to drive the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, it may very well happen.

Kasey Kahne

Kasey Kahne is like Danica Patrick in that he is driving for one of the top teams in the sport in Hendrick Motorsports, but he has not performed on a high level as of late, as he has just one top 10 finish in the championship standings since he finished in 10th way back in 2009.

The thing is, Kahne, unlike Patrick, has actually performed well over the course of his career, and he has 17 career Cup Series wins to show for it. At 37 years old, a change of scenery to another top-tier team like Stewart-Haas Racing may be the only option to see if he can, in fact, get his career back on the right track.

GreatClips, Kahne’s primary sponsor, announced that they would end their partnership with the team following this season, and one of his other sponsors, Farmer’s Insurance, also announced that they would not renew their deal with the team.

While Kahne is under contract with Hendrick Motorsports through 2018, he himself admitted that he needs to step down if he’s not performing by 2018. Without sponsors heading into 2018, however, he may leave the team after this season. He is currently way down in 22nd place in the championship standings, which would be his lowest finish in the standings since 2005 if it holds, despite having his best career two-race start to a season this season.

Perhaps the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing team would give him a chance to get his career back on the right track. After all, when he first came to the four-car Hendrick Motorsports team in 2012 in his ninth career season, he had his best career season by far, finishing in a career-high 4th place in the standings. Maybe he can replicate that success by coming to Stewart-Haas Racing to drive the #10 Ford.

Matt Kenseth

Over the course of his 18-year full-time NASCAR Cup Series career, Matt Kenseth has been about as consistent as they come. To go along with his championship in 2003, he also has six other finishes in the top 5 in the championship standings and four more in the top 10.

However, after 2017, his fifth season with Joe Gibbs Racing, Kenseth is unlikely to return to the team.

"“I do not think I will have the option to return to race at JGR next year. Unfortunately.”"

At 45 years of age, retirement is definitely on the table, but Kenseth may not be interested in calling it a career just yet.

"“I’m not really worried about it but as of today, I do not have a job for next year. Hope to still be racing.”"

While he has had a rough start to the 2017 season by his standards, particularly since he is winless through 18 races for the first time since 2014, he hasn’t really declined in production; after all, he has made the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons and has missed the playoffs just once since they began back in 2004.

Consider this. Danica Patrick currently drives the #10 car, and she has raced in 172 races and has still never finished in the top 5. Meanwhile, Matt Kenseth has finished in the top 5 in 174 races. Sure, he may be old, but he can still drive a race car, and he can certainly improve upon the quality of driving coming from the #10 car.

Next: Should Danica Patrick Go Back to the XFINITY Series?

Yes, the option exists that would allow Danica Patrick to return to the #10 car next season, but she doesn’t qualify as a replacement driver, so she is not included on this list.

Which driver do you think has the best chance to end up in the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in the 2018 season? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow me on Instagram as well as Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter. Finally, don’t forget to follow along with Beyond the Flag for the latest news, opinions and analysis stemming from a number of different motorsports series. You don’t want to miss any of it.