NASCAR: Danica Patrick's Stewart-Haas Racing career

Danica Patrick’s time driving for Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series is coming to an end, and she has had hardly any success in her five years with the team.

Yesterday, Danica Patrick, 35, announced that after five full seasons, she would no longer be driving the #10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford in the 2018 season. But did she really go out on her own terms?

The news of Patrick leaving Stewart-Haas Racing really would not have shocked anyone had it happened literally anytime before when it did. After all, in 180 career Cup Series races, 170 of which driving for the top-tier Stewart-Haas Racing organization, she has never won a race.

In fact, she has never even finished in the top 5 and she has just seven career top 10 finishes, with only one of those coming in the last 90 races. And that lone top 10 finish in the last 90 races was only a 10th place finish at Dover earlier this year.

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Before that 10th place finish, she was in the midst of a 76-race drought in terms of finishing in the top 10, the longest of her career. She is currently on a 13-race drought of the same type heading into this year’s playoffs, which she, once again, will not be a contender in.

Yet her announcement did leave plenty of people scratching their heads. Why? Because the one thing that could have offset her poor results to help her keep her ride was sponsorship. Particularly this season, she really started having sponsorship issues, so even ignoring her poor results, her ride for next season was in doubt because of it.

So when Smithfield Foods announced that they would be leaving Richard Petty Motorsports to come to Stewart-Haas Racing, the amount hope for Danica Patrick to continue driving the #10 Ford next season skyrocketed from very little to a lot.

But just hours after Smithfield’s announcement, Patrick announced that she was done at Stewart-Haas Racing following the conclusion of the 2017 Cup Series season, which surprised many fans and left them wondering whether or not she really went out on her own terms, and if so, why.

Next: Five possible replacement candidates for Danica Patrick in 2018

Do you think Danica Patrick really left Stewart-Haas Racing on her own terms? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure 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. Also be sure to follow Beyond the Flag on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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NASCAR: Danica Patrick’s Stewart-Haas Racing career – The Bitter End

By Asher Fair | Sep 13, 2017

Danica Patrick’s time driving for Stewart-Haas Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series is coming to an end, and she has had hardly any success in her five years with the team.